Rajeev's World: "Tomb Raiders" At Ta Prohm... Part I

Thursday, September 15, 2016

"Tomb Raiders" At Ta Prohm... Part I

From Angkor Thom, we headed eastwards for about two kilometres to the last stop of the morning, the Ta Prohm temple...

This temple is being restored by India...

Built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII, the Ta Prohm temple was originally called Rajavihara. Unlike most temples in Siem Reap, Ta Prohm is in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors, ostensibly as it was used as a location in the Hollywood blockbuster, theTomb Raider.

Walking through a tree-lined pathway to get to the temple...

Some of the trees here are indeed huge...

Selfie-time...

And we make our entrance into the temple...

The powerlessness of mankind as compared to the incredible strength of Nature is visible here and that is indeed a humbling experience...

The temple exudes a sense of eeriness - the moss covered crumbling buildings with outcrops of trees and plants serve as a grim reminder that there is nothing permanent on Earth, except Nature...

And it is this sense of eeriness that attracts tourists like us to this place...

In its heydays, the temple would have been incredibly beautiful and bustling...

After the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century, Ta Prohm was abandoned and neglected for centuries. A few years back, when the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began, it was decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque."

According to pioneering Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize, Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing [temples] and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it". (Source: Wikipedia)

However, work has been done to stabilize the ruins, to permit access, and to maintain this condition of apparent neglect. By 2013, Archaeological Survey of India had restored most parts of the temple complex some of which have been constructed from scratch. Wooden walkways, platforms and roped railings had been put in place around the site to protect the monument from further "human" damage due to an exceptionally high tourist inflow.