Amazing Angkor: A Guide to the Buddhist Temples of Siem Reap

MAY 13, 2018 | VIEWS: 1,841

As the country with the largest majority of Buddhists in the world (97% of Cambodians are active practitioners of Buddhism according to the ‘Global Religious Landscape’ report by the Pew Research Centre), Cambodia is a nation rich with spirituality. Called ‘wat’ in Cambodia, Buddhist temples can be found everywhere and one cannot walk down a street without passing a saffron-robed monk.

Another indication of how deeply spirituality is intertwined with everyday living in Cambodia is that three of the country’s most important annual holidays are big Buddhist festivals:

• ‘Meak Bochea’ or ‘Magha Puja’, commemorating the auspicious occasion of 1,250 Buddhists coming together spontaneously to venerate the Buddha at Veluvana bamboo grove, is celebrated on the day of the full moon every third lunar month;
• ‘Visak Bochea Day’, the Cambodian name for ‘Wesak Day’, celebrates the birth, Enlightenment and parinirvana of the Buddha;
• The 15-day long ‘Pchum Ben’ also known as ‘Ancestors’ Day’ or the ‘Hungry Ghost Festival‘ culminates in a three-day public holiday.

Monks in Cambodia celebrating Meak Bochea, one of the biggest holidays of the year. Held on the full moon of the lunar calendar in March, Buddhists celebrate with a candlelight procession. Image credit: Flickr

Cambodia is where the world’s largest religious structure ever built can be found — Angkor Wat, the greatest legacy of the mighty Khmer Empire. Meaning ‘Temple City’, Angkor Wat was originally constructed as a Hindu temple but gradually transformed into a Buddhist one commencing from the late 12^th century.

A visit to Angkor Wat is an experience of a time in our history when spirituality influenced every facet of society, from living ethics and the arts to the government and building architecture. Early in 2017, Angkor Wat was voted “the world’s most popular landmark” by travel portal TripAdvisor. This is not the first time either; Angkor Wat was also ranked the “#1 sight in the world” in 2015 by the largest travel guide book publisher in the world, Lonely Planet.

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia was named the world’s most popular landmark in 2017 by the popular travel website Tripadvisor

 

VIDEO: The #1 sight in the world, as voted by Lonely Planet

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Amazing Angkor: A Guide to the Buddhist Temples of Siem Reap

bodia is also home to ancient Angkor, one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World”. In its heyday, it was a megacity the size of present-day Los Angeles and was home to hundreds of thousands (and estimated at up to three-quarters of a million people when the Khmer civilisation was at its peak).

A rare inscribed sandstone stele with a figure of the Buddha and finely inscribed on all sides. (Khmer, Baphuon Period, 11th Century) 33½ in. (85 cm.) high. Image credit: Christie’s

Influenced by the Mahayana Buddhism of the great Nalanda University in India — regarded as the world’s oldest university — the Khmer kings established a civilisation with a foundation based on Indian Shaivite and Mahayana Buddhist cosmology that produced progressive life and social sciences, cutting-edge building technology and an empire that stood for 600 years.

The province of Siem Reap is where most of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer temples can be found. The wats of ancient Khmer which make this country so popular with tourists, also make it a top choice destination for Buddhist pilgrims to reconnect with their Buddha-nature and to pay homage to the spiritual awakening which inspired some of the world’s greatest monuments ever built by man.

Siem Reap is also the location of Cambodia’s most sacred mountain. Mount Kulen or ‘Phnom Kulen‘ is a distinguished pilgrimage site for local Hindus and Buddhists containing many historical shrines such as Preah Ang Thom, a 16^th-century Buddhist monastery which houses Cambodia’s largest reclining Buddha statue carved from solid rock. Siem Reap has also been named by TripAdvisor as “The Top Destination in Asia” and placed second in the list of “Traveller’s Choice Top 25 Destinations in the World” for 2017.