After a great start seeing those colossal smiling faces at the Bayon Temple, me and my friend headed to the next nearest temple within Angkor Thom City. This temple is my favorite among all the temples I visited in Angkor Wat Heritage Park because of the amazing energy I felt and received while exploring its domain. If you do visit this site, I'm telling you right now you will fall in love with...
BAPHUON TEMPLE
Compared to Bayon Temple, Baphuon was much quieter and has a larger open space. There weren't many tourists when we got here. This temple is far less famous because of its poor state. However, for me it was a breath of fresh air to get away from the crowd.
From the 200m long elevated walkway leading to the third enclosure, it was clear that this temple resemble that of a pyramid just like Pre Rup Temple. The distinction is Pre Rup has 5 towers on the uppermost level while Baphuon only has one central tower. We also walked past a reservoir as we neared the central structure.
Being up close with Baphuon Temple, I couldn't help but admire the architectural beauty of it especially the symmetry of its layout and structure. It's a three-tiered pyramid temple which measures 120m long, 100m wide and 34m tall and was built in the 11th century, about 150 years earlier than that of Bayon Temple or of Angkor Thom city itself.
Unfortunately, the front stairways could no longer be used so they provided an access on the other side of the temple.
Before reaching the stairs, one would definitely notice the vibrant luscious grass and trees surrounding the temple. "Alive" would be the most appropriate description for it as it was inviting me to take a walk on its path which I decided to do as well after I explore its temple.
Because the temple was no longer in good shape and was built using sandstone materials on a sandy soil, it was known that the temple was unstable throughout the centuries. Thus they made an access stairway to reach its peak. The stairs were made of wooden planks and metal railings. It was short but really steep for an Asian girl like me.
Reaching the top, the first thing I noticed were these beautiful bas-reliefs which were still intact. Most of these carvings depict of animals, hunting scenes and the day-to-day life of people during its time in small square panels.
Baphuon temple was initially a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva and was the state temple for King Udayadityavarman II before it was converted to a Buddhist temple in the 15th century. So many carvings related to Hindu religion and mythology can be seen all around the temple.
The central shrine used to house a Lingam dedicated to Shiva with a central tower over it. However, the central tower collapsed after a few centuries. Its stones were reused to build a huge reclining Buddha at the west part of the temple.
It was also documented that a Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan visited Baphuon in the late 13th century saw its original state in its grandeur and described it as "The Tower of Bronze".
The top platform is surrounded with a gallery on all sides and walking along these galleries would give you a full view of Baphuon's splendor. That being said, Baphuon used to be the largest Khmer temple before Angkor Wat existed.
The 1960s restoration project for Baphuon temple was considered a "masterpiece" and the "world's biggest jigsaw puzzle". Initially the temple was dismantled stone by stone and reassembled using 300,000 stone blocks. Thus the uneven color of the structure. Restoring Baphuon to its almost identical form took 16 years to complete.
After exploring the ancient ruins of Baphuon, me and my friend feasted our eyes on its surrounding greenery. The trees were calling and so we headed down and took a tour around Baphuon.
We took our time exploring the lower grounds of Baphuon. Old stone blocks were scattered all around. Besides the shade provided, the huge magnificent trees were calming and gave a sense of peace and relief. There was this profound feeling I couldn't fathom, but I was still glad to have experience such. Maybe it was the temple, maybe it was the environment or maybe because of the past it holds and energy it gives.
The Baphuon temple was utterly beautiful looking from its "garden". And I couldn't get enough of it nor forget that feeling being under its mystifying presence. I always keep telling people that this is my favorite temple and I wouldn't mind visiting it all over again.
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