Welcome everybody My name
is Peter van Dommelen,
and I serve as the Director
of the Joukowsky Institute,
and I'd like to welcome
you all to this talk.
In particular, we've got a
guest speaking to us on a topic
haven't had many
discussions of, and so it's
great to have that here.
So Dr. Chanratana comes
to us from Cambodia,
and there, he's affiliated
with the University of Cambodia
at [? Phnom Penh ?] itself.
He has been trained in Paris.
He holds both a master's degree
and a PhD from the Sorbonne
Paris III, for those of you who
are familiar with the system,
and has for a couple-- he
completed that in 2011,
and he's since been back
in Cambodia, where he's
been active an a
archaeologist, as I said,
affiliated with the
University of Cambodia.
But as well, he
founded an institution
called the Kherdomnel
Khmer Foundation, which
is to promote, to
protect, and just
to increase awareness of
archaeological heritage
in the country.
At the present, he's
on a trip to the US,
talking at the conference, and
giving various talks elsewhere.
And thanks to the intercession
of Rebecca Leuchak,
we are fortunate to have Dr.
Chen speak to us tonight.
The talk here is
co-sponsored by the Brown
History of Art
Department and the Center
for Language Studies.
And together with the
Joukowsky Institute,
we are very glad
to host this talk.
And most of all I'm
very pleased to see
such a varied and
numerous audience here.
So without further
ado, I will pass
on to Dr. Chen
Chanratana for this talk
to "Angkor Wat Temple, from
Hindu to Buddhist Shrine."
[APPLAUSE]
OK.
So good evening, everyone.
Thank you so much.
I am so glad to be
here, because this
is my third time in the US,
my second time in New York
that I'm joined a CA conference,
and so this time I joined a CA
conference in Washington, DC.
So at the same time, I
travelled to come here,
because one of my colleagues,
Rebecca, reached out.
She's also very
helpful for helping
me to organize this kind of
talk at the University of Rhode
Island.
So, yes, as the Director of the
Institute has also mentioned,
I'll just talk about a very
brief biography about me.
So I do would talk about
a topic-- this topic is
about "Angkor Wat Temple, from
Hindu to Buddhist Shrine."
So as you know,
because right now,
Angkor Wat becomes the
World Heritage list.
And in 2014 to 2015,
attract a lot of tourists.
And Angkor Wat
archaeological site
becomes the most beautiful
archaeological site
in the world, and the most
attractive to tourists
out in the world too.
So many people are
interested in Angkor Wat.
So what does Angkor
Wat mean in my concept?
And why we call this Angkor Wat?
So Angkor Wat mean that
the City of Monastery
or the City of Pagoda.
And in Cambodia, in the Khmer
language, we call one name,
call it [KHMER].
[KHMER]. means A small city.
And why the people call
this temple a small city,
and what was happening
through this time
after the King Suryavarman
built a temple,
and dedicated this
temple to Vishnu god.
So this is for introduction.
Very brief.
Because in the location Cambodia
located inside Southeast Asia's
country, between Thailand
and Laos and also Vietnam.
So we was in Indochina.
So Cambodia was
under the control
of French colonial period for
90 years, 1863 until 1953.
So most of the archaeological
work and art history
was researched by the French
colonists during that time.
So that's why after I graduate
from Royal University of Fine
Art in Phnom Penh in
Cambodia, I have pursue this,
I have to continue my study
in French for my MA degree
and for my Ph.D. degree.
So Angkor, right now, is
at Siem Reap Province.
This is the Tonle
Sap, the Great Lake.
And this is the Mekong River.
It starts in China, and
to the South China Sea.
And we have our
city at Phnom Penh.
And so from Phnom Penh to Siem
Reap only is 300 kilometer.
So if we took the plane,
it's only half an hour,
and for the road, maybe
right now, five to six,
or sometimes seven hours,
because of the road condition.
And so, Angkor is great
city of the Khmer Empire.
So Angkor has been
built and developed
during the ninth century
until 15th century, which
means that for 600 year,
that the Khmer King builds
the temple, and enlarges
that city from one generation
to another generation.
So the history of Angkor
starts from the reign
of the King Jayavarman II,
the King builder of the Angkor
civilization in ninth century,
in early of ninth century.
So which means that
before ninth century,
Cambodia fall into
the civil war.
And our country, we got the
document from China's record
was the Chenla Kingdom.
Now the Chenla Kingdom,
eighth century,
was divided into two-parts.
One is the Chenla of land, and
the other one is Chenla water.
So once the King Jayavarman
II came from Java-- so Java
at that time, many
researcher they support
that, Java was at Indonesia
right now, the Java Island,
I mean.
So when he came from Java
Island because of the war,
and he was kidnapped,
sometimes he
was harassed during the invasion
from Java in later 8th century.
And he lived in Java for
around 20 years, 30 years,
and he's come back.
So he tried to
unify the kingdom.
So in early Ninth century,
in the year of 802,
he went to Kulen Mountain.
