There are two great complexes of ancient temples in
Southeast Asia, one at Bagan in Burma, the other at Angkor in Cambodia. The
temples of Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD,
represent one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural
achievements. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached
from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor
today, more than 100 stone temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand
religious, social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings -
palaces, public buildings, and houses - were built of wood and have long since
decayed and disappeared.
Conventional theories presume the lands where Angkor stands
were chosen as a settlement site because of their strategic military position
and agricultural potential. Alternative scholars, however, believe the
geographical location of the Angkor complex and the arrangement of its temples
was based on a planet-spanning sacred geography from archaic times. Using
computer simulations, it has been shown that the ground plan of the Angkor
complex – the terrestrial placement of its principal temples - mirrors the stars
in the constellation of Draco at the time of spring equinox in 10,500 BC. While
the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any known
construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally
mirror the heavens in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and the
stars. Both the layout of the Angkor temples and the iconographic nature of
much its sculpture, particularly the asuras(‘demons’)
and devas (‘deities’) are also intended to
indicate the celestial phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes and the
slow transition from one astrological age to another.
At the temple of Phnom Bakheng there are 108 surrounding
towers. The number 108, considered sacred in both Hindu and Buddhist
cosmologies, is the sum of 72 plus 36 (36 being ½ of 72). The number 72 is a
primary number in the sequence of numbers linked to the earth’s axial
precession, which causes the apparent alteration in the position of the
constellations over the period of 25,920 years, or one degree every 72 years.
Another mysterious fact about the Angkor complex is its location 72 degrees of
longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The temples of Bakong, Prah Ko and Prei
Monli at Roluos, south of the main Angkor complex, are situated in relation to
each other in such a way that they mirror the three stars in the Corona
Borealis as they appeared at dawn on the spring equinox in 10,500 BC. It is
interesting to note that the Corona Borealis would not have been visible from
these temples during the 10th and 11th centuries when they were constructed.
Angkor Wat, built during the early years of the 12th
century by Suryavaram II, honors the Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic
representation of Hindu cosmology. Consisting of an enormous temple symbolizing
the mythic Mt. Meru, its five inter-nested rectangular walls and moats
represent chains of mountains and the cosmic ocean. The short dimensions of the
vast compound are precisely aligned along a north-south axis, while the
east-west axis has been deliberately diverted 0.75 degrees south of east and
north of west, seemingly in order to give observers a three day anticipation of
the spring equinox.
Unlike other temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left as
it was found, preserved as an example of what a tropical forest will do to an
architectural monument when the protective hands of humans are withdrawn. Ta
Prohm's walls, roofs, chambers and courtyards have been sufficiently repaired
to stop further deterioration, and the inner sanctuary has been cleared of
bushes and thick undergrowth, but the temple has been left in the stranglehold
of trees. Having planted themselves centuries ago, the tree's serpentine roots
pry apart the ancient stones and their immense trunks straddle the once
bustling Buddhist temple. Built in the later part of the 12th century by
Jayavarman VII, Ta Prohm is the terrestrial counterpart of the star Eta
Draconis the Draco constellation.
During half-millennia of Khmer occupation, the city of
Angkor became a pilgrimage destination of importance throughout Southeastern
Asia. Sacked by the Thais in 1431 and abandoned in 1432, Angkor was forgotten
for a few centuries. Wandering Buddhist monks, passing through the dense
jungles, occasionally came upon the awesome ruins. Recognizing the sacred
nature of the temples but ignorant of their origins, they invented fables about
the mysterious sanctuaries, saying they had been built by the gods in a far
ancient time. Centuries passed, these fables became legends, and pilgrims from
the distant reaches of Asia sought out the mystic city of the gods. A few
adventurous European travelers knew of the ruins and stories circulated in
antiquarian circles of a strange city lost in the jungles. Most people believed
the stories to be nothing more than legend, however, until the French explorer
Henri Mouhot brought Angkor to the world's attention in 1860. The French people
were enchanted with the ancient city and beginning in 1908 funded and superbly
managed an extensive restoration project. The restoration has continued to the
present day, excepting periods in the 70's and 80's when military fighting
prevented archaeologists from living near the ruins.
Orthodox archaeologists sometimes interpret the temples of
the Angkor complex as tombs of megalomaniacal kings yet in reality those kings
designed and constructed the temples as a form of service to both god and their
own subjects. The temples were places not for the worship of the kings but
rather for the worship of god. Precisely aligned with the stars, constructed as
vast three dimensional yantras and adorned with stunningly beautiful religious
art, the Angkor temples were instruments for assisting humans in their
realization of the divine.
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