Angkor Wat - Artefact 2
What is Angkor Wat?
Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It was first built as a Hindu temple, but was then later on a Buddhist temple. It covers 200 hectares and took merely 30 years to build, an extraordinary feat at the time due to the underdevelopment of technology. The building was started under the command of the King Suryavarman II in the early 12th Century, was his state temple and later on his mausoleum. The physical evidence of such a great monument itself points lends great support to the statement that the Indian culture had left a great impact and had greatly influenced the region.
The plan and layout of the temple is extremely similar to a Mandala, as can be seen on the right. The gates of the temple are alike to that of a Mandala, and the pagodas form the various 'layers' of it. The Mandala is a Hindu concept, and the temple was built most probably as physical representation of it. This also lends evidence to the strong Indian influence in the Khmer Empire, in Southeast Asia.
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Gopuras are found at each of the cardinal points in Angkor Wat. They are large monumental towers built at the entrances of temples, often found in South India.
Furthermore, the temple has many bas-relief friezes showing stories from Indian epics. The inner walls of the outer gallery are adorned with numerous scenes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Many other scenes decorate various parts of the temple, most originating fom Hindu mythology and epics. As Angkor Wat was seen as an extremely important temple in the Khmer Empire, and as these depictions were all around the temple, it is reasonable to believe that the majority of the population held the Hindu epics and mythology in high regard. The architecture of the temple further supports that the Indian culture had greatly influenced the culture in the Khmer Empire. |
The Angkor Wat remains a national symbol and a national pride of Cambodia until today. The Indianisation of Southeast Asia, and thus the Khmer Empire, from the 7th to 14th Century has left a large impact on the region and Cambodia, being a large part of its heritage and continuing to shape its identity up till today.