Angkor Wat

So, what color is Siem Reap? The most beautiful shade of blue – the color of money, of greenbacks, of 100-rupee notes, or of blue chip company stock?

A lot of money must have been spent in building the temple, but the builders were the blue-blooded Kuber ( Khmer) kings. Were they not? Kuber is the God of Wealth in the Hindu mythology.

We used to think that Angkor Wat is the world’s largest Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, but we did not know that Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument also. Its scale is mind-boggling. The whole complex covers an area of 40 square MILES.

Angkor Wat is a model of the Hindu mythological universe. Scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharat are carved on the outer walls in bas-relief. One wall symbolizes, through the carvings on the walls, the concept of 36 levels of Hindu Heavens, earth and 36 levels of Hindu Hell. (Interestingly, when Dante was writing his ‘Divine Comedy’ in Italy, which describes seven circles of Hell, some Angkor Wat temples were already 300 years old and some were still being built.)

The statue of Vishnu, however, looks altogether different to the Indian eyes. In fact, he looks more like Buddha than Vishnu. This dissimilarity is heightened by the crimson robe put on him- the sort Buddhist monks wear- by the Buddhist priests. Vishnu should wear a golden yellow ‘pitamber’. In fact, the management of the temple is with Buddhist monks, and they have shifted the Vishnu to a side temple.

The Angkor Wat temple represents the sacred five-peaked MountMeru, and you need mountaineering skills to surmount the last terrace of the temple. It really tests your devotion to the God.

Why did our ancestors ever think that ‘merit’ (‘punya’) may be gained by physically tiring oneself out, I do not know. How do aching limbs, grazed knees and a pain in the back translate into ‘merit’? I believe ‘merit’ should accrue only through good thoughts, good deeds and good behavior.

To reach the topmost terrace of the Angkor Wat temple, you have to be physically fit. I am not physically fit. I am of the wrong age, wrong weight, wrong shape and was wearing wrong sort of clothes. I did not know that I was going rock-climbing and was not equipped with carabineers, belaying rope, webbing or harness. You need all these to climb the narrow, vertical, crumbly stairs of the top terrace.

However, I had a strong will and decided to go up despite my husband’s misgivings.

Going up was OK, but climbing down!! There, standing on the top step, I suddenly discovered that I have acrophobia. I felt dizzy!! The tourists below looked like small children.

Plainly, I was in a blue funk. I never wanted to see this shade of the ‘shyam’ color.

Oh God, give me strength!!

The sight of a woman on the other side of 50 years, of a rotund shape, and in a sari, must have unnerved all the tourists gathered below. A hush fell on the assembly as I started my historic climb down. The people were frozen in their tracks, all of them looking up.

One step at a time, concentrating on the next step, holding tightly to the railing, and praying inwardly all the time, I climbed down. A collective sigh of relief was heaved as I climbed down the last step of the staircase. There was a spontaneous applause, which I acknowledged with a huge grin. ‘You have gained a lot of merit’ I was told. People are basically nice.

Perhaps that is why the stairs are designed that way. People are bound to remember God and pray fervently when using them, thus gaining to lot of ‘merit’.

I suggest that you see the movie ‘Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider’. An added bonus is Angelina Jollie. She too looks good. Almost competes with the ‘apsaras’ carved on the temple walls AND you don’t have to climb down those horrid stairs.

I would also strongly urge the Buddhist monks who manage this temple, to put an escalator over these stairs. After all, why waste the boons of modern technology? Not that they are totally averse to using the modern methods. I have seen them in airplanes, trains and ships. If they can use these contraptions, why can’t they build an escalator? At least, let the tourists have it. I am sure most of the tourists would be willing to take a cut in their ‘merit’ in order to use the escalator.

This reminds me. Somewhere in USA, we saw an Amish family with a baby. ( Amish people believe in traditional living and spurn modern devices.) They were wearing traditional dresses, which we found highly incongruous in a sea of people wearing standard modern dresses –pants, jeans, shirts and tee shirts. Soon, in the most traditional and time-honored way, the baby announced to the world in general and its mother in particular, that, its nether region needed looking into. The mother opened the baby’s dress, and to our amusement, we saw that the baby was wearing a very modern diaper.

So, traditions can be set aside for modern conveniences.

I must mention that this temple was never abandoned. The Buddhist monks transformed the temple from Hindu to Buddhist traditions and continued worshipping the idol of Vishnu in his new ‘avatar’ as Buddha. That is why the jungle did not overtake it and it is the best-preserved temple in the complex.

The sight of that massive temple being reflecting in the lake filled with blue lotus flowers – that is the memory I would like to carry with me of Angkor Wat, not the memory of me climbing down those stairs in a blue funk.