Angkor Wat

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Angkor Wat (2001)

Angkor Wat ( Khmer : Ângkôr Vott អង្គរវត្ត ; Ângkôr means "city" Vott "temple") is the most famous temple in the region of Angkor in Cambodia . The temple is located about 240 km northwest of the capital Phnom Penh near Siem Reap , about 20 km north of the Tonle Sap lake .

history

King Suryavarman II, founder of Angkor Wat in the procession depicted on the relief of the gallery
Apsaras
A drawing of the facade of Angkor Wat by Henri Mouhot
Photograph of Angkor Wat by Émile Gsell during the Ernest Doudart de Lagrée expedition (1866)

In the 10th century under Yasovarman I (ruled 889-910) numerous irrigation systems and reservoirs were created, which among other things contributed to the fact that rice could be harvested several times a year. This successful agriculture led to food surpluses and brought great wealth to the Khmer Empire. So it came about that the country south of China became a regional power center of Southeast Asia and the Khmer were able to build big cities and huge temples.

In 1113 ascended King Suryavarman II. The throne and ruled until about 1150. He built the power of Angkor, then Kambuja called in several military campaigns against the neighboring Cham , against Dai Viet (see. History of Vietnam ) and the Mon -Königreich Haripunjaya further out. He also had temples in Angkor restored and new ones built, including Angkor Wat. The complex was built as the state temple of the king in the southeastern part of the former capital Yasodharapura, which was built under Suryavarman I and was used to worship Vishnu. There are also indications, such as the unusual orientation of Angkor Wat to the west, the direction of the death god Yama , which suggest that it was the mortuary temple of Suryavarman II.

Since neither the foundation stele nor other inscriptions from this period that refer to the building have been found, the original name is unknown. It is believed that it was named after Vishnu , with whom the king identified himself as a Vishnuist in contrast to his predecessors, who were Shivaists , and was therefore called Vrah Vishnuloka (“holy abode of Vishnu”) and later, based on the posthumous title of the founder Paramavishnuloka ("he who entered the heavenly world of Vishnu"), Preah Pisnulok . The work appears to have ceased quickly after the king's death, leaving some of the reliefs unfinished. In 1177 Angkor was conquered by the Cham , traditional enemies of the Khmer. Jayavarman VII finally managed to defeat the invaders and restore the Khmer Empire. 1.5 km north of Angkor Wat he had the new capital Angkor Thom built with the Bayon as the main Buddhist temple.

In the late 13th century, Angkor Wat gradually changed from a Hindu place of worship to one of Theravada Buddhism against the background of the religious revolution initiated by Jayavarman VII . At that time, Angkor Wat became the name of the temple complex. Unlike the other temples in Angkor, the complex was somewhat neglected in the 16th century, but was never completely abandoned. The comparatively good preservation is due to the moat that protects Angkor Wat against the advance of the forest.

One of the first visitors from the west was the Portuguese Capuchin Antonio da Magdalena, who came to Angkor in 1586. According to the Portuguese historian Diogo de Couto , he described his impression of Angkor Wat "as so extraordinary that it can neither be described with a pen nor compared with any other monument in the world." In the next few centuries missionaries and merchants did not attend the west, who paid attention to Angkor Wat. This only changed in the second half of the 19th century when, triggered by the enthusiastic travel reports of the French naturalist Henri Mouhot , who explored the temple complex in 1860, researchers became aware of Angkor Wat and followed him, such as Adolf Bastian and Ernest Doudart de Lagrée . The first photographs of Angkor Wat were taken in 1865 by the Scot John Thomson . Mouhot dated Angkor Wat to antiquity and could not imagine a building by the Khmer, also because of the historical situation at that time. He compared Angkor Wat to the Temple of Solomon, built by an ancient Michelangelo .

In the 20th century, Angkor Wat was extensively restored by the French institute École française d'Extrême-Orient and cleared of soil and vegetation for the first time from 1908 to 1911 under the direction of Jean Commaille. From then on, the actual history was revealed through these and other renovations and related stylistic and epigraphic findings on the entire site. The civil war and the rule of the Khmer Rouge interrupted this work. The monument remained undamaged, but statues, mostly from the post-Angkor era, were stolen or destroyed.

