The Trees of Ta Prohm

[khiemtran]

And, finally, a glimpse at some of the temples left in a "natural" state, as exemplified by Ta Prohm.



This temple (now more famous for being featured in "Tomb Raider") was built by Jayavarman VII around the same time as Bayon, so it's at least eight centuries old. The trees would be three hundred years old.



The temple looks as though it has been rediscovered, but in fact a lot of effort has gone into its restoration. The goal here was not to restore it completely, but to preserve it in its jungle state. There's a constant battle to keep it repaired as the walls crumble and the trees encroach.



A glimpse of some of the restoration work. Restoration here typically involves taking a structure apart brick by brick, carefully measuring and labelling everything, and then reassembling it along with new material.



Sometimes the newest additions stick out at first, but they'll quickly blend in with the original sandstone.



Here you can see where a meditating Buddha (in the lotus position with flat legs) has been changed into a Hindu ascetic (with crossed legs).



All around the standing temples are piles of puzzle pieces. At a different site, an entire citadel had been disassembled and laid out when the great Cambodian tragedy intervened. The Khmer Rouge destroyed all the paperwork and killed most of the workers, leaving just a vast pile of stones in the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle. It took years just to de-mine the area, then to work out how to fit everything together again.



That's it for this trip. There are so many more stories to tell, about the temples and the ancient city, the amazing irrigation works that tamed the cycles of the wet and dry seasons, and even of our remarkable guide, Mr Neak, but it could take a lifetime just to document it all. If you ever get the chance to visit Angkor, I strongly recommend it.

If you aren't thoroughly sick of temples by now, the remaining photos are on flickr.

Comments

[soon_lee]

Your lovely photos bring back memories. Thanks for sharing.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Those trees amongst the ruins are astonishing. It's always a balancing act with ancient monuments as to how much to restore. Too little, and you lose a valuable building or monument. Too much and it loses all its character and atmosphere.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's also good that they've decided to find different balances with different sites - some they are trying to give an impression of how they would have looked originally, others they are just doing enough to keep them from crumbling further.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Interesting, as always.

All around the standing temples are piles of puzzle pieces. At a different site, an entire citadel had been disassembled and laid out when the great Cambodian tragedy intervened. The Khmer Rouge destroyed all the paperwork and killed most of the workers, leaving just a vast pile of stones in the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle. It took years just to work out de-mine the area, then to work out how to fit everything together again.

Sounds easier than the 27,000-piece archaeological jigsaw I saw solved a few years ago.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I guess it is encouraging that human ingenuity can still find a way to put things back together. Apparently, with the temple site, they digitised everything and then used computer models to work out how everything fit back together.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Keeping something in a state of semi-wildness is the hardest. You're trying to hold it just at the edge of decay.

The irrigation works sound interesting.

And the Khmer Rouge, man. The Khmer Rouge.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Everytime you meet someone in Cambodia there's always the mental calculation of how old they were in "Year Zero". Surprisingly, a lot of Malaysians, while being vaguely aware of Pol Pot or the killing fields, seem to be surprised to find out that it happened in Cambodia.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Why do you suppose that is? Is it just that it's a generation ago now? I wonder if it looms larger in Americans' consciousness out of a sense of responsibility.... I mean, Malaysia didn't destabilize Cambodia and bomb it....

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure actually...

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Those trees embracing and entwining the temple are like the ultimate fairy tale image to me, "fairy tale" not meaning "Euro-fare fairy" obviously, just a prime ticket to a Land of Magic and Wonder...

Thanks so much for sharing.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It must have amazing to see these temples in their completely wild state, although from some angles, it's easy to imagine that you had just stumbled across them.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

although from some angles, it's easy to imagine that you had just stumbled across them.

Yes. There must be a "perfect" state of decay at which to discover such a place; too far gone, and you'd have to reconstruct to reveal just what you'd found.