So Kulen Mountain is
north of the Angkor area.
It's the natural mountain.
And he built a lot of temple,
and he built a city over there
called Mahendraparvata.
So from that time,
the Khmer king
started to develop the
country, and from generation
to generation.
And from the 12th
century, and one King--
his name was Suryavarman II.
He reigned from 1113 to 1115.
So just only four-year that he
built the big temple, dedicated
to God Vishnu, that was called
Angkor Wat Temple right now.
So this temple, when they
finished the construction
during the 12th
century, this temple
was named to Paramavishnuloka.
So Paramavishnuloka
is the posthumous name
of the King, so which means
that the King dedicated
this temple to the god Vishnu.
So Cambodia in the
past, we respect this.
Hinduism, we respect
Buddhism Mahayana.
But after 15th century, when the
Angkoran civilization collapse,
we changed the religion
from the Hinduism,
and from Buddhism
Mahayana into right
now into Theravada Buddhism,
and we still respect until now.
So that's why Angkor is
one of a good example
that I would like to show
you of the conversion
from the religion from the
Hindus, Buddhism Mahayana,
into the Theravada Buddhism.
So this is the statue
of the god Vishnu.
Yes, one of the main
god of the Hinduism.
We have Shiva,
Vishnu, and Brahma.
So this statues
in 12th centuries,
they put the statues at
the top of the sanctuary.
So during the 15th
century, the statue
has been moved to this place.
So which means that the
King in 16th century
didn't destroy the
statue of Vishnu.
He just moved the
statue from the top
and put it in the bottom.
And after that, he puts the
statue of Buddha instead.
So this is the conversion
from Hindu to Buddhist shrine.
And all the temples in Cambodia,
they made into the same thing.
This temple was built
by the King Suryavarman
II, the Great King
of the Khmer history
during the [INAUDIBLE] period.
So this is one of the picture
of the bas-reliefs on the wall,
captured on the wall
of Angkor Wat temple.
That the first thing that
we see on the wall, which
means that in the 12th
century, the Khmer king start
to build a temple,
and they would like
to show about his picture,
and also the daily life
of the people.
So the 12th century is
one of the good model
for the King in the later
12th and the beginning
of 13th century, especially
the Jayavarman VII,
that built the Bayon Temple.
So this is one of the examples
of the bas-reliefs of Angkor
Wat bas-reliefs.
So the art at Angkor
Wat in 12th is the top.
We can call, it was the
top of the art history.
So which means that engineering,
architecture, decoration,
and everything was
completely finished
and [INAUDIBLE] from the
beginning of 9th century
to the 12th century, so which
means that only for 300 years
that Khmer can develop very
fast about the architectures
for the religion.
And right now, Angkor still
be the world's largest
religious monument.
So for Angkor Wat, the King
built just only for a year,
but if we compare
with the same period
that the people who live
in the European country,
like a French
cathedral, they build
from 200 year to 400 year.
So this is how the Khmer people
build this kind of temple, just
only for a short time.
So this is one of the
history of Angkor Wat Temple.
And also, this is some of the
example of the bas-reliefs
at Angkor Wat that the
King ordered to the artist
to carve the queen,
and also the people
who were in the royal
palace, and also this
is the sign of the hell.
So which mean that
in the 12th century,
we start to think
about the heaven.
We start to think
about the hell.
So which mean that for those who
make the merit after the death,
they will go to the heaven.
But for those who are doing
bad during-- when they leave,
and after the death,
they will go to the hell.
So this is one from Hinduism
we called-- in Buddhism, we
call it [? Trailokya. ?] And in
Hinduism, we call it Traiphum.
So Traiphum is the three worlds.
So we have the earth,
we have the heaven,
and we have the hell.
And so this is another
example about the donation
of the queen to the
people, who worked
or who were her entourage.
And look back,
this is the Apsara.
So during the Angkor
period, especially, they
talk about the art.
And they make a
lot of decoration
at Angkor, even the staircase,
they all were carved.
Which means that Khmer people
never leave the empty place.
So for the architecture,
for the religion,
we always decorate it.
Angkor.
Many people say that
Angkor was rediscovered
by the French in latter
19th century, of course,
because of the discovery of
Henri Mouhot, the naturalist
from Paris.
And Paris, he's got the
support from England.
So he went to
Indochina at that time.
We have Vietnam,
Laos, and Cambodia.
But he traveled
just the halfway,
and he dies along the
Nam Khan River in Laos.
So he wrote about Angkor.
He wrote a lot of things.
And his record
has been published
after his death in Europe.
So after that, the French
Emperor, Napoleon III,
interest about Cambodia,
because they never
expect that a small
country like Cambodia
has a lot of history
and cultural heritage.
And this is the early drawing
pictures by the French
during that time.
And Angkor Wat, when
Angkor Wat become
the World Heritage in 1992.
Because in 1992,
1991, is the year
of this transitional
period that we
start to organize the country
because of the civil war
in Cambodia, the
Khmerish period.