The temple is a national symbol and also influences international relations with Thailand, France and the United States. Angkor Wat has been featured on the national flag of Cambodia since its first version from around 1863. It was the cultural heritage of Angkor Wat and Angkor as a whole that motivated the French to colonize Cambodia in 1863 and wrest it from the domination of Vietnam and Siam . This led to demands from Cambodia on Thailand in the northwest of the country, which the Thai had conquered in 1431. Cambodia has controlled Angkor Wat since its independence in 1953. In the midst of the Vietnam War, Jacqueline Kennedy visited the temple at the invitation of the king.

Surrounding area of ​​the temple complex

Complete Angkors complex

Angkor Wat is only a part of the much more comprehensive Angkor complex with its multitude of historical building ensembles, of which Angkor Thom is the largest (see also: Temple in Angkor ). Like the other large temple areas in Angkor, Angkor Wat was surrounded by settlements. Stone as a building material was, however, reserved for religious buildings, which is why none of the secular buildings, including the rulers' residences, have survived. Investigations with LIDAR in 2012 and 2015 showed further settlement remains.

Dating

Mostly the establishment of Angkor Wat, as described above, is attributed to King Suryavarman II. Some researchers date the construction time to later times and refer to stylistic and religious-historical studies. As early as 1927, Philippe Stern argued that the style of this temple represented a refinement of the Bayon style (late 12th century to mid 13th century) and that it must therefore have been created later.

state of construction

Monks at Angkor Wat

The huge buildings show numerous damage. Weather influences, the tropical vegetation and human destructiveness, such as the looting by the Siamese in the 15th century, have damaged the temples. Another reason for the collapse is that the Khmer turned to Buddhism from the 13th century , which is why no new temples were built. In addition, there was the deforestation of all forests by the Khmer, as well as crop failures due to dwindling water and the climate change at the time. The complex served as a Buddhist sanctuary at the latest since the 16th century, on which over 40 inscriptions were attached between 1546 and 1747, conveying the content of Theravada Buddhism.

After it was hardly possible to carry out restoration work in the second half of the 20th century due to the political situation in Cambodia (with the exception of the campaign of the Archaeological Survey of India in the 1980s), various organizations are now busy with the to stop further decay of Angkor Wat.

In addition to the tourists , Buddhist monks are among the daily visitors to the temple.

architecture

Aerial view of the area with the surrounding moat, in the background the Western Baray

The buildings were composed of artistically designed sandstone . The numerous canals in the facility also served the workers to transport the huge boulders with rafts. For the construction, the blocks were processed with special grinding systems so that they could be placed on top of one another without any noticeable gaps.

The entire area, including the moat, measures almost 1.5 km in west-east direction and almost 1.3 km in north-south direction. The moat is between 170 and 190 meters wide and encloses the inner area. According to the usual interpretation, it represents the primordial ocean , which, together with the numerous buildings of the temple complex, fits into the image of a symbolic universe. In the center there is a prominent temple with five towers ( prasat ) shaped like lotus blossoms , which form a quincunx . The largest tower is 65 m high.

Many of the temple walls are decorated with stone figures depicting dancers - so-called apsaras . Each figure has its own special characteristics, so that they are not the same as each other. The bas-reliefs of the third gallery have a total area of ​​more than 1000 m² and depict historical scenes and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata as well as the creation myth of the whirling of the milk ocean popular in Khmer architecture .

National importance

Angkor Wat acts as a pre-eminent national symbol, representative of the Khmer culture and today's Cambodian people. It can therefore be found as a depiction in various state contexts, on the national flag, on banknotes, etc. Even during the time of the Khmer Rouge regime , a golden silhouette of the temple was part of the Cambodian flag .

Between 1990 and 2016, Angkor was looked after by the private company SOKIMEX , which had leased the site from the government and collected the entrance fees for it. Since then, the entire facility has been under state control.

