LECTURE 16: BUDDHIST AND HINDU MONUMENTS: ANGKOR WATT

Question 1

Khmer Empire

Answer 1

802 - 1431 CE

Question 2

Angkor Wat

Answer 2

1. City Temple
2. 1115 - 1150 CE
3. Built by King Suryavarman II, ‘protector of the sun’
4. Built to display his power, welcome people and show his devotion
5. Multivalent Site (has both hinduism and buddhism elements
6. full scale model of a spiritual landscape

Question 3

Extreme Landscape & Risk Urbanism

Answer 3

Not a natural place for rice growing.

Forest had to be cleared and soil was sandy

it was an agro-engineering colonization of the landscape

Question 4

Sacred Landscape

Answer 4

Mountain (Phnom Kulen)

River [Siem Reap]

Ocean [Sea of Indra]

Question 5

Aquatic Shiva temple

Answer 5

1. Located at the top of Phnom Kullen
2. shows divinity of water

Question 6

Baray

Answer 6

Man made lake

filled itself during flood

were small 1st then gradually became bigger throguht the year

got from Sri Lankans

Question 7

Linga

Answer 7

Abstract representation of shiva

Question 8

Angkor Thom

Answer 8

Largest religious complex in the world

5 roads that lead to it similar in dimensions and imagery

shape of a mandala

Question 9

Angkor Thom entrance

Answer 9

1. Larger than life sized statues of deities
2. 54 deities on right and 54 demons on right on each side, 108 total
3. depicted in crouched position
4. pulling on nagas
5. they portray the story of churning of the ocean of milk

Question 10

Story of churning of the ocean of milk

Answer 10

gods and demons working together to release the elxir of life “amrita” using the mountain has a pivot and the serpent (naga) as a chain rope

Question 11

Mandala

Answer 11

Sacred nested squares with a circle in the center and has 4 gates

divided into 5 spaces ( N S E W, CENTER)

represents a smaller part of the universe

Question 12

Apsara

Answer 12

Celestial dancers

Question 13

Bayon temple

Answer 13

towers look like faces

could be avatars (representation of dieties) or resemble the king

Question 14

The model as real

Answer 14

It is a model of a universe (not just buildings in a landscape)

architecture based on complex application of geometry, site planning and constructed sacred landscape.

The temple or the city is not only IN a sacred landscape but is a perfect copy of the symbolic landscape of mountain and ocean.

Question 15

Combination of principles seen in temples

Answer 15

1. sacred combination of mandala/mountain/ocean of shiva
2. Intensified model of sacred landscape in which they’re present
3. Home of the gods
4. the supremacy of the king who commisioned it
5. economy & purpose of khmer people