Angkor temple mountains
About this video
This video introduces the ancient kingdom of Angkor in Cambodia, which built huge temples between the 800s and 1300s. Kings combined Hindu and Buddhist ideas from India with local beliefs, building temple mountains surrounded by moats to model the universe. It looks at Angkor Wat, King Jayavarman VII's city of Angkor Thom with the Bayon temple at its heart, and efforts today to restore the temples.
You'll be able to
- explain how Angkor temples were designed as models of the universe.
- describe how Angkor's kings combined Indian religions with local beliefs.
- describe key features of Angkor Wat and the Bayon temple.
Key words
- Temple mountain
- A temple built to look like the sacred mountain home of the gods, at the centre of the universe.
- Moat
- A wide water-filled ditch around a temple; at Angkor it suggests the cosmic ocean.
- Relief
- A carving that stands out from a flat wall, like the scenes along Angkor Wat's walls.
- Cardinal directions
- The four main directions: north, south, east and west.
Transcript
the ancient kingdom of angkor was one of the most powerful states in Southeast Asia from the eight hundreds to the thirteen hundred a succession of Kings built huge temples that survived today as some of the world's greatest religious monuments the Kings at Angkor adopted Hindu and Buddhist beliefs from India and combined these with local beliefs in sacred mountains ancestors and nature spirits temples were filled with images of the gods especially Shiva and Vishnu as well as scenes from Hindu mythology temples were built to resemble the sacred mountain home of the gods and they were surrounded by vast moats suggesting the cosmic ocean these temple mountains stood at the heart of the capital and were calculated
to approximate the plan of the universe as it was understood in the Hindu Buddhist worldview the largest temple of all was Angkor Wat a vast complex rising toward five central towers these towers were surrounded by three enclosures along the walls were scenes from the Indian epics in this relief gods and demons churn the primeval ocean by tugging on a giant serpent their actions producing various treasures the last great Angkor King was Jaya farm in the seventh he drove out the Chams who invaded from their lands in what is now southern Vietnam an ardent Buddhist he launched a massive building program his great monument was the city of Angkor tone with the biown temple at its heart here we enter the temple by the South
Gate along an avenue of statues carrying a mythological serpent over the gate is a tower with four faces looking in the cardinal directions these enigmatic faces appear throughout the biome temple their exact meaning is still debated by scholars the King's military exploits are commemorated along the many gallery walls of the temple other scenes offer glimpses into the life of the city at its height a Chinese emissary in the late 1200s observed that these are the monuments that have caused merchants from overseas to speak so often of Cambodia the rich and Noble while some temples such as Angkor Wat never fell out of use others have been consumed by the jungle and are in a state of ruin today tourists flock to see these
monuments efforts are being made to reassemble some temples and stabilize others so that future generations may continue to enjoy the wonders of Angkor
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