Baphuon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Drawing of the Baphuon as it might once have looked by Lucien Fournereau (1889)
The Baphuon today

The Baphuon ( Khmer : ប្រាសាទបាពួន ), a monumental temple mount built in the middle of the 11th century in honor of the Hindu god Shiva , is one of the most important testimonies of the Angkor period. Originally the center of the Khmer capital Yasodharapura, the archaeological site is now in Angkor Thom near the Cambodian city ​​of Siem Reap .

history

King Udayadityavarman II ruled the powerful Khmer empire in the years 1050-1066. In the center of the capital Yasodhapura (a square complex that was slightly larger than the later capital Angkor Thom, which was later at about the same place), he had the state temple Baphuon built, a temple mountain of extraordinary format, which was also characterized by attractive relief decorations , the first scenic representations since the Bakong .

In the years 1296–1297, the Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan was so impressed by the building that he wrote: “About one li (one Chinese mile or half a kilometer) north of the golden tower is a bronze tower. It is even higher than the golden tower and a wonderful sight. ”By“ golden tower ”Zhou meant the bayon , with“ bronze tower ”the baphuon.

Presumably the mound of earth that formed the core of the structure was not stable enough, and the Temple Mount collapsed over the course of the following centuries. Around the 15th century, the west side of the temple terrace was redesigned into a 70 m long bas-relief of a reclining Buddha , apparently made of stones from the collapsed central tower.

Head of the reclining Buddha
Footbridge, Pavilion and Temple Mount

In 1960, Baphuon, now almost completely collapsed, began to be reconstructed using the anastilosis method: a grandiose puzzle game that was interrupted by the takeover of the Khmer Rouge . From 1995 a team of French archaeologists continued the reconstruction; However, the records of the positions of the already presorted stones could no longer be found, which made the task even more difficult. In 2011 the work was successfully completed.

architecture

The Baphuon is located a little northwest of the younger state temple Bayon, more precisely: on the west side of the avenue that leads from the Bayon with its face towers (and thus from the center of Angkor Thom) to the north. The northern neighbor of the Baphuon is the older temple pyramid Phimeanakas . Sandstone was used almost exclusively as building material - earth was only used for the core of the mountain and laterite for some of the walls . The outermost enclosure circumscribes an unusually elongated rectangle of 125 × 425 m from east to west. In the east, directly on the avenue, is the monumental main gate. The pavilion , which you walk through after about two thirds of the way to the Temple Mount, was certainly the original main entrance to the Baphuon - later the fenced-in area was moved up to the new avenue and a new gate was built there.

The 172 m long walkway , which leads to the pavilion and on to the Temple Mount, consists of large sandstone slabs on three rows of round sandstone pillars - probably the stone replica of wooden walkways that still run through Cambodian stilted villages today . At the end of the footbridge there is a terrace , 100 × 120 m in size, the base of a pyramid, the four steps of which reach a height of 24 m. The terrace and the second and fourth levels of the pyramid are each surrounded by galleries with gopura (gate towers) and corner towers. On all four flanks, always from gate tower to gate tower, stairs lead up. The Prasat (tower) on the top level, whose multi-level, almost cross-shaped base is clearly recognizable, must once have risen 50 m above the area.

The reliefs with scenes from Hindu myths, "naive and delightful, closely observed and full of fantasy - a highlight of relief art", are in the pavilion and in the galleries.

Information base

literature

  • Zhou Daguan: A Record of Cambodia. The Land and Its People . Translated, introduced and annotated by Peter Harris. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2007, ISBN 978-974-9511-24-4 .
  • Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques: Ancient Angkor (2nd edition). River Books, Bangkok 2003, ISBN 974-8225-27-5 , pp. 102-105.
  • Luca Invernizzi Tettoni and Thierry Zéphir: Angkor. A tour of the monuments . Archipelago Press, Singapore 2004, ISBN 981-4068-73-X .
  • Nick Ray: Cambodia . Lonely Planet Publications, Victoria 2005, ISBN 1-74059-525-4 .
  • Johann Reinhart Zieger: Angkor and the Khmer temples in Cambodia . Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2006, ISBN 974-9575-60-1 .

Web links

Commons : Baphuon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Zieger 2006, p. 55.
  2. ↑ Zhou Daguan 2007, p. 48: “About a li north of the golden tower there is a bronze tower. It is even taller than the gold tower, and an exquisite sight. ”On pages 36–37, the editor equates the Chinese mile“ li ”with“ roughly a third of an English mile or half a kilometer ”.
  3. ↑ Zieger 2006, p. 56.
  4. ↑ Freeman and Jacques 1999, p. 105.
  5. ↑ Cambodia completes Angkor temple renovation 'puzzle' . BBC News, July 3, 2011 (as of December 25, 2018).
  6. ↑ Zieger 2006, p. 54.
  7. ↑ a b c Dimensions according to Freeman and Jacques 1999, p. 103.
  8. ↑ Freeman and Jacques 1999, p. 103.
  9. ↑ Zieger 2006, p. 54, with reference to the art and architecture historian Henri Stierlin.

Coordinates: 13 ° 26 ′ 0 ″  N , 103 ° 50 ′ 0 ″  E