HurricaneMaine

Angkor Wat is actually a temple complex located in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is the largest religious monument in the world and one of the seven wonders. The temple was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. It was later converted into a Buddhist temple in the 13th century.

Angkor Wat is a vast complex of buildings and monuments, covering an area of over 400 acres. The temple itself is built on a rectangular plan, with a moat and an outer wall surrounding the central complex. The tallest of the towers inside is 65 meters high.

Angkor Wat is a masterpiece of Khmer architecture. Ancient volcanoes left large amounts of volcanic stone which are used as the base of the buildings. The tops are made of sandstone which allows them to be carved. The temple is decorated with intricate carvings and sculptures, depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. The temple is also known for its intricate system of canals and reservoirs, which once provided water for the temple and its inhabitants.

I have so many pictures but shared just the best ones. It is an impressive place to visit. Also, it was amazing to see some of the reconstruction and cleaning of the stones. From the Angkor Temple we continued along the complex to Bayon temple.

The Bayon is a richly decorated Khmer temple related to Buddhism at Angkor. It was built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the King Jayavarman VII. It is at the centre of the king’s capital, Angkor Thom.

The Bayon is best known for its 54 towers, each of which has at the top a four-faced head. The faces are believed to represent Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. (Bodhisattva are awaiting their reincarnation as Buddha). The faces are all slightly different, and they are said to represent the different aspects of Avalokiteśvara’s personality.

The Bayon temple is also decorated with intricate carvings called bas-reliefs, which depict scenes from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The bas-reliefs are some of the most famous examples of Khmer art. I haven’t seen other art, but I’ll take their opinion. They are amazing and depict scenes of daily life, good vs. evil stories, etc.

We then traveled to another temple in the complex. Ta Prohm was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and was originally called Rajavihara. It is one of the most popular temples at Angkor, partly because it was featured in the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The guide said that Angkor Wat was largely unknown by the world until then.

Ta Prohm is known for its intricate stone carvings, which are often hidden by the roots of the trees that have grown around the temple. The temple is also home to a variety of wildlife, including monkeys, snakes, and birds.

Baksei Chamkrong is a small Hindu temple located in the Angkor complex. We passed by it walking up the hill where we were to watch the sunset. It is dedicated to Shiva and used to hold a golden image of him.

The temple is named after a mythical bird that is said to have protected the city of Angkor from attack. The bird is said to have spread its wings over the city, and to have sheltered the people from harm.

We waited for the sunset and literally melted wherever we rested. It had been nearly 40 C which is 100 F with high humidity. I was grateful for the rest considering I needed to rest my knee from time to time. The slow ascent made it easier to get to the top of the hill.

The sunset was okay as there were clouds in the horizon.

Our tour guide Sarak shared some other pictures he had taken during sunrises and sunsets.

The Killing Fields are a series of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than one million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979. The mass killings were part of a broad state-sponsored genocide.

The Khmer Rouge was a communist regime led by Pol Pot that ruled Cambodia during those years. The regime was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 million people (some from starvation), or about a quarter of the Cambodian population. The Khmer Rouge was known for its brutality and its radical policies, which included the forced relocation of the entire population of Cambodia to the countryside.

Once in the countryside, they were forced to be farmers. They eliminated all forms of religion and destroyed the country’s infrastructure. Workers in the country were then asked if they had been a professional. They believed they were going back to their jobs. Instead they were interrogated as potential spies and foreign agents and imprisoned and brutalized. Many “confessed” and were asked for family and friends names. There was more than one prison but the one I toured was S21. It is the site of a high school turned into a prison.

The bottom floor of that building held important prisoners who could give information. They were shackled to beds.

If one member of the family was suspected of being a traitor, the whole family was tortured and sent to the killing fields. His regime kept meticulous records and pictures of everyone interrogated and killed.

If they survived starvation, torture, and hard labor, they were trucked to the killing fields. They were not imprisoned there, but one by one taken off of the trucks and killed.

The most well-known Killing Field is Choeung Ek, located just 10 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh. Choeung Ek was used as an execution site for the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. It is estimated that over 17,000 people were killed at Choeung Ek, including men, women, children, and the elderly. A farmer found the site days after the fall of the regime and pits had not even been covered at the time the regime fled.

The execution tree at Choeung Ek was a site where the Khmer Rouge executed children. The tree was a large Chankiri tree, and the Khmer Rouge would use it to bash the heads of children against the trunk of the tree. The children were often killed in front of their parents, and the parents were forced to watch as their children were killed. The execution tree was a symbol of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge, and it is a reminder of the horrors that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the people of Cambodia.

Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge. The Buddhist stupa contains the remains of over 8,000 victims.

Visiting the Killing Fields was a sobering experience. It is a reminder of the horrors of genocide and the importance of remembering the victims. It is also a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, as evidenced by the fact that Cambodia has emerged from this dark period and is now a thriving democracy. Three survivors were at the genocide museum the day I went.

Finally, it is important to remember that the Killing Fields are just one part of Cambodia’s history. The country has come a long way since the Khmer Rouge, and there is much to see and do in Cambodia today.

Here are a few things those of us on the tour talked about (we had people from S. Africa, Australia, and many European countries). The Khmer Rouge regime and people denying past slavery in the west are similar in a number of ways. Both groups have sought to erase or deny a dark chapter in their history. Both groups have used violence and intimidation to silence dissent. And both groups have been met with resistance from those who seek to remember and learn from the past.

One of the Khmer Rouge’s most heinous crimes was its attempt to erase the country’s history. The regime destroyed libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions. It also killed or imprisoned intellectuals, artists, and anyone else who it perceived as a threat to its power. The Khmer Rouge sought to create a new society, one that was free from the taint of the past.

People who deny past slavery in the west are also seeking to erase a dark chapter in history. These people often claim that slavery was not as bad as it is often portrayed, or that it was a necessary evil. They may also argue that the victims of slavery were not really slaves, or that they were somehow complicit in their own enslavement.

Like the Khmer Rouge, people who deny past slavery are often motivated by a desire to create a new society, one that is free from the taint of the past. They may also be motivated by a desire to protect their own privilege. By denying the existence of slavery, they can avoid having to confront the uncomfortable truth about their own history.

By erasing the truth, they make it easier to repeat the same mistakes in the future. It is important to remember and learn from the past, so that we can prevent such atrocities from happening again.

It is also important to remember that the victims of the Khmer Rouge and of slavery are real people. They deserve to be remembered and honored. We should not let the perpetrators of these crimes get away with erasing their victims from history.

I am also aware that those of us on the tour are privileged and our governments have done horrible things. But we are also a portion of our countries who learn to understand and make a difference rather than ignore it.