Rajeev's World: Brah Bisnulok - The Realm Of The Divine... Part I

After enjoying a view of the magnificent day-break, against the backdrop of the world's biggest Hindu temple, we proceeded into the realm of the divine, into the Brah Bisnulok or the Angkor Wat as it is more popularly known today...

The Angkor Wat temple complex is the largest religious monument in the world, covering 162.6 hectares. Angkor Wat was originally constructed by King Suryavarman the Second of the Khmer Empire sometime between 1100 and 1150 as a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

The construction of the temple marked a departure from the Shaiva tradition of previous Khmer kings. It is today the best-preserved temple at the site, and is an enduring symbol of Khmer architecture, coming to be known as a symbol of Cambodia - it appears on its national flag.

The architecture of the Angkor Wat combines two basic plans - the central temple and the later galleried temple around it. The central temple was designed to represent the mythical Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology.

The whole complex is enclosed within a moat and an outer wall which is 3.6 kilometres long. The galleries within the temple are adorned with massive bas-reliefs, depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.

A scene from the Ramayana...

A depiction of Apsaras...

This temple complex has withstood over a thousand years - a thousand years over which its identity was changed from a Hindu temple to a Buddhist temple, looting and desecration by the colonial powers that came to rule this land and then later the Khmer Rouge...

But the sense of mystery surrounding the temple overwhelms the despair it has seen over the centuries and it is that sense of mystery, that aura that draws people like me and Neeti to this amazing site, a site that makes us proud of our ancestors, of our heritage and mythology which had spread far and wide over South East Asia, at a time when much of the Western world was in a sense quite barbaric...