Tradition
Mount Meru
Mount Meru (ភ្នំព្រះសុមេរុ, Phnom Preah Sumeru) is the mountain at the center and axis of the universe in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, the home of the gods.[1][2] The kings of Angkor built their state temples as images of the mountain on a human scale, and the towers of Angkor Wat stand for its peaks.[1][3] In Khmer the mountain gives its name to the men, the tower built for a cremation.[3]
The mountain
Meru stands at the center of the world, on its axis.[1][2] Rings of mountain ranges and oceans circle it, one inside the other.[1][2] The gods live on and around its summit, where Indra (ព្រះឥន្ទ្រ), king of the gods, has his palace and city. The four great kings who guard the four directions keep watch over that city.[1][4]
Meru is a separate mountain from Mount Mandara, which stands to its east. In the story of the Churning of the Sea of Milk, the gods and the asuras use Mandara, not Meru, as the churning rod, though the two are often confused.[4]
Temple mountains
From the 9th century the Khmer kings raised a temple mountain at the center of each capital: a stepped pyramid with a sanctuary on top, standing for Meru.[1][2] Inscriptions link some of these temples to Meru by name.[1] The enclosing walls stand for the mountain ranges around Meru and the moats for the oceans. A deep well often marks the axis of the world beneath the central shrine.[2][1]
Bakong, founded in 881 under Indravarman I, was the first of these great temple mountains.[1][5] Its five levels match the levels of the cosmic mountain. The lowest level is the world of the nagas. Above it come the garudas, then the rakshasas and the yakshas, and at the top the four great kings who rule the directions.[5]
Phnom Bakheng, built about 906 by Yasovarman I at the center of his new capital, is the clearest example.[5] Its five towers, set as a quincunx with one at the center and four at the corners, stand for the peak of Meru and the four mountains that buttress it.[1] Pre Rup and later temple mountains repeat the pattern of a pyramid crowned with five towers.[6][2] Not every temple mountain was Meru: the small temple of Baksei Chamkrong stood for Mount Kailasa, the mountain of Shiva.[1]
Angkor Wat (អង្គរវត្ត)
Angkor Wat, built under Suryavarman II (ព្រះបាទសូរ្យវរ្ម័នទី២) in the 12th century, has twelve towers: nine on the main temple and three on the west gate.[3] Many people think of it as having five towers, as on the national flag.[3] The nine towers of the main temple stand for the peaks of Mount Meru. They may also stand for the nine planets (នព្វគ្រោះ) and for the nine gods who guard the directions, with Vishnu (ព្រះវិស្ណុ) at the center.[3] The central tower, the home of the gods, stands for Meru itself.[3]
In 1866 the Scottish photographer John Thomson saw Angkor Wat as a symbol of Mount Meru. Madame de Coral-Rémusat later reported his reading: the seven circles of the central tower were the seven ranges around the mountain, the three terraces were the platforms of earth, water and wind on which it rests, and the moat was the ocean.[2]
The scholar Jean Filliozat found the temple so close to the Hindu texts on temple building that the influence may have run the other way. He suggested that the description of a temple of Vishnu in the Kurma Purana may have been inspired by Angkor Wat.[1]
Angkor Thom and the Bayon
Under Jayavarman VII the city of Angkor Thom was laid out as a copy on earth of Indra's city on the summit of Meru. The faces on its gates are read as the four great kings who guard that city.[1] At the center of the city the Bayon stands for Mount Meru, and the city wall and moat for the mountain range and ocean that surround it.[7]
In Khmer ritual
Because the nine towers of Angkor Wat stand for Meru, the number nine runs through later Khmer ceremonies.[3] Offerings are built in nine tiers, as with the baysei (បាយសី), and the sla thor (ស្លាធម៌) is made with nine peaks to stand for Angkor Wat.[3]
The men (មេន), whose name comes from meru (មេរុ), is the structure built for a cremation. It has nine towers: the central one, where the body is cremated, and eight small ones for the eight directions.[3]
At Cambodian New Year people bring sand to the pagoda to build phnom khsach, sand mounds that stand for Mount Meru.[8]
References 8
- ↑ 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 Thierry Zéphir, The Angkorean Temple-Mountain, Expedition 37, no. 3, Penn Museum (1995)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944), English translation, Angkor Database
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 AMS Khmer Civilization, អាថ៍កំបាំងកំពូលរបស់ប្រាសាទអង្គរវត្ត (The mystery of the towers of Angkor Wat), in Khmer (July 10, 2021)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Huntington Archive, Angkor, University of Chicago Digital South Asia Library (undated)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944), Bakong, The Angkor Guide
- ↑ Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944), Pre Rup, The Angkor Guide
- ↑ Cambodianess, The Enclosure Wall of Angkor Thom (July 19, 2021)
- ↑ Wonders of Cambodia, The Joyful Reset: Celebrating Khmer New Year in Cambodia, Cambodianess (April 7, 2026)
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