John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Monday 13 February 2017
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[2017] [Sunday 12 February 2017] Siem Reap, Cambodia Tara Angkor, Charles De Gaulle, Siem Reap, Cambodia Woke up one or two times in the night… Ca.4.30am I started to hear repeatedly a distant cock-crow, and just after 5am I got out of bed and started a session on the computer.… Janet got up just after 7am. Showered when she vacated the bathroom… We went for breakfast just after 8am; and we joined P and Y in the lobby, and met Sōk again there at 8.30am. (He’d told us that his name means “Friday”.) We boarded the minibus; but instead of heading north along Charles De Gaulle straight to the temple area, we turned right along Street 60 for a mile or so. When we crossed the Siem Reap River, I noticed the interesting style of the parapets; each was in the form of two straight, long, multi-headed serpents facing away from each other, with their tails intertwined in the middle.  Image from Google Street View Siem Reap River bridge on Street 60 We came to a roundabout, and off from there was a complex of new buildings around a square, looking very “Cambodian” with their complex, decorated gables.   The site, which included the Angkor World Heritage ticket office, was still under construction in these Google Street View images from September 2013. The building we entered was the ticket office, and we had to queue to be photographed and issued with a ticket with a “mug shot” on it.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 08:51:14 At the ticket office   
Then we went back the way we’d come, and this time did proceed to the temple area.   Our first drop-off was to the south of Angkor Thom, the last capital city of the Khmer empire. We crossed the moat surrounding the city, over a causeway lined with statues of demons. The moat symbolised the cosmic ocean surrounding the sacred mountain of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, with the Bayon Temple in the centre representing the mountain itself. At the near end of the causeway, the heads of a seven-headed serpent (nāga) could be seen (similar to those seen earlier on the Siem Reap River bridge), carried by the demons (asuras).  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:20:22 Approaching the south gate of Angkor Thom: seven-headed serpent (nāga) on the parapet  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:22:00 Approaching the south gate of Angkor Thom: demons (asuras) carrying the nāga The gate was a corbelled arch (I think we first encountered corbelled vaulting in the Mayan temples in the Yucatan peninsula just over a year ago) with a central tower on top, flanked left and right by smaller towers. The central tower had a carved face looking south, and on the other side one looking north, and the flanking towers each had a face looking to the other cardinal points.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:23:02 South gate of Angkor Thom On each side of the entrance were three elephant heads with their trunks forming pillars. The ones on the left were less damaged and easier to make out than the ones on the right.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:23:02 (detail 1) South gate of Angkor Thom  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:23:02 (detail 2) South gate of Angkor Thom  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:23:44 Moat of Angkor Thom, looking east  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:23:58 Magenta water lily on the moat of Angkor Thom  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:23:58 (detail) Magenta water lily on the moat of Angkor Thom  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:28:00 Inside the south gate of Angkor Thom After entering the gate, we walked northwards through the forest that had now taken over the ancient city. As we passed stalls where people sold souvenirs, a woman approached me and invited me to buy a guide book Ancient Angkor for $10. A quick look through its 240 glossy pages of illustrations and detailed text convinced me to buy it. The price printed above the barcode on the rear cover was $27.95. It proved to be well written, by a native English speaker as far as I could tell.  Not far from the central Bayon Temple we came across an exhibition put there by the main conservatory body on the site, the Japanese Government Team for the Safeguarding of Angkor (the JASA).  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:37:24 JASA Bayon Exhibition Hut  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:37:24 (detail 1) “JASA Bayon Exhibition Hut”  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:37:24 (detail 2) P and Y  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:38:02 Mother and baby macaque  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:39:44 “Face Tower Puzzling”  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:39:58 Reconstructing faces from scattered stones  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:40:22 Demonstrating the method used to lift stones  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:40:36 “Ancient Stone Lifting” Then we proceeded to the temple itself, with its many towers carrying a multitude of serene and smiling stone faces, similar to the ones already seen on the south gate. The temple had gone through a number of architectural changes; it had earlier been used for Hindu worship, and later Buddhist.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:41:54 South side of the Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:41:54 (detail 1) South side of the Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:41:54 (detail 2) South side of the Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:43:38 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:43:38 (detail 1) Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:43:38 (detail 2) Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:43:38 (detail 3) Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:43:52 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:55:06 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:55:34 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:55:54 Bayon Temple: dancing nymphs (apsaras) We entered, and first stopped to look at a vast set of bas-reliefs along a gallery on the south side, variously depicting battles and scenes of daily life. We went east to west along this (right to left as one faced it).  