Heritage site

Angkor Wat

អង្គរវត្ត

Angkor Wat (អង្គរវត្ត, Angkor Wat) is a 12th-century temple in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, built for Vishnu and a center of Buddhist worship for centuries.[1][2] It stands within the Angkor archaeological park and appears on the national flag of Cambodia.[3][2]

History

The name joins angkor, city, and wat, temple, and is usually given as "City of Temples" or "City of the Temple."[1][4][5] The temple's original name is not securely known because surviving contemporary texts and inscriptions do not mention it by name. It may have been known as Vrah Vishnulok, after its presiding god.[6][4]

King Suryavarman II commissioned Angkor Wat in Yaśodharapura, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as a state temple dedicated to Vishnu, and it is generally regarded as his intended mausoleum.[1][2] He took the throne in 1113 after killing his great-uncle, King Dharanindravarman I. He built a strong central government, opened relations with China and regarded Vishnu as his personal protector.[5] Construction likely began in 1116 and ended around 1150, shortly after the king's death. It took more than 30 years and probably about 300,000 workers, among them architects, masons, sculptors, builders and servants.[6] Work stopped after Suryavarman II died, and some of the relief carving was left unfinished.[4]

In 1177 the Cham people, from what is now Vietnam, sacked Angkor. Jayavarman VII, who reigned from 1181 to about 1220, built Angkor Thom nearby as a new capital with the Bayon as its state temple.[2][4] The temple's change from Hindu to Buddhist use came gradually. Britannica places the shift after the founding of Angkor Thom, when many Hindu carvings and statues gave way to Buddhist art. Other accounts date it from the late 13th century, with Buddhist monks taking over as Hindu worship ended.[2][4][5] From then on Angkor Wat served as a Buddhist center, as it does to the present day.[1]

After Angkor was abandoned in the 15th century, Theravada Buddhist monks maintained the temple and kept it largely intact, and it became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Southeast Asia.[7][2] It was neglected after the 16th century but never completely abandoned, and its moat held back the forest.[4][5] In the 16th century, after a period of Thai occupation, the Khmer returned and restored the temple. Pieces of statues broken in the fighting were set back into the building, and new reliefs completed the Hindu stories on the walls. King Ang Chan called this work the completion of the unfinished business of the ancestors. Buddhist stupas were added between the 16th and 19th centuries.[8]

The French explorer Henri Mouhot visited in 1860, and his travel notes made the temple widely known in the West.[1][4] When the French arrived, Angkor Wat was an active Buddhist site with brick stupas, cloth hangings and statues. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, French work removed many later additions, including images and structures of wood and other perishable materials, some of which had religious or ritual importance. The removed statues and stupas have not been returned.[8] Restoration and conservation work was undertaken by international agencies during the 20th and 21st centuries.[1]

Cambodia became independent from France on November 9, 1953, and has controlled Angkor Wat since then. Religious life and local worship at the temple have grown again since independence.[4][8] Restoration stopped during the political unrest of the 1970s, through the civil war and the Khmer Rouge years. The main damage in that period was the theft and destruction of statues, mostly from after the Angkor era.[2][4] Work resumed in the mid-1980s and needed extensive repairs, and some sections had to be taken apart and rebuilt.[2]

Architecture and layout

A steep stone stairway climbing to the central gallery of Angkor Wat, flanked by two towers.
The central sanctuary of Angkor Wat, with its steep stairway and corner towers, 2013. Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0

The complex covers about 162.6 hectares (402 acres); Britannica gives about 160 hectares (400 acres) and counts more than 1,000 buildings.[5][2] Guinness World Records lists it as the largest religious structure in the world.[1][9] It measures about 1,554 by 1,371 meters (5,100 by 4,498 feet).[10][5] Maurice Glaize, in his 1944 guide to Angkor, gave the central tower a height of 42 meters (138 feet), with its top 62 meters (203 feet) above the main causeway.[11] A 2025 structural study uses a height of about 40 meters (131 feet) for the tower.[12] Unlike most temples at Angkor, it faces west, a direction linked with Vishnu and the land of the dead.[5]

