Angkor

Angkor is the old capital of the Khmer Empire which thrived of 9th at the 15th century. Its ruins are located in the forests at the north of the Tonlé Sap, close to current the Siem Reap with the Kampuchea and are classified with the world heritage of humanity by UNESCO.

History

Hariharālaya (Rolûos)

The Khmer Empire is founded at the beginning of the 9th century by Jayavarman II but it is one of its successors, Indravarman, which undertakes the alteration work hydraulic, bases prosperity of the area and the first building still visible, the Preah KB, devoted in 879 and built out of brick like all the former monuments, inaugurating more than three centuries of apogee of the Architecture khmère.

The first Temple-mountain, configuration characteristic of cosmology hindouist, is built by its care in 881 in Bakong. These temple-mountains adopt a symbolic system of the Mont Meru, the mythical stay of the gods in 5 roughcast concentric levels of 109 turns.

Yaśodharapura (Angkor itself)

The successors of Indravarman, in particular his son Yaśovarman credited with “creator of Angkor”, undertake gigantic installations, more in the North-West, with construction of the dams of the Eastern bārāy (the Yaśodhatatāka ) and the construction of monuments, from now on out of stone: the Phnom Bakheng (towards 900), the Eastern Mébon in the center of the Eastern bārāy, and the Pre Rup (towards 960). The temple-mountains use natural hills: Phnom Dei, Phnom Bok, Phnom Krom.

After one period of disorders during which the capital of the Khmer kingdom is transferred to Koh Ker, Sūryavarman {{Ier}} reinstalls a strong capacity with Angkor. Its successor Udayādityavarman II makes establish the bārāy Western and built the Baphuon towards 1060. Some other quarrels of succession later, it is Sūryavarman II which builds Angkor Vat towards 1130.

The large rivals of the Khmers, the Chams will occupy Angkor a few years before Jayavarman VII takes again possession (1181) and establishes of it the Buddhism mahāyāna like official religion. Constructions become extensive with the enclosure of Angkor Thom and the Bayon, then the Your Prohm, the Preah Khan and their towers decorated with gigantic faces of the smiling Bouddha are built successively during the 12th century.

But one of its successors, Jayavarman VIII, as of its advent (1243), imposes the return to the hindouism and destroyed many sculptures of the Buddha.

Then Buddhism will take again the top in the middle of the 14th century, in its form theravāda. This new religious way, much simpler in its approach of crowned, will generalize light constructions whose only some Buddhist terraces remain, often employing again the blocks of stone of the former buildings.

The decline of the Khmer kingdom will be fast, its territory narrowed by the secession of the Thais and devastated by ceaseless wars with those which had created the kingdom of the Siam and Chams.

Angkor will be definitively abandoned like capital towards 1431.

During of the buddhist monks adapt the site and divert constructions towards representations of the Buddha such enormous Boudha laid down with the Baphuon. This site will be left with the abandonment and, for the greatest part, will be buried under the plentiful vegetation of the tropical Jungle. The sinister period of the Khmer Rouge had made the site inaccessible to the visitors but unfortunately not with the plunderers. By precaution of many parts are today with the shelter with the museum of Phnom Penh.

Monuments

Angkor is made up many significant archaeological units, of which:
  • Western Bārāy

  • On the site of Iśvarapura to 20 km in the North-East

The majority of the names are the current common nouns. Some rare names of origin arrived to us.

The temple of Angkor Vat was the only monument maintained constantly by Buddhist monks . After many campaigns restoration and a very long mine clearance, most of the site of Angkor is worth visiting today.

Re-discovery and restoration

The first relation on the Khmer empire in Europe goes back to 1570 by Spanish and Portuguese travellers. It was necessary to await the publication in 1829 by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat in his Nouveaux Asian Mixtures of a translation of an account of voyage of a Chinese officer to reappear of nothing. It is in 1861, beginning of the conquète of the Cochinchine by France, that the naturalist Henri Mouhot exploring the area with the Sylvestre abbot allows the Re-discovery of Angkor Vat then of Angkor Thom. Its account will be published in the Round the world tour in 1863. The one second exploration, of 1863 to 1866, carried out by Ernest Doudart de Lagrée will be much more exhaustive and will be the report object in Voyage of Exploration in Indo-China , published in 1873. Many missions of exploration follow one another then until the long presence of Etienne Aymonier, named representing in Kampuchea in 1879. This one organized the translation of the many inscriptions, reconstituted the history of the Khmer kingdom. Returned to France at the conclusion of its misson (about 1886) it published many studies, a dictionary and multiple articles which it gathers as from 1900 in its great work Kampuchea .

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the site of Angkor is patiently rehabilitated by archeologists, in particular by those of the French École of the Far East.

On the site of UNESCO, the programme of safeguarding of the site of Angkor, begun in 1993.

The good advance of this program made it possible to withdraw Angkor of the Liste of the world heritage in danger of UNESCO.

Work on the spot is coordinated by the APSARA (Authority for the Protection of the Site and the Installation of the Area of Angkor/Siem Reap).

This program is currently financed mainly by the Japan. See the site of the JSA.

And, of course, the EFEO (French School of the Far East) is always represented on the spot.

In progress currently (2001 - 2010), a archaeological study with large scales, the Greater Angkor Project gathers the Université of Sydney, the French École of the Far East, and the APSARA with the support of Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. He studies the reasons of the decline of Angkor and his abandonment in 1431, with the intention to draw from it from the lesson on the durable exploitation of the natural resources for the Agriculture. The first results of this research - being based in particular on a precise study of the hydraulic network - allowed the establishment of a news Cartographie of the site. They confirm that Angkor was well one of the vastest urban complexes of the preindustrial era, much wider than than one believed hitherto. The urban center extended on 400 km ² and entire surface reached: 3000 km ², are ten times more than what one imagined. The experts draw the conclusion from it that this extension of the capital of the Khmer Empire was probably not without consequences for the Environnement and that the ecological problems (Déforestation, Impoverishment of the soil, erosion) related to this development perhaps contributed to the fall of the empire.

Other sites

Some other cities comparable with those of Angkor were built on other sites, mainly at the time of Jayavarman VII, of which:
  • Beng Melea, 70 km in the North-East
  • Banteay Chmar (province of Banteay Mean Chey)
  • Muang Sing, into current the Thailand
  • Preah Khan de Kampong Svay (province of Preah Vihear) largest city-monastery khmère (4,5 km squared)
  • Your PROM of Frame, in the south of Phnom Penh province of Takéo
  • Vat Banon (province of Battambang)
  • Vat Nokor (province of Kampong Cham)

They associate a large defensive enclosure, hydraulic devices ( bārāy ) and a temple with the multiple enclosures symbolic systems, in the style of the Preah Khan of Angkor.

Angkor in the topicality

In 2001 left the film Tomb Raider whose many scenes were turned on the site of Angkor. The film Two Brothers was made in several temples of Angkor, in particular the Your Prohm and the Beng Mealea.

The remarks of an actress inhabitant of Thailand, Suvanant Kongying, asserting the membership of Angkor to the culture and the Thai territory , caused riots with Phnom Penh in January 2003, during which the embassy of Thailand was plundered. The relations between the two countries recently with were restored little.

See too

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