So they start to, because of
the help from the United Nation.
So we organize and we manage
the first election in Cambodia.
So Angkor at that time
was in the danger zone,
which means that the battlefield
between the Khmer soldier
and the government solider.
So the King, our last
king, Norodom Sihanouk,
announced and asked
a UNESCO committee
to list the Angkor into the
World Heritage List in Danger.
So after that, the
UNESCO committee
decided to put Angkor Area--
when we talk about Angkor,
it's not only Angkor Wat Temple,
but a lot of temple in Angkor,
with the site of 402 kilometer
squared, yes, in Angkor area.
About the 300
temples over there.
And in 1994, NASA start to
take the picture from satellite
in order to keep as a
document for the UNESCO.
So as you can see, this is
the huge reservoirs of water
we call Baray.
And this is the western Baray,
but right now still has water,
because of the
reconstruction of Baray,
and with the help from
the US government in 1916.
So at Angkor, we
still have this.
And this is the eastern
Baray, but no water anymore.
And right now, in the eastern
Baray, a lot of village.
The local people live there.
And this Angkor Wat.
So Angkor Wat is the small city
of what we call Angkor Thom.
And this is Angkor Thom, the
city during the Angkor period.
So when the Lidar
release this image,
it's very surprising,
because we found
a lot of archaeological
evidence,
and many people from
around the world,
especially of an
international organization,
start to restore in Angkor.
And this is one part last
research of Lidar about Angkor,
that I took this picture from
my colleague, Dr. Damian, Evans,
Damian, from University
of Sydney, Australia,
the director of the project,
of this Lidar project.
So when they scan the
land, they see a lot
of archaeological evidence.
But because of Angkor
was covered by forest,
we cannot see very clearly.
But with Lidar, we know that
the Angkor was the city that
has a lot of people live there.
And according to the research
results from Lidar, at least
they estimate that from 300,000
people to 400,000 people
live in this complex.
So that's why we call
it that Angkor Thom.
When these people start to
leave from 12th century,
13th century, or 15th
century, so for this question,
we still discover.
We could not determine
that, OK, those people
leave in 12th century.
These people.
But we need a lot of research,
excavation, archaeological
excavation.
So this is imagination and a 3D
reconstruction from the Lidar,
that this data we got is from
Sydney, University of Sydney.
They cooperate with
the BBC in England.
And they reproduced
and they just
released the new documentaries
about Angkor Wat.
So which means that Angkor
Wat-- when Angkor Wat finished
the building, when the king
finished the building, which
means that the people live
there already-- because we have
to people who keep the
temple, work for the temple,
and we have also the people
who construct the temple.
So which means that
for Cambodian people,
of Cambodian beliefs, seem
long times, from 1st century
until the 12th
century, the people
can see the Temple
as a sacred place.
A lot of them live
inside the sacred place,
include local belief,
Hinduism, and Buddhism.
And until even now, we still
respect these three beliefs
together.
So at Angkor, we have also
this kind of bas-relief,
"The Churning of
the Ocean of Milk."
It's the longest
bas-relief in the world,
depicting about "The Churning
of the Ocean of Milk."
And besides that, we
have also the some sent
from the Mahabharata
and from the Ramayana.
So which means that
during 12th century,
the Indian epic,
Indian story, mythology
from Mahabharata and
Ramayana was very famous
for Cambodian people.
And that's why the King ordered
to the artist to carve this.
And this is from the Indian
civilization, Indian's culture.
But when Khmer
realized that, we made
with Khermization,
which means that we
convert from the Indian
style into Khmer style.
So this is the gallery, Eastern
gallery behind Angkor Wat
Temple, that you can
compare with 250 meter long,
and 250 meter high.
So which means it's the
longest and the biggest
bas-relief of "The Churning
the Ocean of Milk."
So Angkor Wat, and all of
the temples in Cambodia,
considered as the Mount
Meru-- the heaven on earth.
The King had to realize that,
because the King respected
Hinduism.
The King respected
Buddhism Mahayana.
So he has to be at the
Temple dedicated to God.
And one more thing, he
has be at the temple
dedicated to ancestor,
which means that they
lead the ancestor into the god.
So after the death
of the ancestor,
their parents will go to
serve the god in the future.
And now, we have possibility to
build this kind of big temple
as before.
But it's very Angkor is the one
of example of the Mount Meru.
So you can see inside the Mount
Meru we have one, the central.
We have Phnom
[? Kaila ?] in Khmer.
We call it the Mount Meru--
the Kailasa in Sanskrit.
So this is the [INAUDIBLE].
So we have Vishnu.
We have Shiva.
And we have Rama.
Because of this temple
dedicated to Vishnu,
that's why they put
the statue of Vishnu
at the top of the temple.
And we have [INAUDIBLE] of the
mountain, and with the gallery,
that are representative of the
seven chains of the mountain,
and the space between the
gallery and the gallery
is representative
of the seven oceans.
This is in the
cosmology concept.
But after the collapse of
Angkor occurs-- of course,
Angkor can grow because
of a great culture.
Khmer built a lot of
irrigation system.
So because of great culture,
it can support to the soldier.
And when the soldier
was strong, it
can go far away, to invade
the other country, of course.
Because that time is the war.
We cannot negotiate to take
the land from the other.
If you were strong, you
would take the land.
And because of this, after
the Angkor collapsed,
civilization, so
Cambodian people
had the low internal conflict.
That's why our
territory we choose,
and because of the power
of the neighboring country,
like the kingdom of Siam,
and the kingdom of Laos,
and the kingdom of
Vietnam right now.
They were very strong.
So when we have the internal
conflict inside the country,
it's easy for them to
grab our land back.
So it's not [? more. ?]
So after the King Ponhea Yat
moved the capital from Angkor
in 15th century in
the year of 1431 AD,
so he moved the capital from
Angkor to Phnom Penh right now.
But Phnom Penh at that time was
named as the Chaktomok because
of the Four Face River.
So 15th century, the king, the
son of the King Ponhea Yat,
who moved the capital from
Angkor, he went to Angkor Wat
again.
So he start to convert.
He started to transform
all the Hindu shrines, all
the Mahayana Buddhist shrines
into the Theravada Buddhist
shine.
So which means that
he didn't destroy,
he just removed the main
guard of the temple,
and put behind, or put
in front of the temple,
and replaced by the
statues a lot of Buddha.
And that's all.
And this is the
one of the statues.
We have four, and at the
top of the Angkor Wat temple
so this statue was
built in 16th century.
So which means that when
we build and the King also
ordered to the scripture
to write the inscription.
Angkor Wat becomes the tomb.
Angkor Wat becomes the
stupa of the royal family.
So which means that after the
relation of the royal family,
the relation of the
King died, they already
put the relief on Angkor Wat.
At Angkor Wat.
And right now, Cambodian
people do it a lot.
We already keep the remains
of the dead inside the pagoda,
and especially with the monk.
So this is one of the
reasons that Angkor Wat
become the tomb.
Angkor Wat becomes the
stupa of the local people.
And this is another
picture about Angkor Wat
because the four in the
top of Angkor Wat Temple,
we have in four directions.
In each direction, you
have one statue of Buddha.
So four statues of Buddha
in four directions.
So this is the map
of the plan of Angkor
Wat in early of 18th century.
So this is drawing
by Japanese pilgrim.
They went there,
and they respect.
But at that time, this is
not like the Japanese style,
it's not a Khmer style,
because at that time,
it was confused as the
[INAUDIBLE] Pagoda in India.
So that's why they draw this.
But when the researcher found
this in early 20th century,
we know that that's not
the pagoda in India,
but this Angkor Wat temple.
So which means that
Angkor Wat temple
in what we call the post-Angkor
period from 15th century
to 18th century, Angkor
Wat temple or Angkor area
was the center of the
religion, not just only
Cambodian people who went
there, but a lot of people
from Japan, from Myanmar,
from Java, from Thailand,
from Vietnam, and from
Malaysia went there.
And they always write something
on the wall as the testament
to prove that they went there,
and the pay homage to the god.
And they pay homage
to the Buddha.
Sorry.
no
And this is one
of another example
about a stupa of the [KHMER]
or the Jayananda in Sanskrit,
was the minister of the
king in 18th century.
So he built a stupa
dedicated to his wife
and his two sons who
died at the same time,
but we don't know why
they died, or what
is the cause of these deaths.
But [KHMER] was very
famous, because he also
writes the poem on the wall of
Angkor Wat to admire the god,
to admire the architect,
to admire the King who
restored these temples again,
and after the collapse Angkor
Wat.
And he dedicated all the merit
that he did to the family,
especially to his
wife and his son.
So and until now, every
year, Cambodian people
always has the religion,
religious ceremony.
They always go to the stupa.
They make this
religious ceremony
to pray homage for the
[KHMER], for the minister.
And another testimony
about the changing
of Angkor Wat from the
Hindus to Buddhist shrine
is the wall, the pillar.
And on the pillar, you
will see the inscription.
This inscription written in
the 16th century, 17th century,
and 18th century that
talk about dedication,
or talk about the
King, who went there,
and he started to
restore the temple.
And after that, the King
ordered to the minister
to come here and
order to other people,
the local people
who live in the city
to pay homage to the temple.
So which means that
Angkor Wat's very famous,
during the post-Angkor Period,
especially in 16th century.
And this is one of the examples
of the inscription written
onto the wall on the
pillar of the temple.
So why Khmer people still
respect this temple?
Because this temple built 400
years ago, from 12th century.
And the people in 16th
century went there in respect
to the temple.
So because Khmer never
separate what is the Hinduism,
what is the Buddhism, and
what is the local belief.
When we got India's culture,
when we China's culture,
we already combined
with the local belief.
So we in sixth century,
seventh century,
we start to make it
in with Khmerization,
which means that we convert
everything into Khmer.
So because of this, Khmer
can be a strong society,
a strong culture
and civilization
from ninth century to 15th
century for 600 years.
And this is one of example.
And this statue's of Buddha,
as you can see still here,
and the statue of Buddha
was built in 16th century.
And we put a lot of that
as a Buddha, of course.
But right now, some statues
was keeping in the Conversation
Center of Angkor, because
that time there was the war
and we're afraid that somebody
will steal the statues,
and sell them to the art
market, or something like that.
So every year, and every time,
when the Khmer people go there,
including me, we all will pray.
It is not a tourist site, for
Cambodian people, of course,
and also for the Asian
people, this temple
was not a tourist site.
And this is one of examples of
this is my photo that I just
took before I come here.
So this is the Vishnu
god of Angkor Wat.
So why Khmer people still
respect these statues?
Because in the
past, it was Vishnu.
But right now,
it's still Vishnu.
And very strong
belief, because we
believe that the local
ancestor, the spiritual power,
is still inside Angkor Wat,
and especially the King.
Still keep the temple.
And this is the temple of
Angkor Wat that you can see.
This is the top one.
So Angkor Wat has three levels.
So this is the first,
and this is the second,
and this is the top.
So Angkor Wat has
the long causeway,
which means that when
you go from here to here,
to that place to
the top, which means
you go across the
bridge, which means you
go through the heaven, I mean.
So when you go to the heaven,
everything has to be purified.
So for the bad people,
they always respect.
For the good people, they
always go there to get a merit.
So which means that we go to
Angkor Wat Temple to pray,
to pay homage, to ask for the
happiness, for the luckiness,
and for the prosperity.
And this is one of the
examples of the poet
of [KHMER], the minister of
the 18th century, that just
behind the stupa that he
wrote about admire the temple,
and also dedicate all of
the merits of the King
to the nation and to his wife.
So this is a long inscription.
And it's 16th century.
18th century, sorry.
So this is one of the
pictures of the renovation,
of the reconstruction,
of the Angkor Wat temple.
Because this bas-relief is
not carved in 12th century,
but this bas-relief carving
was carved in 16th century.
So which means that
in 12th century,
they keep one is the
Northeast side of Angkor
Wat-- the wall of the Northeast
side of Angkor Wat-- empty
And we don't know why the
king or Khmer ancestors
during 12th century
keep that place.
But we have to believe
that the Northeast is
the corner of the death.
The Northeast is the
direction of the God, Shiva.
So in order to pay respect
to the God, they left it.
But we could not explain
very clear about why
the Khmer in 12th century
keep that place empty.
So the place that they
keep empty is here.
All of this have the carving.
We have the Mhabharata.
And we have Ramayana.
And this is we have the
historical procession
of the King.
And this is we have "The
Churning of Ocean of Milk."
But these two parts, this
corner, 12th century,
was empty, and was
filled with carving
by the king and the
artist in 16th century.
So when we look through the
art, especially the decoration,
it's not the same.
Because in the past 12th
century, more beautiful,
more than the artist in the
16th century, of course.
Because 16th century Cambodia
was in internal conflicts.
Khmer and King always
fight to each other.
So even the King, he would like
to complete his merit in who
he would like to
renovate the temple
to dedicate it to
Buddha, dedicate
to the Theravada Buddha.
But for the artist,
we still have
the limit for the masterpiece.
So it's not a good masterpiece,
like the bas-relief
in the 12th century.
Sorry, so this is
one of the examples
about a soldier
that originally was
a copy from the 12th century.
But for this one, if
you look to the face,
if you look to the
decoration, if you
look to what they show
you in the characteristics
of the soldier, it's not
good, for the art, I mean.
But because Khmer
has a belief, so we
have to complete this merit
to dedicate it to God.
So this is the bas-relief,
the Northeast bas-relief
that the Khmer king in 16th
century order to the artist
to make it.
For the important
thing, we had also
some influence from
Chinese in 16th century,
especially to Chinese art.
For example, this image.
This is [INAUDIBLE].
This image was not in Khmer
art, but with the Chinese art.
And in order to show
it to the audience,
show it to the local people,
this image was very important.
They put the color
on the bas-relief.
Red color, and sometimes
colored by the gold leaf.
So in the past.
but right now, the
gold leaf disappear,
but we still have a lot of red
color on the wall of Angkor Wat
Temple.
This is Vishnu, the
man god of Angkor Wat
that they move in 15th
century and 16th century
from the top to the bottom.
But until now, the local
people still respect.
So we never abandon
Angkor Wat, even
the King's changed the capital
from Angkor to the Phnom Penh
City in 15th century.
But we still have the
local people there.
But who keep this?
And who restored
this kind of culture?
I will show you, because we
have a lot of these statues
of Buddha along the gallery.
All the gallery of
Angkor Wat were filled
by the statues of Buddha.
This is the picture of the
painting of Louis Delaporte.
He's a French researcher,
a French explorer,
in the latter of 19th century.
And he came to Cambodia, and he
draw about Angkor Wat Temple,
imagination, in the past, when
Angkor Wat was just beginning.
This is one of
the picture that I
would like to show you during
the French colonial period.
Angkor Wat was the sacred
place for the Cambodian people,
but Angkor Wat was the tourist
place for the French people,
and for the European people.
So they always make the poster,
exhibition, and promotion
for the tourists to get the
tourists to come to Angkor Wat.
So this is in the eye
of the Western people
during the 19th century
and 20th century.
And this is a picture of the
early late of 19th century.
So which means that when we
talk about Angkor, all of this,
we call Angkor Park.
It's very big, and was listed
into the World Heritage
List in 1992.
Yes.
And after that, the
number of the tourists
increased from 200,000
people in 1993,
and right now, 4.5
million people.
So it's just only 20--
yes, just only 20-years
that the number of
the tourist increase.
And we expect that this
number will increase again,
because right now,
Cambodia has peace,
and we developed the country.
And because of the tourist,
a lot of hotel in Siem Reap.
Yes, they construct
the new project.
But we also have concerns
about that will destroy
the archaeological site.
Yes, of course.
This is the image of
the coin, 19th century,
before the French come
to control Cambodia.
So which means that Angkor
is the symbol of a nation.
We never forget Angkor.
From 15th, 16th, 17th,
18th, and 19th century,
the king ordered to the
artist and made it a coin.
And right now, Angkor is
still on the national flag
of Cambodia too.
So during the coronation,
1920, the King
went there and the King, they
have a lot religious ceremony
and coronation
cermony at Angkor.
So the king have to go to Angkor
and pray for the happiness
of the country.
This one of the local people
in 1920 that they steal
live near Anchor Wat.
And somewhat of them,
around Angkor Wat.
And also we have the
residence for the monk.
That's why this we call the
pagoda, the city of the pagoda.
This picture took in
the early 20th century,
in the year of 1900 or 1910.
So this Angkor Wat, which means
that the people, especially
the monks, still keep
their place and also
had a lot of religious harmony.
And this picture
was took in 1916.
The local people
always go for the,
this is during the new
year, the new year festival.
That after praying,
they also happiness,
they dance with the
classical music.
And this is Angkor
and the local people.
So right now, it's Angkor.
We have two pagoda here.
[INAUDIBLE] Angkor, the north
pagoda and the south pagoda.
But before the French come,
all the pagoda around Angkor.
A lot of pagoda.
So not just only in Angkor
Wat, but in Angkor Thom.
We have a lot of evidence
about statues of Buddha
that reconstruct during the
16th century, 17th century,
and 18th century.
This is the first picture
of Angkor Wat around 1818.
Once the French come,
they took this photo.
So you can see that this Angkor
Wat was in the bad condition.
It is covered by the jungle.
Nobody cared.
They cared just only the
tower, but because Angkor Wat
was very big.
It's nearly a mile for the
dimension of the temple.
So this is the place
where the monks live
and to protect the religion.
This is, you can see,
early 20th century.
This is the [KHMER].
We call [KHMER] in Khmer.
That's the house for the monk.
So live near Angkor Wat.
And who protect this?
Not the local people.
But the monks protect the
temple and the local people
support the monks.
So this is how we can
keep this culture, how
we can keep this temple.
And sometimes we have
also once the King
go to Angkor Wat temple.
They all would have the
dancers and the musicians.
Because in the past, these
dancers and musicians all
would live inside the temple.
Yes, because it's
the place of God.
You have to play
the music, you have
to dance dedicate to
the God every time.
And this is one of the examples
about the statues of Buddha
that they took from
Angkor Wat temple.
So in the middle,
you can see this
is the statue of the Ganesha,
the god of the knowledge.
But this is the Hindu's God.
But why Khmer people are still
put the Hindu's god and mix
with the Buddha of the Buddhism.
We never separate this.
This is the governor of Siem
Reap in late of 12th century.
Oh sorry, late of 19th century,
the beginning of 20th century.
And this is where
the monks always go.
For the Cambodian
monk, they always
have the religious
ceremony at Angkor Wat.
Every month we have the holy
day and during the holy day
the top level or the top
of Angkor Wat was closed.
We didn't allow the
tourists to get there.
So only the monk who can go
there to make the ceremony.
And this is another temple
at Bayon temple, the Mahayana
temple in 12th century.
But this is in, this photo taken
in this, 21st century, which
means that from 12th century
until now we still respect.
And this is some
picture of the LIDAR
and this is Angkor
Thom, the great city.
We have three kilometers
for each corner.
Now this is the Bayon temple
when completes the building.
This is Preah Khan
temple and I would
like to show you some of
the picture of the temple,
of the Mahayana
Buddhism but convert
into the Theravada Buddhism
from the post-Angkorian period
until now.
This is Preah Khan that
King Jayavarman VII build
for his father in 1191 AD.
Inside the temple,
a lot of [INAUDIBLE]
the Buddhist [INAUDIBLE] here.
But after the reign
of Jayavarman VII,
we have the conflict
of religion.
They destroy all the
images of the Buddha here,
all images of the
[INAUDIBLE], which
means that it's just a
short reign of the king.
Only 20 years.
But some of the temple, the
Buddhist Mahayana temple,
was destroyed.
But not destroy all the temple,
only the statues on the Buddha.
And sometimes they convert
into the linga of Shiva.
This is the statue or the
stupa of Preah Khan temple
inside the central tower.
So this is a statue of
an Apsara of course.
But right now, the
local people believe
that this is the picture
or the image of the Queen
Indradevi, the wife of the King
Jayavarman VII in 12th century.
This is another
queen called Jayadevi
because the King has two wives.
Yes.
So this is some of the
image of Ta Prohm Temple
here from 12th
century, 13th century.
And this temple, right now,
is under the reconstruction
of the Indian group.
They make it.
So because of the abundance of
the temple, a lot of temple,
many temples in Angkor Wat
was covered by the forest.
That is the big problem for
the restoration work right now.
So right now, the
technical group
had to decide will
we keep this tree
or will we have
to cut this tree.
And this is one other
example of the French scholar
or the French
architecture during
the French colonial period.
They would like to keep
this temple for the public.
They clean all the
temple, but they
keep this, because they
would like to show it.
Angkor Wat after that abandoned.
No one take care.
No one cleans.
The Angkor was
covered by the jungle.
As you can see, this is very
famous of Angkor Wat temple,
or Bayon, or Ta Prohm temple.
And this is also in the film
of Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider.
Because of this film, a lot
of people around the world
go to Angkor Wat temple.
So this is one of the promotion
of my culture heritage.
Because invasion by
the jungle, but if we
keep this, the nature.
But if we clean this, it's
also to respect the religion.
This is what the
technical have to do.
We have to discuss, negotiate
amongst the technical team.
It is very clear that inside
the temple in Cambodia,
both Hindus strain and
Buddhist Mahayana strain.
In order to convert into
the Theravada Buddhism,
they just put the statues of
Buddha inside, that's all.
So everything really combine
together-- Hindu's belief,
Mahayana Buddhism belief,
local belief, and the Theravada
Buddhism belief.
This is some of the
work of the restoration
work of the Buddhist
shrine inside Angkor area.
This is the problem
that they have
to decide how to cut the tree.
They cannot keep this because
when the tree collapse,
the wall of the temple
will fall down too.
So this is the work
of the restoration
before and after the
restoration here.
So this is how the temple
invade by the jungle during post
Angkor period until now.
They still keep
this and they still
discuss about this problem.
But I think that they
could not keep this.
They will cut this
three out here.
It's the [INAUDIBLE]
of Ta Prohm.
This is after restoration.
So this is one of
the testimonies
about the destruction
of the Shaivite reaction
after the death of the
King Jayavarman VII,
because he was the
Buddhism Mahayanist king.
But after his death, we
had the Shaivite reaction.
Many of the Buddha
statues was destroyed.
We don't know why
because maybe someone had
him the reaction from the King
that has respect Hinduism.
But he didn't
destroy the temple,
just the Buddha's image.
And right now a lot of
tourists come and Angkor Wat
still in Khmer belief
a religious place
or the sacred place,
not the tourist place.
So this is what I would like
to share with you about Angkor
from Hindus to Buddhist strain
because just only one hour
cannot talk for more detail,
but I would like to give some
examples about that.
Thank you so much
for your attention.
[APPLAUSE]
Are you willing to
answer some questions?
Yes.
Anyone would have any
questions for Dr. Chen?
I'm interested in the
location of Angkor Wat.
What was the strategic advantage
in the 9th century politically,
physically, whatever, and
then why in the 12th or 13th
did it move to Phnom Penh.
Concerning about this.
Because after the collapse of
Angkor in the 15th century,
we have a lot of
attack from the Siam.
Yes, the Siam, they're nasty.
They grew up very fast.
So they move from the north
from the Sukhothai to Ayutthaya.
So Ayutthaya is very close to
Angkor, just 300 kilometers
from Angkor.
So if they fight with Angkor
because the King of Angkor
was weak.
We didn't have
possibility to fight back.
So the king had to move out.
And one of the reasons of this
collapse because the climate
changed too.
Because of the new research
from international team,
from the 16th century, oh
no, sorry, from 13th century
to 14th century, we had the
drought in Southeast Asia,
not in Cambodia.
So we make analysis about
the tree on the tree.
So they cut the
tree and they count.
So because of this all
irrigation system in Angkor
was broken.
So because of Angkor
can be developed
because of the Greek
culture, we need the water.
When you don't have the
water, you have nothing
to support the soil.
So everything will
collapse automatically.
So this is one of the
reasons that the king
had to move the city
from the drought place,
from the empty place
to the water place.
You see in India, you
have this reverse trend
where the Buddha becomes sort of
appropriated into Hindu culture
and looked at as one of the
10 [? avatares ?] of Vishnu.
And around this--
and you see this
prominently happening
in the 12th century
with the [INAUDIBLE] and
[INAUDIBLE] and so on-- you
see developed out of that a
very nuanced theology to try
to explain how Buddha fits
within this notion of avatar.
And I'm wondering if there was
any similar theological move,
if you're going to
say, we're not going
to destroy the Vishnu icon.
We're going to
downgrade a little,
but move it over to the side.
But do we have any record
of a theological process
of trying to reconcile the
role of Vishnu as being somehow
not as important,
but still present
in the context of first,
as you were saying,
the Mahayana Buddhist tradition.
Considering about this,
because we had inscription
in 16th century and 17th century
who talk about these movement,
the statues from the top
and they put in the bottom.
And the king ordered
to the artist
and to [INAUDIBLE] and
we have the recording
from inscription in Angkor.
So for the point of view
of the Khmer people,
especially in the past,
because post-Angkor period
was the down period.
Khmer cannot build the
big temple like before,
which mean that no need
to destroy the big one.
We just keep it and
restore it and we just
place the statues
of Buddha instead
of the statues of Vishnu
or the statues of Shiva.
So that's all.
And sometimes we can keep
all those statues together.
So this is ideologies and
the concept of the Khmer
and the tolerance the Buddhism
Theravada is like that.
But this theory and this idea
came from the King Jayavarman
VII, because in the late of
12th century, the beginning
of 13th century,
Jayavarman VII start
to build a country with the
Buddhism Mahayanist concept.
And he also sent
his son to Sri Lanka
to learn about the
Theravada Buddhism, which
mean that after his death, his
son came back from Sri Lanka,
and he start to spread
in the 13th century
the Theravada Buddhism, which
mean that in order to change
the country from the Hinduism
to Theravada Buddhism
need time, at least 200 years.
So why 200 years?
Because Angkor collapse,
the civilization,
the culture was weak.
We had the attack
from the other.
So maybe a lot of people
during the Angkor period,
a lot of people died by the
construction of the template
too.
No one know.
Even we don't have any
records about the death
of the local people about the
laborers who worked there.
And for example, this temple
at least 200,000 people
work for four years
to build this temple.
So this is because
of the collapse
of the power of the king.
So that's why Khmer cannot
destroy, but we keep that.
We just change.
We just put the
statues of Buddha.
That's all.
And when we build the pagoda,
we build with the small one
by the wooden construction.
Yes.
Yes please?
What I have found to be
frustrating about coming
to understand Cambodian
art and architecture
is the lack of good resources.
And it's just a struggle
to try to piece together
what the original purposing
was, what it looked like.
And I think that that certainly
has to do with your question.
Mine is about the
diagram that you
showed of the plan
of the temple,
and the outskirts of the
temple, and the reconstruction
of the possible
housing and sub-temples
that may have been there, and
this vast population that we
believe was living there.
Can you tell us if
that was actually
reconstructed that we saw,
the image that you showed,
based on new archaeological
digs that have been done
and specific evidence that
has been found to demonstrate
that that was there?
Because it's a real
curiosity of mine
that I haven't been able to
get more information about.
OK, concerning about this.
I would like to,
at the moment, I
forgot to answer about
the symbol of Vishnu
after the post-Angkor period.
Because Khmer
people and until now
we still respect all the God--
Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Buddha,
and even the
[? Avalokitesvara ?]
in the Buddhism Mahayana.
So even in Phnom Penh
right now, we always
put the statues of those
gods in the country.
Concerning about
how to reconstruct,
we had the evidence about the
reconstruction of the temple
during the post-Angkor
period and especially
for 16th century and 17th
century that the Khmer
people during that time move
the column from the bottom
and to reconstruct as the wall
or to put as the door, the door
frame on the top of the temple.
And based on
archeology [INAUDIBLE]
that, as I told you at the
moment, we still discover.
We still make more recently
on that because we cannot
determine that those places were
evident from the 12th century
and that place was evident
from the 16th century or 17th
century.
But we are sure that
from 12th century
until the 18th century,
the people, especially
the local people, still there.
And the Khmer king, in 16th
century and the 17th century,
they convert the temple
over there as the castle.
And we found a lot of evidence,
archaeological evidence,
that that is the fortress.
Very protected.
And it's like the new
city on the old city site.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Anyone else?
In that case, we'll take
this opportunity first of all
to remind you of a
future lecture that's
going to be becoming Thursday
here by Dr. Liv Nilsson
Stutz from Emory University
about thanatology
and our approach to the
archeology of burial.
And on that note,
before I invite you
all for a drink at the reception
out here to, if you want to,
continue some discussion
with Dr. Chanratana.
I would like to ask you to join
me in thanking him once more.
[APPLAUSE]
