After the earthy ox-cart trip with the smell of ox-poo fresh in my nose, having watched the driver shove the end of a stick in the anus of one to speed it up, and dig into the spine of the other with a sharp nail to slow it down, we got off to make use of more conventional and non-abusive transport. We headed off to the less famous of the temples in Siem Reap; the Rolous group. Off National Route 6, around 12 kms east of the town, this group is now named after a nearby village with the same French name. Its ancestral name was the most imposing Hariharalaya, or abode of Hari (Shive) and Hara (Vishnu), the gods of creation and destruction. These consist of the earliest monuments of the Angkor period.
I took out my guide book ‘Ancient Angkor’ by Freeman & Jacques, which Amita got for an absolute bargain from one of the vendors for $4 when book-shops were selling it for $30!! Legend has it that in the 1st century AD, warring tribes forced traders to seek alternative routes to established overland routes between China and India. These sailors landed, sailing along the coast, at Oc Eo, in the state of Funan, on Vietnam, an area populated by the Khmer, a ‘dark-skinned, curly-haired tribe who had migrated from the north’. They were called the Funan by the Chinese, a distortion of the Khmer word bnam, meaning mountain, and Oc Eo was the first capital. Chinese accounts state that the Funan were affluent, Indian-influenced Hindu society, living in wooden, stilted houses thatched with palm, speaking Khmer but writing in Sanskrit. They were able to dig canals using engineering skills learnt from Indian traders, and developed an inland port, Angkor Borei, the second capital. Accompanying the Indian traders were some Brahmins who converted Funanese to Hinduism. BY 5th century AD shrines had been built on Funan hilltops and the king began to add the suffix – varman – protected by; thus Indravarman would mean ‘protected by Indra god’.
By late 6th century AD, a northern Funan territory gained independence and were called Chenla by the Chinese. They traded with the Indonesians and before long battles erupted between the Chenla and people from Java. At this point the history becomes a little fragmented and the there is infighting for the next 200 years until miraculously Jayavarman II appears on the scene. Very little is known as to who he was and what he did but a stella inscription notes that ‘he spent time at court in Java’. In 795 AD, having brought the warring groups together, he declared himself ruler of a kingdom he called Kambujadesh and in 802 settled his capital at Phnom Kulen, north-east of Siem Reap.
Jayavarman took power northwards and the region later came to be known as Angkor. It derives from the Sanskrit word ‘Nagar’ which the Khmer called ‘Nakor’, meaning City. The French spoiled the original name to Angkor as they could not pronounce the word Nakor. Arguably the most notable aspect of Jayavarman’s rule was that the King was no longer a mortal but a devaraja, God-King. He later moved the capital to Hariharalaya from Phnom Kulen, present day Rolous, where he died in 850AD.
There are three temples in Rolous built by Indravarman I, grandson of Jayavarman II and his son Yashovarman I in late 9th century; Preah Ko and Bakong by the former between 977-899AD and Lolei by the latter (899-910AD). These three temples appear to herald a quest for building temples which afflicted all the rulers of Angkor. Every king built his own temple, some for worshipping, others as funerary temples (Angkor Wat), and yet others as royal palaces from which governance took place. There are over 1000 temples in the Angkor complex.
Preah Ko
Built in 879 by Indravarman I to honour the spirits of his ancestors, especially Jayavarman II. Entrance is through a ruined latterite gopura (from the Sanskrit word Gopuram, meaning archway). These temples were built with bricks (one brick kiln remains), while latterite is wet soil with an admixture of iron, zinc and other metals, which can be set when wet, and hardens when it comes in contact with air. It acted like concrete. The structure was covered with stucco upon which various carving were made, which are now in various states of disrepair. The sacred bull Nandi is now vandalized and after the holocaust of war and genocide of khmer rouge, much of these temples were looted and bricks taken away to build houses by the locals and corrupt wesetern art collectors. The lintels are wonderfully carved, one of the finest of Khmer art, into representations of kala, or time, that eats up everything. Most apt.
Bakong
Regarded as first of the state-temples of the Angkor period, the temple is a shrine to Shiva and is built as a pyramid. It has five sections from the outside and the pyramid is built in five levels, where Shiva sits at the top. There are elephants on terraces of each of the levels, and the top level has 12 small sandstone sanctuary towers, now empty, but home to lingas in the past. A most poignant welcome awaits visitors to this shrine. Outside the shring sit a group of physically challenged men and women who play poignant and melodic music on traditional instruments. All of them are victims of landmines left after the Vietnam war.
Lolei
The most recent is also in the worst state of disrepair. It originally stood on an artificial island in the centre of a reservoir called Indratataka (or Indra’pataka’ or Indra’s gate) baray or barrage.Its worth visiting to see the well-preserved Sanskrit inscriptions in the doorways of the rear towers, detailing the work rotas of temple servants. Lolei reveals the prototype of aspsaras, dancers to the Gods and God kings that are found on all Angkor temples. Two features stand out about these figures beautifually sculpted in stucco here that stand in contrast to later Angkor temples, especially the largest one - Angkor Wat. The physical health depicted of men and women on temple walls are much better during this period (800-900AD) than the other bigger temples (built 1100-1200AD), suggesting that there was probably a shortage of food or indeed the men and women were worked harder, probably due to rampant temple building, during the latter stages. The second aspect relates to foot position - in the Rolous group the feet are found pointing outwards,but later temples show the feet pointing in one direction, an influence of Egyptian style, according to our guide. Why, no one knows.
Finally, some of stucco work reveal scenes from Hindu epics and folklore, e.g. Demon king Ravana stealing Sita, Vishnu the sustainer, Shiva in a Nataraj pose, etc. on the pdiments above the lintens of Bakong.
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