Did
you know that the biggest Hindu temple complex in the world is in Cambodia? It
is known as “Angkor Wat” which means “The City of Temples” or “Temple
City”. The original name of Angkor Wat is Vrah Visnuloka or Parama
Visnuloka. Located in present day modern town of Siem Reap, the temple complex
was built by kings of a powerful Hindu-Buddhist kingdom, “The Khmer Empire”.
King Suryavarman II started the construction of the temple and was completed by
Jayavarman VII.
Angkor Wat is designed to represent Mount Meru, the home of the
gods or “Devas” according to Hinduism. The temple mountain has five towers or
“Gopuras” at the centre symbolising the five peaks of Mount Meru and the
surrounding walls and water channel symbolise the surrounding mountain ranges
and ocean. Angkor Wat also has cosmological significance. The measurements of
solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of the temple.
Theories also suggest that Angkor Wat represents the constellation Draco.
When I
first decided to go to Cambodia, I discussed with my friends and nobody knew
that there is a history of Hinduism in the Far East. So how did I know about
Angkor Wat? When I was in school my father bought me a video game disc named
“Shadow Warrior” released by 3D Realms in 1997. The game’s entire graphical
environment was designed based on the temples of Cambodia and I was astonished
looking at those huge Buddha faces in the game. This lead to my research about
the country and I wondered why such topics are not covered in our school
textbooks. From then it was my dream to visit Cambodia and exactly after twenty
years I got chance to travel and see Angkor in person. There are several other
great temples in Angkor area. The magnificent Bayon temple is one of a
kind. It was created by the same Jayavarman VII.
Bayon
It was
said that the temple has approximately two hundred smiling faces seeing all
directions. The faces represent the Bodhisattva of compassion, Lokeswara. The
temple is so huge that you easily lose track of where you are. The faces
reminded me of the video game Shadow Warrior. Another temple that put modern
Cambodia on the world map is ”Ta Prohm” which was used location in the
Hollywood film Tomb Raider. ”Ta Prohm” means ”Ancestor Brahma” or ”Eye Of
Brahma”. This one was also built by Jayavarman VII dedicated to his mother.
The temple has trees growing out of its walls which is a distinct feature. The
temple conservation and restoration is done by Archeological Survey of India in
partnership with APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor
and the Region of Siem Reap).
So, what does this all mean to us Indians as
Hindus? Our culture and heritage have travelled way far than we can imagine and
the sad story is that we are not aware of our own cultural history. The south
east Asian kingdoms had strong ties with the kings of India. When a far east
kingdom like The Khmer could build such a great empire, imagine what it was in
mainland India. More research must be done by every Hindu at his own personal
capacity and not wait for governments to educate us. I hated history as a
subject in my school days and a video game had to spark interest in my cultural
past. That's the reality of our country's educational system. Why do we
have to care for what happened in the past? Since the present and the future
relies heavily on the past experiences, and for a country to project a strong
image at the world stage, the realisation of its history is very important. If
the present-day India can leverage this history and broaden her ties with
countries of south-east Asia, we as citizens would have huge opportunities to
play on a global scale.
Swaroop and Shri Varsha
Trekkie
Swaroop and Shri Varsha
Trekkie
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