Bayon
The Bayon ( Khmer : ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន; originally Madhyadri ) is next to the Angkor Wat the most famous and impressive temple complex in Angkor (Siem Reap Province, Cambodia ) - famous above all for its towers with faces carved out of stone.
history
In the late 12th century, King Jayavarman VII (ruled from 1181 to around 1219) began building the new capital of the Khmer Empire, Angkor Thom ( great city ). The Bayon was built as the main temple in the center of the 9 km² large, walled city, which begins about 1 km north of Angkor Wat .
Since the 15th century, when the Khmer Empire from distinguished Thai -Königreich Ayutthaya defeated and Angkor was abandoned, and Angkor Thom and the Bayon was largely forgotten. Although the area of Angkor was still inhabited and used for agriculture, most of the temples except for Angkor Wat were rarely visited and overgrown by the tropical forest.
At the end of the 19th century the interest of European scientists and subsequently also of the European public (see also: Henri Mouhot ) arose in this part of the French colonial empire in Indochina . However, the archaeological work was interrupted for decades because of the First and Second World Wars , the Indochina War , the Vietnam War that spanned Cambodia and finally the takeover of the Khmer Rouge .
Since the late 1980s, after the end of the rule of the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese occupation, the Bayon, like the other temple complexes in Angkor, has been largely restored (see also Anastilosis ). Participants, coordinated by the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of UNESCO , are archaeologists from the Cambodian Institute Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA), the French École française d'Extrême-Orient , des German German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences , as well as the Japanese Government Team for Safeguarding Angkor (JSA) and the US World Monuments Fund (WMF).
Since 1992 the Bayon, as part of Angkor, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List .
Religious meaning
At the time of the establishment of Angkor Thom, the Khmer were partly followers of Hinduism and partly Buddhists . Like many temples in Angkor, the Bayon also reflected the syncretism of the Khmer and housed both Hindu images of gods and shrines dedicated to the Buddha . . Jayavarman VII himself was a follower of Mahayana - Buddhism (in what is now Cambodia is Theravada -Buddhismus prevalent). So the central sanctuary of the temple was dedicated to the Buddha.
architecture
The Bayon differs from other Angkor temples in several special features, in particular:
- the central sanctuary is round, not square,
- the temple complex was rebuilt and expanded over centuries and therefore more complex than other buildings,
- the temple is not surrounded by a wall, but by open colonnades,
- Around 200 faces of Lokeshvara up to 7 meters high were carved into the stone on the towers.
Complexity of the plant
Many of the kings of Angkor had their own temples built during their reign, and sometimes new capitals. The Bayon, like the city of Angkor Thom, was used by a number of the following kings, not least because of their architectural quality, even after Jayavarman VII.
Unlike many others, the temple was not destroyed in order to build a new one in its place or to use the stones for another building, but instead added additions again and again. At the end of the construction work, the result was a highly complex overall picture with a multitude of stairs, smaller temples, colonnades and often very narrow paths.
Faces towers
The most striking architectural feature of the temple are the towers with the meter-high smiling faces of the Bodhisattva Lokeshvara (also Avalokiteshvara ). It has not yet been finally clarified whether the king's face served as a model for these representations, but this is considered to be obvious, since the cult of the Bodhisattva was closely connected with the cult of the deified king ( Devaraja ).
Originally the number of towers was 49 (other reconstructions assume 54), of which only 37 are still standing today, some of which have been rebuilt. Most of the towers have four faces that are oriented towards the four cardinal points , while some have only two or three. The total number of faces is around 200.
Reliefs
Compared to the Angkor Wat, the Bayon does not focus on the architecture, but on the lifelike plastic reliefs that shape the overall impression. The central Temple Mount is surrounded by two concentric, square galleries, the walls of which bear a series of reliefs . Those in the outer gallery show historical stories of the Khmer, for example from the wars against the Cham (a neighboring kingdom to the east in what is now southern Vietnam ), the fish-rich Tonle Sap Lake and everyday scenes from the life of the king and the inhabitants of the city of Angkor Thom. In addition to further illustrations of historical events, the reliefs in the inner gallery also depict a series of scenes from Hindu mythology.
Of particular importance to historians are the depictions of the everyday life of the Khmer. At Angkor Wat, the reliefs mainly show courtly ceremonies, mythological and military history descriptions. On the other hand, there are also numerous popular scenes at the Bayon, on which, among other things, musical instruments are symbolically depicted. Some of them can be identified as they are still played today. The almost extinct stab zither kse diev occurs only on reliefs on the Bayon. The pinn bow harp is depicted several times , which in Asia only survived in the form of the Burmese saung gauk . The conch saing was important for religious rituals, it often shows up in the background. The cylinder drum is used today as a skor arakh .
There are no written records whatsoever from historical Angkor. Back then, people wrote on palm leaves, and like people's wooden buildings, they fell victim to the tropical climate. The only known authentic account of Angkor's heyday comes from Zhou Daguan , a Chinese ambassador who spent a year in Chenla , the Chinese name for the Khmer kingdom, from August 1296 to July 1297 .
literature
- Michael Freeman, Claude Jacques: Ancient Angkor . Asia Books, Bangkok 1999. ISBN 974-8225-27-5 .
- Vittorio Roveda: Khmer Mythology . River Books, Bangkok 1997, 1998, 2000. ISBN 974-8225-37-2 .
- Gabriele Fahr-Becker (Ed.): East Asian Art . Könemann, Cologne 1998. ISBN 3-89508-845-5 .
- Bruno Dagens: Angkor - Heart of an Asian Empire . Engl. V. Ruth Sharman. Thames & Hudson, London 1995. ISBN 0-500-30054-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Roger Blench: Musical instruments of South Asian origin depicted on the reliefs at Angkor, Cambodia. EURASEAA, Bougon, September 26, 2006
Coordinates: 13 ° 26 ′ 28.5 ″ N , 103 ° 51 ′ 31.5 ″ E