Angkor Wat is a
Hindu temple complex at
Angkor,
Cambodia, built for the king
Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and part of his capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation — first
Hindu, dedicated to the god
Vishnu, then
Buddhist. The temple is the epitome 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 (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
devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.
The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "City Temple"; Angkor is a vernacular form of the word នគរ nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word नगर nagara meaning capital or city.
wat is the
Khmer word for temple. Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of its founder,
Suryavarman II.
Angkor Wat lies 5.5 km north of the modern town of
Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred on the
Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.
The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of
Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150). Dedicated to
Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and part of his capital city, which itself was seventeen times bigger than Manhattan Island. As neither the foundation
stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as Vrah Vishnulok after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the
bas-relief decoration unfinished.
[2] In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the
Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the
empire was restored by a new king,
Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (
Angkor Thom and the
Bayon respectively) a few kilometres to the north.
In the late 13th century, King
Jayavarman VIII, who was Hindu, was deposed by his son in law,
Srindravarman. Srindravarman had spent the previous 10 years in Sri Lanka becoming ordained as a Buddhist monk. Hence, the new King decided to convert the official religion of the empire from Hindu to Buddhist. Since Buddha was born and died a Hindu and since divisions between both the faiths appeared seamless, citizens were quick to follow a faith founded on tranquility without a need for material gain and power. This made the conversion relatively easy.Hence, Angkor Wat was converted 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.
One of the first
Western visitors to the temple was
Antonio da Magdalena, a
Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that 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 decorations and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of". However, the temple was popularised in the West only in the mid-19th century on the publication of
Henri Mouhot's travel notes. The
French explorer wrote of it:
"One of these temples—a rival to that of
Solomon, and erected by some ancient
Michelangelo—might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by
Greece or
Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."
Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and
epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site.
There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.
Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and
Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.
The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with its neighbor Thailand, France and the United States. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of
Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.
The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the
Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a
protectorate on August 11, 1863. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Thai control since the Thai invasion of 1431 AD. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time.
During the midst of the
Vietnam War, Chief of State
Norodom Sihanouk hosted
Jacqueline Kennedy in Cambodia to fulfill her "lifelong dream of seeing Angkor Wat."
In
January 2003 riots erupted in
Phnom Penh when a false rumour circulated that a
Thai soap opera actress had claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.