Tourism is extremely important for the surrounding population. Many people work as tuk-tuk drivers, in hotels or as tour guides or as inspectors of the temples. In 2018, 2.59 million visitors came to Angkor Wat, in 2019 there were 2.2 million visitors, around 40% of them from China.

gallery

  • Angkor Wat on the flag of Cambodia

  • 500 riel banknote

  • Avenue to the main temple

  • The temple in the morning

  • Bas-relief on the corner

  • Inner courtyard

  • The central tower of Angkor Wat

  • An apsara in the top gallery

  • Morning mood in Angkor Wat

  • Bas-relief

  • Stupa in the outer temple area

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Angkor Wat  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Angkor Archaeological Park  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Maurice Glaize: Les Monuments du groupe d'Angkor . 4th edition. Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7200-1091-X , p. 57 (French, 285 p., Translation into English by Nils Tremmel [PDF; 8.0 MB ; accessed on August 11, 2011] First edition: Portail, Saigon 1944).
  2. ^ Maurice Glaize: Les Monuments du groupe d'Angkor . 4th edition. Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7200-1091-X , p. 7 (French, 285 pp., Translation by Nils Tremmel into English [PDF; 8.0 MB ; accessed on August 11, 2011] First edition: Portail, Saigon 1944).
  3. ↑ Angkor Wat. In: The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Asian Art. Ohio State University , accessed August 14, 2011 .
  4. ^ Marilia Albanese: Angkor . National Geographic Art Guide. Ed .: National Geographic Society . G + J / RBA GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-937606-77-4 , p. 33 (Italian: I tesori di Angkor . Translated by Wolfgang Hensel).
  5. ^ Marilia Albanese: Angkor . National Geographic Art Guide. S. 148 .
  6. ^ Maurice Glaize: Les Monuments du groupe d'Angkor . 4th edition. Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7200-1091-X , p. 59 (French, 285 p., Translation by Nils Tremmel into English [PDF; 8.0 MB ; accessed on August 11, 2011] First edition: Portail, Saigon 1944).
  7. ^ Alison Behnke: Angkor Wat . Unearthing Ancient Worlds. Twenty-First Century Books, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 0-8225-7585-X , pp. 10 .
  8. ^ Maurice Glaize: Les Monuments du groupe d'Angkor . 4th edition. Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7200-1091-X , p. 51 (French, 285 p., Translation by Nils Tremmel into English [PDF; 8.0 MB ; accessed on August 11, 2011] First edition: Portail, Saigon 1944).
  9. ↑ Michael Freeman, Claude Jacques: Ancient Angkor . 2nd Edition. River Books Ltd, Bangkok 2003, ISBN 974-8225-27-5 , Chapter: Central Angkor, pp. 40 (English).
  10. ^ Brief Presentation to a Volunteer Group of Glenbow Museum in the Asian Gallery who visited the center on May 28, 2005 ( Memento of August 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 3, 2012.
  11. ↑ http://www.autoriteapsara.org/en/angkor/history/war.html accessed on March 3, 2012.
  12. ↑ Kenton Clymer: The United States and Cambodia, 1870-1969: From Curiosity to Confrontation. Routledge, London 2004, ISBN 978-1-1343-5899-1 , p. 23.
  13. ↑ derstandard.at discovers medieval settlements in Cambodia
  14. ↑ Revealed: Cambodia's vast medieval cities hidden beneath the jungle theguardian.com, accessed June 16, 2016.
  15. ^ Maurice Glaize: Les Monuments du groupe d'Angkor . 4th edition. Adrien-Maisonneuve, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7200-1091-X , p. 66 (French, 285 p., Translation by Nils Tremmel into English [PDF; 8.0 MB ; accessed on August 11, 2011] First edition: Portail, Saigon 1944).
  16. ↑ How many people visit Angkor Wat? Angkorwat.de, accessed on March 6, 2020.

Coordinates: 13 ° 24 '44.9 "  N , 103 ° 52' 0.4"  E