Angkor Wat Temple

The largest temple of the world, raised during the reign of Sooryavarmaa II in 12th century (ruled 1113 - 1150 AD), is, in fact, located in Angkor, a major archaeological site of Cambodia. It is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It is also one of the two temples intact in Angkor, Cambodia. The other is a Buddhist Temple. This largest temple of Lord Vishnu in Angkor is built according to Khmer architecture, and is original to Cambodia. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag since 1863. This Temple is dedicated to Vishnu and then to Buddhists. Angkor Wat means "City Temple". Before this name, the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok (Var Vishnu Lok in Sanskrit), after the posthumous title of its founder.

Features
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 influenced from Orissa and the Chol of Tamil Naadu, India. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the Devtaa in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometers (2.2 mi) 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 Devataa adorning its walls.

Its outer wall, 1,024 meters X 802 meters and 4.5 meters high, is surrounded by a 30 meter wide open ground and a moat 190 meters wide. Access to the Temple is by an earth bank to the East and a sandstone causeway to the West. The west one, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are Gopuram at each of the cardinal points. The Western Gopuram is by far the largest one and has three ruined towers. This Gopuram 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 Gopuram 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 Devtaa, 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 meters (203 acres), 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 meter causeway connects the Western Gopur to the Temple proper, with Naag 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.

The Main Temple
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. These galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahmaa, the Moon, and Vishnu. Each gallery has a Gopur 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 inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Raamaayan and the Mahaabhaarat. This is known as the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving". From the North-west corner anti-clockwise, the Western gallery shows the Battle of Lankaa (from the Raamaayan, in which Raam defeats Raavan and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahaabhaarat, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurav and Paandav). On the Southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarmaa 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 Asur and 88 Devtaa using the serpent Vaasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 Asur, 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). It is followed by Vishnu defeating Asur. The Northern gallery shows Krishn's victory over Baanaasur and a battle between the Hindu gods and Asur. The North-west and South-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most of them are from the Raamaayan or the life of Krishn.

Purpose of the Temple
It seems that Suryavarmaa intended it to serve as his funerary temple, because it is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction - Prasavya in Hindu terminology - as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Braahminic funeral services. The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower. It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Some others say that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under the King Suryavarmaa II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat..."

Status of the Temple
One of the first Western visitors to the Temple was Antonio da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited it in 1586 and said about it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."

"One of these temples - a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo - might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome..."