The Temples

Famous Ruins

After the main Angkor Wat temple, Bunleat, the guide and Esther planned another temple visit made popular by the film Tomb Raider - Ta Prohm.

Bunleat said the temple was already receiving many tourists but made further popular when Angelina Jolie starred as Lara Croft in the action movie.

 We were greeted with this local map which showed the set up of this temple. If not mistaken this one started as a Buddhist temple but later also took its turn to switch to Hinduism depending on the reigning ruler.

 Bunleat reiterated that this functioned as the House of Fire for the locals then. A fire was constantly burning for warmth and local use.He also added that the film, Tomb Raider had a scene with it.

 Next, look at the nude flower trees. Unique in looks and stature. You wonder if they are dead or alive. They are living trees kept alive by bird poop though they had that hungry disposition.

 Named the "Spung' species, the tree is indeed different. The prop tree has deep roots that went deep into     the ground.The tree represented reliability, strength and steadfastness. Even after wars and fights,men may die but the Spung tree remains etched deeply in the history of the nation. Khmer is indeed the origin of a rich civilization that covered parts of Thailand, India, Laos and Vietnam.Wars had the Khmer civilization torn and divided and today only remnants of the rich culture stayed behind.
History is a tale of decisions of reigning kings and authorities.

The Spung tree is a must to be taken a shot with.

Sara sighed in reluctance.

But Sara that's a spot where money cannot buy...

So, another for the family album.

Throngs of people flocked to the place. We wondered again if Lara Croft had an influence on this.

People are hungry for knowledge of the past and wanted to see with their own eyes the rich civilization.

Concerted efforts are fiercely applied to preserve the almost ruined beauty. What a shame if the temple were to be self-destructed through the natural elements. We were informed too that the tree roots and termites destroyed parts of the building too. What a lot of philanthropic funds needed.

Who is funding?

The images etched on the pillars revealed the period of construction and if you notice carefully, the dinosaur was also imprinted. The civilization then already knew the existence of the species.The pillar on the left had an image of Buddha.Later the images were changed to Hinduism.So the stories varied accordingly.

 Hahaha I blog to tell stories ; stories for my next generation.Back then people drew to pass down history. Messages and tales for keeps. How important they are; only the mode changes.

Move with time.

The library where the elite and learned congregated. Here decisions were discerned and made. 

But alas, the ruins are beyond repair; I think.

Outside and surrounding Ta Prohm, are the nude flower trees which are home to bees.There are 25 such Spung trees. Bunleat said: No money but got honey. The bee hives are huge and notice the presence of birds perching on the branches.. The birds do good because their dung is fertilizing the trees.

Lim is a good narrator. He knows the stories too well, whether real or not we have yet to decide. Now he tells us that the rulers had many concubines; up to about 2000 at one time. The royal family could use the help of 2400 cleaners at one time at the temple. Some more the concubines possessed rubies, sapphires, jade and other precious stones all hidden in the walls. Where in the walls we asked.

Here. Do you see the big, big ones? If gem stones were of that size, it would cost millions. A diamond of that diameter? So where are they? Standard answer: stolen. By whom we do not know.

Oh if we wanted to know more, there should be more films on them.

Stories created for the eyes and hearts.

Ta Prohm he added was built in record time. Have a good guess. Some of us said 200... he starred at us. No, it was built in 5 years. So he further related that a temple built in such a short time had no quality control and shoddy work and material gave reasons for the extensive ruins and collapse. In fact he told us that the better building materials were sent to Angkor Wat and the less better ones here. Furthermore, the temple had to be completed fast as the king then was getting old and wanted to make it work. Later as we walked around the surroundings we found that the moat surrounding the temple had dried up... a bad sign.

That's Ta Prohm.

Now I have a confession to make.
After Ta Prohm, Esther had arranged another tour for the next temple.
I thought I had enough of it; to my regret.
I rested in the coach while the rest hopped into the building.

That's the ruins of Angkor Thom.
Since I did not trudge with them, I can only base my story on their opinions and some readings.
Apparently to my sadness, I was told that the ruins of Angkor Thom was the most scenic.
What a shame to miss it.
Angkor Thom was the first Buddhist temple during the Khmer civilization. The king then wanted to be like Buddha and had his own image etched in the form of Buddha.
The rest of small tales I am not able to relate as I was not with them.
But at least there are some pictures for you and I to appreciate.

So, that's all for the temple walks.