33. Angkor - As You've Never Seen it Before (Part I)

The Angkor Archeological Park (henceforth referred to as Angkor) is a massive, 400-square mile complex of Hindu-Buddhist buildings, forests and wetlands created by the ancient Khmer people between the 9th and 15th centuries. You'll note that I did not use the more familiar term "Angkor Wat". That well-known temple constitutes just a tiny - albeit magnificent - part of the kingdom of ruins. It would be like referring to the entire city of Agra as the Taj Mahal.

There is no doubt that Angkor is one of the world's most popular archeological sites. It receives over two-million visitors annually, and that number is growing by 20 percent a year. It will accelerate even faster in coming years as China's bourgeoning middle-class grows in size and wealth, and enjoys its freedom to travel. Another boost will no doubt be provided by Hollywood, which has discovered that Angkor makes a powerful backdrop for its blockbusters like Laura Croft: Tomb Raider.

Yet to judge by the small range of photos published in media and showcased by photographers (over and over again) you'd think that Angkor was a relatively small place with a few beautifully carved buildings, some of them with huge Buddha-like heads, others a with long, meandering, gnarled roots covering and crushing their structures.

Whether or not you've been to Angkor, you've no doubt seen this photo or similar ones of the great Hindu temple of Angkor Wat - with its five soaring towers shaped liked lotus buds, and fronted by reflecting pools - the largest religious monument in the world:

It is, in fact, the most recognized face of Cambodia and sits prominently on the country's flag. Contrary to popular myth, Angkor Wat has been in continual use since its construction in the 12th century, and has never been "lost to the jungle".

You've also more than likely seen the many heads at Angkor Thom, each showcasing the hybridized face of the Buddha and Khmer King Jayavarman VII.

And the silk cotton tree roots that are either holding together or spreading apart (archeologists are still arguing this one out) this building at Ta Phrom:

Or the even much larger tree roots at Preah Khan:

You may even have seen some of the beautiful carvings Devatas (minor deities) and Asparas (celestial nymphs) like this one:

That's pretty much what everyone sees of Angkor, either in person or by photo. But now I'd like to show you some images of Angkor that I guarantee you've never seen. Like the mist-shrouded palms you'll view as you approach Angkor Wat at seven in the morning - the only time you should be arriving unless you want your Angkor moments dotted with busloads of Chinese tourists.

As much as Angkor is about stone, it's also about water. Without an enormous system of canals, dykes and reservoirs, the heart of the Khmer empire would not have lasted 60 years, much less six centuries. Yet I'm sure you've never seen images of the isolation and desolation in which some of the water is set: 

And yet, what better location than an empty and eerie swamp for those treasured wedding photos. Angkor is the Central Park of Cambodia:

In this case, the bride was very calm and cooperative - it was the "fluffer" who was throwing hissy fits about her hair and dress, the lighting and the photo angles.

Angkor is also about red sandstone columns, carvings and windows:

and the light that passes through them to dance its way onto shadowed walls:

Angkor is about multi-terraced pyramids crowned by multiple towers like at East Mebon, which was built in the 950s and pre-dates Angkor Wat by some 200 years:

Each tower houses a vault protected by a stone lion and a rather strong-looking door:






























Today's guardians of Angkor like to promote the site as a complex of peaceful temples. But as you might expect from a place with an entryway called "The Gate of Death" Angkor was as much about war as it was about peace - perhaps more so. The bas reliefs on the walls of Angkor provide a vivid illustration. Below, soldiers accompanied by war elephants and war horses head out to battle:

And here they are coming back with prisoners:

But as the old saying goes, he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. The great Khmer empire that was born in Angkor in 802, went to its death in 1431 in a final siege by Thai invaders.

32. Zaha Hadid's Cambodia Genocide Museum: A Preview



(Image via Sleuk Rith Institute)

It's now been 36 years since the genocidal Khmer Rouge were toppled off their perch in Phnom Penh. It will be at least 40 before the country gets its memorial museum. That's not a particularly long time. It took 52 years for a memorial to the Armenian genocide to be built in the country's capital, Yerevan:



Armenian Genocide Memorial
(Photo via KatieAune.com) 

Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin wasn't finished until 54 years after the WWII holocaust:

From the air, Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum looks like a fractured Star of David.

(Photo via Studio Daniel Libeskind)

Genocide has a way of shocking societies into numbness and immobility. It can take decades to recover.

The architect chosen for the Cambodian project is the incomparable, Pritzker Prize winner Dame Zaha Hadid. That choice has upset a number of people - mostly Cambodian architects - who feel that the prestigious project should have gone to one of their own. After all, Libeskind is Jewish and was born in Poland, one of the main theatres in which the holocaust played out. His parents were holocaust survivors. By contrast, Hadid was born in Baghdad and is based in London.

The counter argument is that there aren't any Cambodians who can design at Hadid's level. As counter arguments go, it's a pretty darn good one. There aren't many architects in the world who are at Hadid's level. I mean, who even thinks about designing a subway station that looks like this one:

Metro Station at King Abdullah Financial District, Riyadh Saudi Arabia (under construction)

(Image via Zaha Hadid Architects)

The name of the memorial will be the Sleuk Rith (Power of the Leaves) Institute. Cambodian religious leaders and scholars have historically used dried leaves to document history, disseminate knowledge and preserve culture during period's of harsh rule and grave peril. The Institute is the brainchild of Youk Chhang, the Executive Director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, and a survivor of the killing fields himself.

Like his antecedents, but using more up-to-date technology, Chhang has documented the three years, eight months and 20 days of barbarity that claimed nearly two million Cambodian lives. His "dried leaves" include 600,000 pages of documents, maps of 20,000 mass graves and 4,000 transcribed interviews with former Khmer Rouge soldiers. 

One of Chhang's key goals is to transform the whole notion of a memorial. Like traditional memorials, the Sleuk Rith will document and institutionalize the horrors of the past. But Chhang also wants to focus on future reconciliation. "In the context of genocide and mass atrocity" he has said, "we were keen to create a forward-looking institution that deviates from the distress-invoking quasi-industrial harshness of most existing genocide memorial models....in light of Cambodia's rich cultural and religious traditions, we must move in a different and more positively oriented direction.

A change in concept demanded an equal transformation in architectural style, and Hadid was more than up to the task. The architect best-known for her long, undulating, free-form structures built of white concrete:

Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku Azeraijan

(Photo via Arcspace)

replaced her signature material with tall, tree-like forms of wood. The overall effect is that of clumps of forest rising to varying heights: 

 (Image via Sleuk Rith Institute)

The irony here is that Cambodia's forests are experiencing their own genocide. The country is the third-most deforested country in the world. The operation of illegal logging (and not all of it is illegal) is being done with the collusion of government and military officials, with all of the wood going to China. Many species are losing their habitats, forced to walk further along their own path to extinction.

The Sleuk Rith building will sit atop raised terraces - testimony to the floods that often spill over onto the sight at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. Visitors will approach on causeways above reflecting catchment pools:

 (Image via Sleuk Rith Institute)

From a distance it will appear to be one building, but the Institute will, in fact, be composed of five buildings, separated at the tapering bottom:

 (Image via Sleuk Rith Institute)

but interwoven through a series of indoor and outdoor spaces that widen and square off as they rise to heights ranging from three to eight storeys:



(Image via Sleuk Rith Institute)

Each building will house a different function: a library with the largest collection of genocide-related materials in Southeast Asia; a graduate school; a research centre; and a media centre and auditorium. The Institute is intended to be a true community resource, both outside and in. It will include a 68,000 sq. metre memorial park with sport fields, urban vegetable garden and fruit orchards, meadows and a forest displaying modern Cambodian sculptures, many of them commemorating the women who helped rebuild the country.

That's an amazingly ambitious vision. The question is will it ever be realized - and realized in a form consistent with Hadid's vision? There are reasons for doubt. Construction of the building has been approved but not all of the needed funds have been raised. Originally, groundbreaking was supposed to take place in 2014 (then in the first half of 2015) with the building finished in 2016. Meanwhile, it's now the second half of 2015 and not an inch of ground has been broken. 

Assuming the funds are raised, will they end up where they're targeted? Cambodia currently ranks 20th on the global list of corrupt countries, and there are plenty of generals, politicians and businessmen with extensive experience in diverting well-intended money into their own pockets. Meanwhile, the sustainably harvested timber with which Hadid has promised the building will be constructed, has yet to be sourced.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle is the character of the Cambodian people themselves. Cambodians have not shown an overwhelming desire to seek punishment and justice for war criminals. Only three members of the Khmer Rouge have ever been convicted of genocide. Cambodians even allowed the Khmer Rouge to hold onto the country's western frontier bordering on Thailand until 1996. In fact, the Khmer Rouge refused to fully relinquish the lands until Pol Pot died - unbloodied and unbowed - in western Cambodia in 1998.

There is yet another irony at play here. Westerners are completely baffled as to why Cambodians remain largely uninterested in pursuing justice against the war criminals who perpetrated genocide. Yet in the late 1970s it was the Cambodians who wondered why the west was so uninterested in stopping the atrocities in the first place.

Good luck Dame Zaha, we wish you all the best in bringing the world another one of your magnificent creations. We hope you don't get bogged down - like so many others have before you - in a quagmire called Cambodia.

31. Art Deco and Post-Modern in Phnom Penh

You won't find any 600-year old temples in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. The place didn't even exist back then. Nor will you find any 300-year-old palaces. The Thais completely torched the town in 1874. And the Khmer Rouge didn't exactly contribute to the cause of urban development when they captured the capital in 1975. Their first act was to drive its entire population out of the city and into the killing fields.

With a history like that, it's perhaps surprising to discover that Phnom Penh has at least a couple of pretty spectacular buildings. The older of the two is the massive, Art Deco, Psar Thmei or central market set in the heart of downtown. It was based on a design by little-known French architect Louis Chauchon and built from 1935-37 on reclaimed land over a former swamp.

The market has a symmetrical layout. It's centred on a yellow dome that is 50-metres high, with four wings radiating outward from the dome, each 50-metres in length. The ochre colour is typical of the shading given to French colonial buildings throughout Indochina.

Psar Thmei is every bit as impressive inside as out. The soaring roof gives an impression of airiness and, indeed, its open windows create a  coolness and airflow that are absent outside.

Inside the wings, row upon row of concrete arches lend both structural support and aesthetic appeal.



The interior has some nice Deco touches. Like the central clock:

And this elongated lamp:

You're probably wondering about the glass structure peering over the top of the central market. Wonder no longer. It's Phnom Penh's other piece of Wowchitecture - the city's version of a post-modern L-Tower. It's not officially called the "L-Tower" although it really does look like an "L".

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This is in marked contrast to Toronto's version, which is officially called the "L-Tower" although in reality it's shaped like the letter "I".

(Via Studio Daniel Libeskind)                                  

But I digress.

Cambodia's building is called the Vattanac Capital after the bank with the same name. It consists of a 39-storey (189-metre) glass tower, slightly arched backwards, with a protruding point in front. A second cube-shaped building sits on the large tower's extended lap. The tower houses offices, luxury retail and a five-star hotel. The smaller structure is called a "lifestyle cube" with cinemas, fitness facilities and medical floors. The project was finished in 2014.

Like the Art Deco market, Vattanac pays a lot of attention to small details. The protrusion on top that looks like the spout on a salt box, is actually a cantilevered sky-bar. The main tower extension that supports the cube, is made of strong but attractive overlapping steel:

The glass in the cube is decorated with traditional Cambodian motifs:

It all looks great by day -- or by night:



(Via ARUP)

The complex was deigned with Feng Shui principles in mind. The architect, Terry Farrells, and the bank say that the tower calls to mind the silhouette of a dragon or serpent deity called a Naga. Here's what a Naga looks like:

I don't know about you, but I don't quite see the resemblance.

Still, maybe that's what good architecture should be: a Rorschach test which we interpret through the lens of our own cultural perspective.

30. Getting Lucky in Chiang Mai

Sometimes you're good, sometimes you're lucky. Sometimes you're both, but I don't have much experience in that area. Sometimes you're neither - a situation I'm more familiar with. But if I have to choose between the two, I'll take lucky every time -- even if it's disguised as bad luck as it was on our recent trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand's tourist magnet in the north.

Most visitors to Chang Mai book themselves into a hotel or guest house inside the old city walls. That's where most of the 300 ancient Buddhist temples are. It's also where you'll find the dozens of travel agencies that will book you on the exact same tours as every other travel agency: glide on a river raft; see a waterfall; ride an overworked elephant; visit a hill-tribe village and pose with a colourful-looking native. And it's where you'll find the most pubs, reggae bars, jazz clubs, pizza parlours and Indian restaurants - all those authentic experiences that brought you to Thailand in the first place.

Still, I can't claim complete innocence in this affair. We did, after all, try to book a room inside the old city ourselves. It was just our misfortune that it was during the Christmas-New Year season and everything was booked up.

Or was it misfortune? We ended up booking in for 10 days a few blocks outside the city's northern wall. On our first day there, we shunned the inner city, following our own path outside the wall. In the process, we discovered three amazing temples.Best of all, since the inner-city residents rarely strayed outside the wall for their temple-gazing, we practically had all three to ourselves.

Wat Montein aka the "dragon temple" was built by Laotian monks. It's not particularly old, but it's hard to miss with its very large outdoor Buddha, multi-tiered roof, and gilded front door:

as well as what may be the most lavishly ornamented exterior outside Bangkok's Royal Palace:

Inside, the Wat was no slouch either, with its beautiful Buddha shrine:

Immediately next door was another temple, Wat Kuan Ka Mah, which - for reasons that might be obvious - we referred to as Wat Horsey:

None of the prayer halls or reception rooms were open, but what we saw from the outside was more than impressive:

As it turned out, we had saved the best for last. Across the moat from Wat Montein and Wat Kuan Kah Ma (i.e. even further away from the old city) was Wat Lokmolee. Unlike the other two temples, Wat Lokmolee was genuinely ancient. So ancient, in fact, that no one knew when it had been built. Its name first appeared in historical documents in 1367.

The Wat was a splendid vision both outside:

and in:

 

with the principal Buddha, wooden columns and decorated ceiling being particularly spectacular:

 

 

The temple grounds were full of shrines to a panoply of gods, many of which originated in Hinduism but were later embraced by Buddhism. Like Brahma:

 

Lord Ganesha:

 

 

The Chinese Goddess, Kuan Yin:

 

 

And, of course, those omnipresent denizens of Buddhist temples, the Nagas or serpent deities, shown here in exquisitely carved detail:

 

 

So the moral of the story is, as it usually is for travellers -- as it often is in life -- don't follow the herd; don't run with the pack. Or as the poet, Emerson once said "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." You might just find something more interesting lies there.

 

FOR A VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON CHIANG MAI, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR OTHER BLOG: http://www.streetsmart319.blogspot.com