The temple combines the Khmer temple-mountain, a stepped temple built as a sacred mountain, with rings of galleries one inside the other, creating a layered plan.[4] Its layout is commonly read as a model of Mount Meru, the home of the gods.[1][6][4] Glaize wrote that the Englishman Thomson took the temple in 1866 as a symbol of Meru, the mountain at the center of the universe. In Thomson's reading, the seven rings of the central tower matched the seven mountain chains of Meru, and the moat filled with water stood for the ocean.[11] The plan has nine towers: the central tower, four at the corners of the inner enclosure and four at the corners of the middle enclosure.[12] The towers rise in four tiers that grow smaller toward the top, with three rows of lotus petals.[11] Glaize likened their outline to a cone-shaped tiara and described the corner towers of the second enclosure as truncated.[11] Hinduism Today wrote in 1993 that four of the nine towers were gone.[13]

A moat about 200 meters (650 feet) wide and 4 meters (13 feet) deep runs more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) around the complex.[5] A sandstone causeway crosses it on the west.[11] At its western end, a cross-shaped terrace raised a few steps above the road and set with stone lions leads onto the causeway. Naga balustrades, railings carved as many-headed serpents, line the edges of both.[11][14] Glaize and Sophia University give the causeway's length as about 200 meters (660 feet).[11][15] Xinhua gave 192 meters (630 feet) at the causeway's reopening in 2023.[14] The causeway has fallen in several times over its history, and it has been repaired again and again.[15] Its modern restoration took 19 years, in two stages. Japanese specialists led the first, from 1996 to 2007. In the second, from 2016 to 2023, Cambodian and Japanese experts worked together, with Sophia University as a partner.[16][15] The causeway reopened on November 4, 2023.[16][14] Inside the outer wall, a raised causeway about 350 meters (1,150 feet) long leads from the western entrance to the temple, Glaize wrote.[11] The outer enclosure once held the city and, north of the temple, the royal palace. These were built of materials that did not last, and only the outlines of some streets remain.[4]

The visible parts of Angkor Wat are mainly sandstone, while laterite, an iron-rich stone, was used for the outer wall and hidden supports.[4] The sandstone came from the Kulen Hills, about 29 kilometers (18 miles) to the north, and was moved to the site by canal.[5] The central temple stands on a raised terrace. Three galleries rise one above the other toward a central sanctuary marked by five stone towers.[6][4] Movement toward the upper levels became more and more restricted, so ordinary worshippers were admitted only to the lowest level.[4]

Preah Poan, the Hall of a Thousand Buddhas, is a cross-shaped cloister linking the outer gallery to the second level, with libraries to its north and south. The inner gallery, called the Bakan, holds the central shrine. The shrine once housed a statue of Vishnu and was open on each side; when the temple became Theravada Buddhist, it was walled in, and the new walls bear standing Buddhas.[4] A large eight-armed statue of Vishnu stands at the western entrance.[5]

Art and inscriptions

A long sandstone gallery with a carved female figure on the near pillar and a tower at the far end.
A gallery of Angkor Wat with carved female figures on its walls, 2013. Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0

Nearly every surface is carved.[6] The bas-reliefs, carvings raised from a flat stone surface, cover approximately 1,200 square meters (12,900 square feet) and present eight Hindu narratives.[6] The outer gallery runs more than 600 meters (1,960 feet), and its scenes are read counterclockwise.[5] The western gallery holds two battles from the epics: the Battle of Kurukshetra, from the Mahabharata, and the Battle of Lanka, from the Ramayana. The southern gallery shows a procession of Suryavarman II and the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hindu belief. The northern gallery holds Krishna's defeat of Bana and a fight between the gods and the asuras, or demons.[4] Other reliefs show the king as Vishnu or carrying out royal duties.[10][7]

The Battle of Kurukshetra fills a single panel. The Kaurava army advances from the left and the Pandava army from the right, and only at the center does the fighting close into a dense melee. Along the base runs a procession of musicians, foot soldiers and leaders riding elephants or chariots pulled by horses.[11][17] On the right of the panel, the hero Arjuna rides in a chariot driven by a four-armed Krishna. On the left, Glaize identified Bhisma, the commander of the Kaurava army, dying pierced with arrows.[11]

Unlike the Hindu myths on the other great reliefs, the procession of Suryavarman II in the southern gallery shows a historical scene: the king himself, his court and his army.[11][17] The panel opens with a royal audience, with the king seated on his throne above a procession of palace women. His commanders then come down to join their troops. Standing on elephants, they surround the king, who is carved larger than the others. The number of parasols around each commander marks his rank, and the king has 15.[11] The procession also includes a contingent known as the Syam Kuk. Who these soldiers were is debated. Maurice Glaize, in his 1944 guide to Angkor, described them as Siamese, then allies of the Khmer.[11] Bernard-Philippe Groslier's study of the figures, first published in French in 1981, asks whether they were Thai, Siamese or mercenaries, and also discusses the theory that they were Kuy.[18]

