Temples, Trees, and Smiling Buddhas

Cambodia is best known for the temple Angkor Wat. However, it also has several thousand other temples despite it being a rather small country! Siem Reap was the capital of the Khmer empire for many centuries, so there are many temples in the vicinity.

The temples all have many very intricate carvings, which were amazingly carved centuries ago. The carvings are often related to Hinduism and Buddhism, which were prominent religions brought to Cambodia. Many carvings that we saw depicted the Ramayana and Mahabharata, major works of Hinduism, but also had Buddhas.

The Khmer empire lasted for several centuries but eventually fell, causing Siem Reap to be abandoned. For many centuries afterward, the temples were not maintained and therefore were reclaimed by the jungle! Rather recently, however, many of the temples have been excavated. Some famous temples include Beng Mealea, Bayon, Ta Prohm, and many others!

Beng Melea was built in the twelfth century by the same king who built Angkor Wat and took 30 years to build. The temple was used to film one of the Indiana Jones movies! There is a wooden walkway that takes you through the temple, since most of the temple’s floor consists of rubble. There are a lot of trees and roots growing on the temple walls! You can see how the forest has become part of the temple.

The temple Ta Phrom is where Angelina Jolie went to film Tomb Raider! It is very distinctive because a lot of it was left unchanged from how it was found by archaeologists. There are many huge trees with lots of roots growing onto the temple! Some of the roots are taller than the walls and are very intricate. It’s really cool to see how nature can run its course!

Bayon is a temple located in Angkor Thom. It is very distinctive because it has 216 statues of smiling buddhas! While some of them have been destroyed, most of them are intact, which is quite a sight to see.

Of course, the most famous temple in Cambodia is Angkor Wat! One of the famous activities at Angkor Wat is to see the sunrise behind Angkor Wat. There is a pond in front of the temple and some palm trees, which look very beautiful when the sun is rising. However, you will have to wake up at around 4am to beat the crowds and stand for a few hours! You may decide whether the sight is worth it or not.

Angkor Wat is considered the largest religious monument in the world, which is apparent in how large it is and the number of religious carvings it contains. It was once a Hindu temple and was later converted to a Buddhist temple, so it shows elements of both religions. Since being found in the forest, it has been restored very well and cleared of trees and rubble. You can see many large and highly detailed carvings from up close on the walls!

Cambodia has both Hindu and Buddhist temples, but they are structured rather differently. Hindu temples tend to be taller with different levels, while Buddhist temples tend to be flatter. In many of the Hindu temples, there are staircases that are very steep! I wonder how the king kept from falling off.

Food and other things in Cambodia are very cheap compared to America, so you can have a very high quality meal and buy souvenirs without having to spend a lot of money! During our trip we had a lot of Cambodian cuisine. One of the common traditional dishes is fish amok, which is fish marinated in curry and cooked in a cup made of banana leaves. My mom and I took a cooking class at our hotel where we made amok. We also made a desert, which was made of dough with palm sugar in the middle and boiled. It was very delicious!

We also saw some French influence in restaurants. Many of the restaurants are located in colonial buildings and plated food in a French style. We ate some food that was a combination of French food and Cambodian food, including a creme brûlée with fresh green peppercorns!

Cambodia is a beautiful place, but there is also a lot of poverty there! many children have to sell items to tourists or beg on the streets instead of going to school, so it’s hard for them to rise out of poverty and their own children will end up being poor too. In particular, girls receive less education than boys. Therefore, it’s important that we make sustainable changes rather than just visiting famous sites! One great organization is Kiva, which gives loans to small businesses that can help them get their businesses going. Here’s to making a difference!