Monday 13 February 2017 — 09:59:36 Bayon Temple: bas-reliefs in the southern gallery  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:00:28 Bayon Temple: bas-reliefs in the southern gallery  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:01:52 Bayon Temple: bas-reliefs in the southern gallery  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:03:08 Bayon Temple: detail of one of the bas-reliefs in the southern gallery  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:04:30 Bayon Temple: bas-reliefs in the southern gallery  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:04:44 Bayon Temple: bas-reliefs in the southern gallery  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:05:48 Bayon Temple: bas-reliefs in the southern gallery Then we turned right through another gate, and made our way up, past a maze of galleries and rooms, to the upper level of the temple.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:07:38 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:08:10 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:10:50 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:11:12 Bayon Temple Here, Sōk gave us some time to look around, till 10.30am.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:13:42 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:14:02 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:14:38 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:16:10 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:18:30 Bayon Temple: Buddhist ritual in one of the “face” towers  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:21:16 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:21:28 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:21:42 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:21:56 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:22:18 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:24:42 Bayon Temple: parapet in the form of a nāga  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:24:52 Bayon Temple: heads of the nāga  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:25:26 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:27:26 Bayon Temple Towards the meet-up time, I couldn’t see Janet anywhere. But shortly after the others and I had joined Sōk, Janet did appear. She’d found it too hot up there, and had sought shelter. Then we went down, making our way out, not by the way we’d entered, but continuing northwards, again passing galleries and rooms as we went.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:39:08 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:39:46 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:39:56 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:40:06 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:40:46 Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:41:30 North side of the Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:42:42 North side of the Bayon Temple  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:45:04 Looking back at the north side of the Bayon Temple We continued walking northwards, and saw to our left the Elephant Terrace, the eastern boundary of what was the royal palace area. We went along as far as the main central stairway. The wall of the first part of the terrace, up to a smaller intermediate stairway, had carvings of elephants; hence, the name.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:50:56 Elephant Terrace  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:51:10 Elephant Terrace: elephant carvings up to the intermediate stairway The wall continuing beyond that, up to the central stairway, had carvings which called to mind the “atlantes”/“telamones” supporting the Temple of Olympian Zeus in the Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily. Some had lion’s heads; some had bird’s heads (garudas).  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:52:40 Elephant Terrace: lion-faced and garuda (bird-faced) “telamones” up to the central stairway  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:53:28 Elephant Terrace: central stairway  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:53:28 (detail) Elephant Terrace: lion-headed figure The Elephant Terrace had parapets which terminated at the central staircase with nāga heads. Two stone lions stood on guard.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:54:26 Elephant Terrace: central stairway  Monday 13 February 2017 — 10:54:26 (detail) Elephant Terrace: bird-headed figure (garuda) The minibus picked us up from there, and after a few minutes deposited us at the start of a dirt track to our left.  We walked along this for some hundreds of yards, with forest on our left and an ancient-looking stone wall to our right. From time to time we had to stand aside for parties of cyclists to pass us. Just after a banyan-like tree to the right, we came to the north gate of the outermost Ta Prohm enclosure. This had a lintelled doorway, in contrast to the corbelled arch of Angkor Thom. Similar to that were four faces in the directions of the cardinal points, though these were set on a single tower, not a threefold one.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 11:20:40 Banyan-like tree at the north gate of Ta Prohm  Monday 13 February 2017 — 11:21:36 North gate of Ta Prohm  Monday 13 February 2017 — 11:21:36 (detail) We entered the gate, and Sōk seemed to be leading us a long way by a roundabout route through the forest. It was somewhat cooler there, though sunlight did filter through the canopy high above. There was birdsong. I failed to photograph a brightly coloured bug when the camera wouldn’t focus from that distance with that magnification.  Monday 13 February 2017 — 11:28:26 Forest in the Ta Prohm enclosure  Monday 13 February 2017 — 11:28:26 (detail) Forest in the Ta Prohm enclosure We ended up approaching the temple from the east. Most notable were the trees growing out of the structures, sometimes seemingly holding the place together with their roots. The temple was in the form of a set of concentric galleries, with various other buildings within, through many of which we passed. No effort, or little effort, had been made to restore fallen structures, only to keep what remained standing, so there was much fallen masonry around.[i] Much time and effort on my part have failed to identify the precise locations in the complex structure where I took the following photos.
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