A major relief on the eastern gallery shows the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. There 92 asuras and 88 devas, or gods, use the serpent king Vasuki as a rope, while Vishnu occupies the center.[6][4] The story tells of the beginning of time, the creation of the universe and the victory of good over evil.[6] Around the central Vishnu, rough chisel marks show where the carving was never finished.[8] The same gallery holds a scene of Vishnu defeating the asuras that was added in the 16th century.[4]

Apsaras, celestial dancers, form another important part of the decoration, with hundreds represented across the temple.[7] Devatas, carved figures of deities, cover the walls from the second level upward, alone or in groups of up to four.[4] Inscriptions in Preah Poan record the good deeds of pilgrims in Khmer, Burmese and Japanese.[4]

Significance and conservation

Angkor Wat is a major religious, cultural and national symbol of Cambodia and a source of national pride.[1][4] Buddhist monks and nuns worship there today.[6] It gives its name to the classical Angkor Wat style of Khmer architecture.[4] UNESCO inscribed the Angkor area, including the temple, on the World Heritage List in 1992 and added it the same year to the List of World Heritage in Danger. It was removed from that list in 2004.[2]

The International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC-Angkor), established under UNESCO in 1993, coordinated restoration. The Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) was established in 1995 to protect and manage the area. The site was managed from 1990 to 2016 by SOKIMEX, which rented it from the Cambodian government.[1] The wider Angkor Archaeological Park covers about 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) and includes temples, water works and historic roads.[19]

A survey found about 20 percent of the temple's devatas in very poor condition, mainly from natural erosion and decay of the stone and partly from earlier restoration. Conservation work repairs collapsed sections and prevents further collapse.[4] Plant roots and water have also worn parts of the temple.[10] In 2000, about 28 percent of ticket income from the Angkor site went to the temples, and most conservation was carried out by teams sponsored by foreign governments.[4]

Visiting

Angkor Wat lies about 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) north of Siem Reap.[4] Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west, the main entrance. Visitors then pass through three galleries separated by paved walkways.[1][2] Ropes and wooden steps protect the reliefs and floors.[4]

The complex draws more than 2.5 million visitors a year.[1] Government figures counted 561,000 foreign visitors to Siem Reap province in 2004 and 677,000 in 2005, about half of all foreign tourists to Cambodia.[4] The site reopened to international visitors in late 2021; 280,000 tourists visited in 2022, and more than 400,000 by late July 2023.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Wikipedia
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Encyclopedia Britannica, Angkor Wat (2026-05-04)
  3. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.26 4.27 blogs.cornell.edu, Majestic Angkor Wat - CNI Master Class in Siem Reap (2011-02-26)
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 World History Encyclopedia, Angkor Wat (2020-02-13)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Khan Academy, Angkor Wat (artykuł) - Kambodża - Khan Academy
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Encyclopedia Britannica, Angkor - History, Location, & Facts - Britannica (1998-07-20)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Whose Culture? (Harvard), Angkor Wat
  9. ↑ Guinness World Records, Largest religious structure (undated)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Britannica Kids, Angkor Wat
  11. ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 theangkorguide.com, Maurice Glaize, Angkor Wat, from The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Sensors and Materials (MYU Tokyo), Vacharee Svamivastu and Komsan Maleesee, Study of Architectural Form and Structural Analysis of Central Tower Cluster of Angkor Wat (2025)
  13. ↑ Hinduism Today, Fighting Time, Jungle and Bats to Recreate Angkor Wat (October 1993)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Xinhua, Cambodia inaugurates famed Angkor Wat temple's western causeway (November 4, 2023)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Sophia University, Restoration of the Western Causeway of Angkor Wat Completed; Completion Ceremony to be Held on November 4 (October 16, 2023)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Asia News Network (The Phnom Penh Post), Orm Bunthoeurn, Angkor causeway symbol of Cambodia-Japan ties (November 7, 2023)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Music in Art (Research Center for Music Iconography, City University of New York), Martin Knust, Urged to Interdisciplinary Approaches: The Iconography of Music on the Reliefs of Angkor Wat (2010)
  18. ↑ Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, Thailand and Cambodia: A Love-Hate Relationship (2003)
  19. ↑ whc.unesco.org, Angkor (2023-11-15)
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This page was last edited on 11 October 2026, at 04:17.