A Family of Temples

Spectacular Kinkaku-ji

Last September, I went on my fifth holiday in Japan for five straight years.  And this time I went on my third visit to Kyoto.  Each visit, I learn more about Japan - about Japanese culture, history, and way of life.  On my previous visits to Kyoto, I went to enjoy the Hanami (cherry blossom) and Momiji (autumn leaves) seasons.  I was so busy viewing the blossoms and leaves that I didn’t get around to visiting some of the more famous sites.  This time round, there was no foliage-related activity planned.   It was time to deepen my understanding and appreciation of the historical and cultural aspects of this ancient Japanese city.

We had a rocky start to our trip.  In fact, it was fraught with uncertainty.  2018 was not a great year for Kyoto.  There was an earthquake in the Kansai region in June and just before we arrived, a major typhoon flooded Kansai International Airport, knocking it out of action.  All flights were cancelled, whilst the flood waters were being drained away and the access road and bridge to the airport were being repaired.  In the meantime, air services were being restored in slow stages.  Every few days, a few more flights were added.  We started checking out alternatives, in case we had to fly in to Nagoya instead. Fortunately, just a few days before our flight was one of the few which were allowed to proceed as planned and we flew in on a half-filled plane into a very empty airport.  Phew!  Unfortunately the typhoon damaged some of the sites we were planning to visit and so visitors were not allowed in some areas (one example below).   I was reminded of my visit to Tokyo last year when my attempt to see a snow-capped Mt Fuji and autumn leaves on the Irohazaka route to Nikko were thwarted by a typhoon just a few days earlier.

At least this year, my key “visit objectives” were not significantly affected by the bad weather. As I said, despite my multiple visits to Kyoto, there were some famous sites I’ve never been to before - such as Ginkaku-ji and Kinkaku-ji, the Silver and Gold Temples.  Kinkaku-ji is the older of the two, built by one of the shoguns, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, as a retirement villa. It was converted to a temple after his death. Ginkaku-ji was built by his grandson, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, also as a retirement home and also converted into a temple.  Like Grandfather, like grandson.  

We tried to get to Kinkaku-ji early, to beat the crowds.  But to no avail - such is the popularity of this famous temple that it was full of crowds.  The temple itself is beautiful - a golden pavilion (it’s covered in gold leaf), floating on the waters of the lake, and mirrored in the waters.  We ascended the hill behind the lake, taking in the view of the surrounding hills and the temple beneath.  

The silver sands and cone of Ginkaku-ji 

Ginkaku-ji, however, was my favourite of the two.  There is no silver gilding on the pavilion - apparently the construction of the buildings were delayed by war and other reasons, and rather than a big lake there are smaller ponds which we could stroll around, admiring the buildings, the pond and the mossy gardens from all angles as we turned each corner.  But the highlight is the beautiful silvery gravel plain, with a cone representing Mount Fuji in one corner.  There we sat, just in front of the carefully raked gravel, and scrutinising the smooth sides of the perfectly formed cone, indeed the resemblance is there :-) 

Shrine on the Path of Philosophy

 After the Ginkaku-ji visit, we took a walk down the famous Path of Philosophy, or "Tetsugaku-no-michi", which runs along a canal flowing from the temple down to the Eikandozenrin-ji temple (which I went to on my previous Autumn Leaf visit).  The path got its name because a Kyoto University professor used to take his daily walk on the path, presumably contemplating life, the universe and everything.

Fortunately, out of cherry blossom season, the path was rather deserted and we were able to have a quiet, peaceful stroll. Every now and then there is a little landmark - a small shrine, a stone with a poem carved on it, a little shop or eatery inviting the traveller to stop for a moment.  Although there were no cherry blossoms, there were lots of flowers and greenery along the way.

Guardian mouse, with a scroll signifying learning

We passed a few little shrines and temples but only stopped once, at Otoyo-jinja Shrine.    Its key distinguishing feature is that this temple actually has a lot of cute little animals, in particular mice!  These are guardian animals, as the god of the shrine, Okuninushi, had a special relationship with them.  As the story goes, Okuninushi wanted to marry the beautiful Princess, Suseri.  Alas, her father disapproved.  Okuninushi had to complete a few tasks in order to win her hand.  In one task, an archer shot an arrow into a rice field.  When Okuninushi went to retrieve the arrow, the field was set on fire.  The mice directed him to a safe spot and retrieved the arrow for him.  And that's how our hero got to marry his Princess.

We didn't go to many other temples after these but we did pay a visit to the historic Nijo Castle.  I had visited Nijo-jo before, on my first visit to Kyoto, to look at cherry blossoms at night.   But I had never been to the palace itself and was glad for the opportunity to learn more about its history.  It was the Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa who had started building the Castle, although it was his grandson who completed it. Sadly, this time round the gardens were off limits as they had been damaged thanks to the recent typhoon so we could only walk around the famous Ninomaru Palace.

This Palace contains the main audience chambers and reception halls - the furnishings, as would be expected, are very spartan with only the tatami mats on the floor and maybe a niche or storage cupboard built into the wlal, but the walls are covered with magnificent paintings - of tigers and leopards under palm trees, or flowering trees, etc.  (We were not allowed to take photos so that's why you don't see any here.)  It was here that the Shogun would meet foreign envoys, meet his Council or his feudal lords.  It was also here that the 15th and last Shogun of Japan, Yoshinobu, gathered his retainers and announced the end of the Shogun era and the restoration of the Emperor, hence starting the Meiji Restoration and modernisation of Japan.

Photos are here.

Ninomaru Palace, Nijo Castle

Making Merit

Even more than Vientiane, Luang Prabang is full of temples, and full of monks. My friend told me that besides the young men who go into the temple for a few months, poor families also send their sons there. It is a way for them to get a better life - access to education, whilst lessening the burden on the family. We are staying across the road from Wat Xiang Mouane.  I woke up one morning to the sound of a drum; it was the day of a festival and the drum was being sounded at something like 4am in the morning. 

A little later than 4am, the monks leave their temples, and walk the streets to beg for food.  The morning ritual in Luang Prabang is as follows:

• Rise and shine before 6am
• Wait outside the house : with a scarf over the shoulder
• Carrying: a basket of food: sticky rice, or some biscuits or whatever.
• Kneel, if you are a lady, or stand, if a man.  Wait for the monks.

The monks then walk down the road, in single file.  They carry a begging bowl strapped over their shoulder.  They walk by the rows of people, we put food in their bowls. 

The line can seem endless; you can run out of food.  At last, it stops.

Charity, giving to others.  The humility of having to beg for your meals every day.  This is an example of how the giving helps both the giver and the  recipient. 

Day 2: The Face of Buddha

Our second day in Siem Reap was all temple-viewing. We started off at 8.30am and met our tour guide, Dara. Somehow the majority of tour guides here in Siem Reap are men.

Our first stop of the day was at the South Gate of Angkor Thom, the city of the great King Jayavarman VII, the temple builder extraordinaire. Anything with a tower with four Buddha faces on it - likely it was built by good old J the VII. But the gate itself was very impressive. It is reached by a causeway over a moat with a row of demons lining the right of the bridge, and a row of gods lining the left, all holding the naga serpent. According to the guidebook, it is actually a representation of the churning of the sea of milk, from the Hindu mythologies. Some of the statues lost their heads over the years and through the war but most have been replaced. It is quite easy to tell the difference. But apparently the thieves will steal the new heads too.

Passing through the gate, we went to the Bayon temple. Frankly, if we are talking about the Hindu conception of the universe, with the holy Mount Meru surrounded by the mountain ranges, then Bayon is probably the most mountainous of them all (including Angkor Wat which is more restrained and refined). It is a truly imposing monument. Tower upon tower, each building up to the topmost tower at the peak. And all the towers have the four faces of the Buddha on them - so we are surrounded by these serene faces with smiles so inscrutable that they could have taught the Mona Lisa a thing or two. But the temple itself was full of visitors from all over the world, all making this the first stop of their temple-hopping day. Each group had their own guide, speaking to them in English, Chinese, Japanese and French. It was interesting to see that the French-speaking guides tended to be the older Cambodians. We had to take our turn to go and look at the bas-reliefs, and to move along the galleries, and to go up to the top of the temple where we have to take turns to take photographs at the most scenic spots.

We went next to explore the series of monuments by the Bayon temple. First, the Baphoun temple-mountain, which would have required us to climb up a lot of steps to the top of the base for the temple itself. The temple was being restored, with each of the stones removed, numbered and set aside for subsequent replacement. (That's the auld anastylosis technique). Its amazing to think that in the past it was human hands and backs which had to place each block in place whilst now the work is being done by cranes.

The Terrace of Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King and the old Royal Palace (plus their bathing pools) followed. Then we went back to town for lunch. It was at a Chinese restaurant! Alas, the typical Singapore tourist's penchant for Chinese food caught up with us. It was a fairly tasty meal nonetheless.

We went next to Ta Prom. This was truly exciting, because it gave a good sense of how nature slowly took over the old temples over the years. Ta Prom was built by King J VII and thus has many architectural similarities to Banteay Kdei and the Bayon. But huge strangler figs and silk-cotton trees (as shown in the photo) have slowly been growing around and on top of the buildings. The massive roots of these gigantic trees had pierced through the roofs and walls of the ancient temples such that they had become part of the fabric of the building. Tree and building now require each other to exist - when one falls, so could the other. Apparently this was the temple where a famous scene from "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" was filmed. So we went to the spot and yes, there were people queuing up there to get their photo taken as well (I did!).

Finally, we went to Angkor Wat. Now some people think of just the five towers when they go to Angkor Wat and that picture postcard view of the towers reflected in the lake. In reality, Angkor Wat is a much larger complex. To get to the innermost shrine (the 5 towers), we crossed the causeway over the moat, through a first set of city walls, down another road and past two pools (these were people to bathe in and wash away their sins before going further into the temple). Then we came to the main temple itself. Now as mentioned before, think of this as a wedding cake of about three tiers. As you move further up and further in (through the galleries of bas-reliefs, past more pools, past galleries of Buddha statues, past libraries) the closer you get closer to the holiest of holies, the innermost tall towers of Angkor Wat. This innermost shrine is again like a temple-mountain in itself - the pilgrim must climb these very steep and narrow stairs to reach his final destination - the shrine at the top of the stairs.

Yesterday's pilgrim, today's tourist. We were (more than anything) relieved to find that the topmost shrine was temporarily closed for maintenance and to build a new staircase (with a less steep incline) over one set of the old staircases to the shrine.

After leaving Angkor Wat, we were pretty exhausted. But there was still one more temple mountain to see, this one perched on a true mountain (or rather, a hill). We clambered slowly and painfully up the hill. There is an elephant ride available for the less active but at US$15 per pax, it was just a bit too expensive. Finally we reached the temple on the top only to realise that we needed to climb up yet another set of steps to reach the shrine on top of the temple base. Let me just say we finally managed it. But unfortunately, the cool of the evening meant that there were slight mists in the air. The view of Angkor Wat was not clear, and there was to be no glorious sunset that evening. So we clambered down again.

We ended off the day with a foot massage - wonderful - and dinner. Totally exhausted, we got back and had an early night.

Here's the Flickr link again for those who want to look at photos.

Day 1: Apsaras in Stone and in Flesh

We arrived in Siem Reap airport at around 9.50am, Cambodia time. The airport is not large, but it is immaculate and well laid-out. We were to learn that in Siem Reap, everything is tourist-oriented. The immigration process was very smooth (especially since we did not have to queue for the visa) and high-tech with the little digital camera on hand to take our photos. Our driver was waiting just outside to whisk us away to our hotel. The hotel itself was most pleasant - we could have wished for a room with a better view, but the room itself was fine.

After lunch (a really enjoyable dish of amok fish, which is rather similar to otak), we proceeded to our first round of temples. I had been told by someone that Banteay Srei was worth visiting, so we decided to go there first especially since we knew it was a little out of the way. We got our tourist passes first and again, this process was smooth and efficient. No one gets their passes in the middle of the afternoon and so there was no queue. The little camera was again in evidence, this time to take our photo for our pass. Apparently, the ticketing system has been tendered out to one of the nearby hotels to manage. Payment was in US Dollars. We were to learn also that this is the standard currency in use in the area, at least by tourists. Which made prices of everything pretty expensive. We are talking US$1 for a single postcard in the hotel! (You can get 10 for US$1 from the little children selling postcards outside the temples). We drove on to Banteay Srei - everything is well sign-posted and there are many other tourists on the roads, including a few cyclists. We passed them quickly in our Toyota. I wondered whether Cambodia is a recipient of second-hand cars from Singapore. Whilst Cambodians drive on the right side of the road, the driver's seat seems to be on the right just as often as it is on the left.

Banteay Srei (the Citadel of Women) is a small, exquisite little temple - one of my favourite temples for this entire visit. Built of red sandstone, the shrine was covered with fine, highly detailed carvings telling stories of the Gods. It is one of the older temples, built around 968-1000. It was apparently not built by the king of the day, but by his high priest instead. With the shrines and carvings at eye level (without the need to climb!), it is easy to take photos of the shrine. Here, I first started really making use of the ND filter on my camera. That's why I managed to get these lovely blue skies. Here too, we learnt some essential phrases - "Gopura", or entrance pavillion; "Library" which really refers to a little shrine; lintels and pediments - often beautifully carved especially here at Banteay Srei.

Our next temple, Pre Rup, was an example of a temple-mountain. In other words, the temple itself was built on the top of an artificial mountain, rather like a tiered wedding cake with steep steps up each side. The true believer would undergo this arduous journey in order to worship the gods. We were not (alas) true believers. We decided that such climbs would take place the next day when we got to Angkor Wat and Phnom Bhakeang. The temple itself was not fully restored, with plants growing out from between the bricks of the building. Nonetheless, it was still most impressive.

Our third temple for the day was Banteay Kdei. It is a very different temple from the other two we saw. It is not a temple-mountain so there is nothing to climb (hooray) but it is also large in scale with large sandstone blocks. It seems to be in worse condition than the other two, with props supporting stones here and there, and the blocks of the main towers tied together. Needless to say, this added to the interest and excitement of walking through the temple... Here we saw for the first time the towers, with the face of Buddha on all sides, and halls with Apsara dancers on each of the columns. Now Apsaras (celestial dancers) are from Hinduism and Buddha (obviously) from Buddhism. So the mingling of the two denotes the practical nature of the builder, King Jayavarman VII, who was a Buddhist but who nonetheless incorporated Hindu symbols into his buildings so that his people (still largely Hindu) would feel some connection to the buildings.

We went by also Prasat Kravan. It would have been good to go in but we were concerned that we needed a little rest before our evening appointment (we were also a little tired by this time considering our early start to the day) so we just stopped outside and took a look. Prasat Kravan was restored through the process of anastylosis, which means that the restorers numbered all the stones, took down everything, and built it up again with reinforcement done for the weaker areas and replacement stones where stones were missing (done in a different colour, or marked in some way so people would know the difference).

We ended the day with a cultural performance- Apsara dances, and folk dances. After seeing the Apsara dancers carved in stone all day, I was eagerly anticipating what they would look like in the flesh. I had also been reading a book, "Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma" by Amitav Ghosh, prior to coming to Cambodia. He had written of a visit that the Cambodian King Sisowath had made to Paris in 1906. He had brought with him the famed Royal Dancers, who performed to great acclaim. Rodin made several sketches of the dancers and (so enraptured was he) apparently followed them to Marseille from where they were to take ship back to Cambodia. I can only say, these graceful dancers were indeed like the Apsaras in stone - with the curved hands and feet.

And that was the end of Day 1 in Siem Reap! More photos can be seen on my Flickr page but I'm uploading them in batches so more will appear over time.

My Visit to Angkor

I have just returned from a short (essentially 3 day) trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia, to view the ancient temples of the Khmer Empire and the fabled towers of Angkor Wat. In recalling this visit, three main images spring to mind:

• the spanking new airport building
• the Apsara dancer
• the face of Buddha

These images tell a lot of the story of the Khmer monuments at Angkor. The story of how these buildings came about, the different religious beliefs of the Kings who built them, the times they lived through. Also, the story of how these historical monuments were re-discovered and restored for the world to become major tourist attraction for Cambodia, and the impact of the tourist industry on Siem Reap. But all this is against the backdrop of the history of modern Cambodia, in particular, of the human tragedies which took place during the Pol Pot regime.

The story I want to tell is just of my own short visit here. Over the past few days, we have visited towering temples and smaller shrines. We have sailed on the Tonle Sap lake, driven around the Cambodian countryside and bargained in its old market. I knew that there was more to see in Siem Reap than just Angkor Wat. But it was a real revelation to find out just how many temples there actually were! It was also amazing to find out that they had been preserved for so long (for some, more than 1000 years) and in such (relatively speaking) good condition. To start off, here is the list of temples seen/visited (in order of visit) (and remember this is just a subset of all the temples there are):

Day 1

Banteay Srei (built around 967 - 1000)

Pre Rup (944-968)

Banteay Kdei

Prasat Kravan

Day 2
Angkor Thom (1181-1243 - same time as Bayon)

Bayon (1181-1243)

Bapuon (1050-1080)

The Royal Palace (968-1010)

Elephant Terrace (1181-1243 - same time as Bayon)

Terrace of the Leper King (1243-onwards)

Khleangs (968-1010)

Ta Prohm (1181-1243 - same time as Bayon)

Angkor Wat (1080-1175)

Phnom Bhakeng (889-923)

I should explain that we were on a guided tour from the second day, so we spent the first afternoon in Angkor seeing the less "popular" temples. It was a good way to see how temple architecture changed over time. The older temples we saw (Phnom Bhakeng, Banteay Srei, up to Angkor Wat) were influenced by Hindu beliefs. They displayed Hindu gods and goddesses, and told the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Then, in the days of King Jayavarman VII, Mahayana Buddhism became the official religion of the kingdom. Whilst the structure of the temples (tiered towers upon towers) remained the same, the images on the temple walls changed and reflected instead the face of Buddha. After his reign, the country turned Hindu again and much of the Buddhist imagery was destroyed. Today, the country is again Buddhist (Theravada Buddhism) and Buddhist statues have re-emerged in the temples and are venerated by the locals to this day.

The Khmer empire which built these great monuments of stone has long since passed away. The reasons appear to be a little obscure. But these magnificent structures certainly testify to their advanced engineering knowledge, which they amply combined with artistry and imagination.