Angkor

Monday Evening, December 4

Caught an airplane from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap at 8am…a 40 minute flight…and was met by my guide and driver on arrival.

Siem Reap is a fast growing city of 35,000 people at the center of the Angkor area which has become a major tourist attraction in the last 5-6 years. This was the capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9^th to 13^th centuries. This was the most dominant civilization and culture of the time in South East Asia extending over the present area of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and parts of Burma and Vietnam. It is strewn with temples, housing, moats and irrigation systems. It was conquered by the Siamese in the late 13^th century and the Khmer capital was moved south near Phnom Penh. The buildings of Angkor were deserted to be reclaimed by the forest. They were rediscovered by a French archeologist in the 1850’s and have been reclaimed and restored piecemeal by the French and local authorities.

We are exploring these ruins in chronological order and today visited early ruins of the 9^th and 10^th centuries. They evolved form brick and stucco to sandstone.And they primarily celebrate Hindu Gods. Buddhism was introduced to the area by Khmer kings in the 12^th century and then the decorations evolved to celebrate the Buddha and his story.

This photo is to prove I was on the trip. Taken by my guide at one of the ruins leaning on a sandstone lion. But there are no real lions in Cambodia. only tigers.

The next pic is at a ruin that has sculptures of elephants at the corners of each level:
This was taken at Angkor Artisans, a non-profit organization that takes in poor youth and teaches variuous arty skills and then places them in jobs. Many of the kids are disabled, a large number are deaf. This girl is creating carved and painted wooden figures:

The next 2 pictures show some of the kids that are around the temple ruins, waiting for tourists hoping to sell them books, post cards and other trinkets: