Angkor Wat

Overview

Angkor Wat is a temple complex near the city of Siem Reap in Cambodia, part of the Angkor Archaeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu and later became a Buddhist temple. Angkor Wat is an active place of Buddhist worship, with resident monks and regular ceremonies, and it is one of the largest religious monuments in the world.

Present

Angkor Wat is managed by the APSARA National Authority, the Cambodian government body responsible for the protection of the Angkor Archaeological Park. The temple is an active center of Buddhist worship: monks live in pagodas within the complex, shrines with Buddha images receive daily offerings, and Buddhists from Cambodia and abroad come to pray and to hold ceremonies. Conservation work is ongoing, with international teams working alongside the APSARA National Authority on the study, restoration, and stabilization of the temple's structures. Angkor Wat is a national symbol of Cambodia and appears on the country's flag.

Religious Significance

Hinduism (from the 12th century CE) Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, one of the principal gods of Hinduism, whom Hindus revere as the preserver of the universe. Its design expresses Hindu cosmology: the five central towers represent the peaks of Mount Meru, the mountain at the center of the universe in Hindu belief, the enclosing walls the mountain ranges around it, and the moat the cosmic ocean.

Buddhism (from the 13th century CE) From the 13th century onward, as Theravada Buddhism, the branch of Buddhism practiced in Cambodia and much of Southeast Asia, spread through the Khmer Empire, Angkor Wat was gradually adapted for Buddhist worship. Buddha images were installed throughout the temple, and the central sanctuary was converted into a Buddhist shrine. The temple has been in continuous Buddhist use ever since, which contributed to its preservation while other temples of Angkor fell into ruin. Cambodian Buddhists regard Angkor Wat as a place of pilgrimage and merit-making, and the Mount Meru symbolism of its design carries over into Buddhist understanding, since Buddhist cosmology also places Mount Meru at the center of the universe.

History & Structure

Angkor Wat was built between about 1113 and 1150 CE under king Suryavarman II as the state temple of the Khmer Empire in its capital at Angkor, and it is generally considered to have been intended also as his mausoleum. After the Khmer capital moved away from Angkor in the 15th century, Buddhist monks continued to maintain the temple, and it was never abandoned. Restoration began under French archaeologists in the early 20th century and has continued since the 1990s under international cooperation. The complex is surrounded by a moat about 190 meters wide and covers, with its moat, about 160 hectares. A long sandstone causeway crosses the moat from the west, the direction the temple faces, unusually among Khmer temples, which mostly face east. Within the outer wall, three rectangular galleries rise one above another toward five towers arranged in a quincunx, one at each corner and one at the center; the central tower rises about 65 meters above the ground. The temple is built of sandstone over a laterite core. Angkor was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

Additional Resources

• Official website: Angkor Wat, APSARA National Authority
• Related: Angkor Wat (Smarthistory)
• UNESCO: Angkor
• Book: Ancient Angkor by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques (2003)