Hindu Temples in Cambodia

K.S. Kanakasabaapathi

It was a dream of over forty years to visit the Hindu temples in Cambodia, when I had first read articles on the discovery of these temples in the jungles by European archaeologists. I had read about the temples in the erstwhile “Life” magazine in the late sixties.

The main temple featured in these articles was “Angkor Wat” which was claimed to be the biggest religious structure in the world. The other structures referred to were “Angkor Thom” and “Ta Prohm” among numerous other temples.

My son promised me this trip as a gift for my seventieth birthday in 2008. But we could not make the plans till 2010 as my wife and I alone were living in India with the children in USA. In 2010, my first son moved to India and planning the trip started right earnest. It took over two months of planning, collection of information regarding interesting sites, identifying hotels to stay and booking in advance.

We found that December was the ideal season for the trip as the country is in the tropical region and weather would be more conducive in winter. We planned a trip vis Thailand covering Bangkok and Pattaya in Thailand and then fly to Phnom Penh. Our group consisted of me, my wife, son, daughter in law, grandson, granddaughter and a family friend who knew Thailand well.

Phnom Penh appeared like a sleepy city and the Genocide Museum exposed the activities of the despot Pol Pot.

The bus ride to Siem Reap, which is close to the border with Thailand took about six hours with the so called highway which is similar to any ordinary road in India. We reached Siem Reap by 8 PM and moved to hotel Ta Som where we had booked accommodation by internet. The hotel was decent with air conditioned rooms under $15 per day.

The entire tour of Angkor temples requires passes with photo ID. There are passes for one day, two days, three days and one week. The photos are taken at the counter and passes are issued on payment immediately.

Our tour of the temples started the next day. We reserved Angkor Wat for the second day as we had to be at the temple by 5 am to watch the sunrise over the temple.

This article covers Angkor Wat exclusively, leaving the other sites to the postings to follow. Angkor Wat has the distiction of being the biggest religious structure in the world and is the most well preserved of the Angkor Temples. The temple also houses the biggest bas relief in the world depicting stories from Hindu scriptures. More on this later in the article.

The tearm Angkor Wat means City Temple. Angkor is the variation of “Nagar” and Wat means Temple. One would notice that the name is apt after visiting the site.

The temple was built by Khmer king Suryavarman II who ruled from 1113 to 1150. The temple was dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.


Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early South Indian Hindu architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.


In the late 13th century, Angkor Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.


Today the sanctum sanctorum is vacant with both Vishnu and Buddha moved out.


The outer wall, 1024 by 802 m and 4.5 m high, is surrounded by a 30 m apron of open ground and a moat 190 m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge.There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper.Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple's central shrine. Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth.


The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres, which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets. Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure. While the library buildings exist, the sanskrit literature has all vanished.


Miniature model of the central structure of Angkor Wat. In the foreground the cruciform terrace which lies in front of the central structure.


The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu. Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.


The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 m, with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the "Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water.

Here are some pictures before you read on.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat 

Bas Relief Bhishma on Bed of Arrows 

Archeological Survey of India Working

on Restoration of Nas Relief Churning of

the Ocen of Milk

Inside the Angkor Wat Complex 

Inside the Angkor Wat Complex 

 Inside the Angkor Wat Complex 

Was this a Temple Pond? There  are four of them

Lotus Pond in front 

Moat Around the Temple Compound

Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 by 115 m, and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru. The sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m to a height of 65 m above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas.

Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These are called, "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving". From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hindu mythology.


On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice). followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras.


This part is being restored by Archeological Survey of India and entry is barred.


The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna.