So I have written this post already once and I am at an internet cafe and right as I was finishing the computer restarted. So I am so pissed, this post will probably be shorter then my original one. ARRRGGHHH!
Anyway - More of my pictures have finally uploaded. My Bayon Temple photos have now uploaded. Bayon is part of the Angkor Wat park but more specifically part of the Angkor Thom set of temples.
Angkor Thom was built as a square, the sides of which run exactly north to south and east to west. Standing in the exact center of the walled city, Bayon Temple represents the intersection of heaven and earth. Built around 1190 AD by King Jayavarman VII, Bayon is a Buddhist temple but it incorporates elements of Hindu cosmology.
Bayon is known for its huge stone faces of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with one facing outward and keeping watch at each compass point. The curious smiling image, thought by many to be a portrait of Jayavarman himself, has been dubbed by some the "Mona Lisa of Southeast Asia." There are 51 smaller towers surrounding Bayon, each with four faces of its own.
Bayon Temple is surrounded by two long walls bearing an extraordinary collection of bas-relief scenes of legendary and historical events. In all, there are are total of more than 11,000 carved figures over 1.2km of wall. They were probably originally painted and gilded, but this has long since faded.
I think Bayon was my favorite temple. The faces are massive and even close up it is amazing how they are carved. Right into these bricks. All around the temple are these other carvings of Apsara dancers which are beautiful all over the temple. The traditional Khmer dancing is based after these dancers. The other long reliefs around the temple are in good shape, but it was scary to see all the tourist touch them becuase you know it can't handle that. hundreds of people touching these things will destroy them so quickly. They just don't do a good job of keeping people back. I totally know the temptation to touch them, but really, control yourself.
Every saturday at the children's hospital, the doctor who started the hospital Dr. Beat Richter gives a cello concert and a talk. We went last saturday. His hospital is one of 6 that he has set up since 1992. He was a peditrician in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge took over and came back in 1992 to set up the first childrens hospital when foreigners were allowed back in 1992. The hospital does not charge for their services since no one could actually pay. They also do prenatal and deliveries, the only catch is that everyone who wants to deliver there must take an AIDS test becuase they have the ability to limit the passage to the child. The concert was really good and he is a fiesty man and very critical of a lot of things not only in Cambodia but the western world NGO's and how they give out money and turn a blind eye to the corruption. His back up band is called the "passive genocide of children". Some of the things I learned.
Dr. Beat talked a lot about how some NGOs didn't like his hospitals because he has state of the art facilities so that the labs give correct results, the standard thinking is that a third world country should have third world care and not first world care. So he raises all the money for the hospitals from private donations. Here is his site. www.beatocello.com
Comments
That place looks better than
great photos
senor bananagrabber Posted at 10:26 on Fri, 02/01/2008who're your friends?
have you met any enlightened monks? if so, did they have a beatific glow, as if they had transcended time and space?
I am off
To thailand on monday so I am trying to get all my cambodian updates done before, but I don't think I am going to get them all finished here. At least I am going to try and get my photos uploaded. The two other people are Cassie and John they were the other two volunteers that were here with me. They are Jrs. At Wofford in South Carolina. That day their camera ran out of batteries so I am the official taker of the photos.
Next up - Ta Phrom - The tombraider temple.
how's the food?
senor bananagrabber Posted at 10:19 on Sat, 02/02/2008It's going by so fast
suarelita Posted at 22:12 on Fri, 02/01/2008