Bayon, Cambodia
Copyright © Timothy Tye. Stock Photo for Sale
Bayon
Cambodia
Bayon is the most popular Angkor temple after Angkor Wat itself. It is the iconic temple with stone faces, making it a unique and enigmatic experience. The jumble of face towers create an illusion of mountains, which it was suppose to represent.
Bayon was constructed from the late 12th to the late 13th century and was used as the state temple by King Jayavarman VII and his immediate successors. The Bayon was one of the last major temples to be erected. From far, it looked like a stone mountain. In fact, that's exactly what it was intended to represent, Mount Meru at the centre of the Hindu/Buddhist cosmos. As one approaches it, the stone mountain starts to transform into a mountain of stone faces.
The stone faces on the Bayon are similar to those that greeted visitors as they entered Angkor Thom through one of the massive gateways. Now those stone faces are piled together in what appears to be an assorted jumble. Faces peered at you from all corners. Lips as puffy as Tina Turner's smiled at you.
There is no full agree over the number of face towers the Bayon originally had. Today only 37 are still standing. They represent either the Avalokiteshvara or a combination of Buddha and Jayavarman VII (two schools of thoughts exist on this).
The recommended way to explore the Bayon is to start from the main entrance located on the east side. There are entrances at all four cardinal directions, but the best carvings are those closest to the main entrance. One should go on an anti-clockwise route around the temple. As you go around the temple, you will come across the many bas-reliefs that cover its walls. Unlike those in Angkor Wat that show grand processions, many of the reliefs at the Bayon are very much down to earth. They depict everyday life during the ancient times, specifically the time around the late 12th Century. Much of the activities depicted on the walls are still very much common in rural Cambodia today.
The carvings on the walls show scenes of market place, of people buying and selling, of cock fighting, cooks preparing for a banquet, a chess game, what a kaleidoscope of activities.
No matter how organised you intended your visit to the Bayon to be, as soon as you entered the ground level, you're in a tight maze of narrow passageways. Some are blocked by fallen walls and ceilings. So it is not possible to explore every bit of the Bayon systematically, without coming upon roadblocks, so to speak.
After you are done with the lower level, climb the very steep stone staircase to the upper floor. In doing so, you free yourself from the jumbled world below. Upstairs is open, spacious, and it's here that you come face to face with the stone faces. As you examined them, you realised that they have been pieced together, block by block. So they're not all of one piece, but fit together like a massive stone jigsaw puzzle.
A visit to the Bayon is always one of the highlights of any Angkor trip. You should give yourself at least an hour to fully appreciate this awesome ruin. See it to your heart's content, and be satisfied that you have fully explored the Bayon.
Associated Sites
Bayon in AsiaExplorers
Bayon in Angkor Travel Tips
