Showing posts with label Siem Reap temples. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Siem Reap temples. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Tourism Indochina: Baphuon Temple Was Built to Dedicate to the God Shiva

Tourism Indochina: Baphuon Temple Was Built to Dedicate to the God Shiva

The Baphuon (Khmer: ប្រាសាទបាពួន) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia. It is located in Angkor Thom, northwest of the Bayon. Built in the mid-11th century, it is a three-tiered temple mountain built as the state temple of Udayadityavarman II dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. It is the archetype of the Baphuon style. The temple adjoins the southern enclosure of the royal palace and measures 120 metres east-west by 100 metres north-south at its base and stands 34 meters tall without its tower, which would have made it roughly 50 meters tall. Its appearance apparently impressed Emperor Chengzong of Yuan China's late 13th century envoy Chou Ta-Kuan during his visit from 1296 to 1297, who said it was 'the Tower of Bronze...a truly astonishing spectacle, with more than ten chambers at its base.' In the late 15th century, the Baphuon was converted to a Buddhist temple. A 9 meter tall by 70 meter long statue of a reclining Buddha was built on the west side's second level, which probably required the demolition of the 8 meter tower above, thus explaining its current absence. The temple was built on land filled with sand, and due to its immense size the site was unstable throughout its history. Large portions had probably already collapsed by the time the Buddha was added.

By the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed, and restoration efforts have since proven problematic: a first effort begun in 1960 was interrupted by the coming to power of the Khmer Rouge, and records of the positions of the stones were lost. A second attempt started in 1995 by a team of French-led archeologists as of 2005 was still ongoing, restricting visitor access. As of November 2010, partial visitor access was once again allowed, though not to the central structure.

In April 2011, after 51 years, the archaeologists finished the restoration of the temple. King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia and Prime Minister Francois Fillon of France were among those who first toured the renovated temple during the inauguration ceremony on July 3, 2011.

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/

Read more...

Tourism Indochina: Phnom Bakheng One of Three Hilltop Temples in the Angkor Region

Phnom Bakheng (Khmer: ប្រាសាទភ្នំបាខែង) at Angkor, Cambodia, is a Hindu temple in the form of a temple mountain. Dedicated to Shiva, it was built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910). Located atop a hill, it is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views of the much bigger temple Angkor Wat, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast. The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor.

Constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was in its day the principal temple of the Angkor region, historians believe. It was the architectural centerpiece of a new capital, Yasodharapura, that Yasovarman built when he moved the court from the capital Hariharalaya in the Roluos area located to the southeast.

An inscription dated 1052 AD. and found at the Sdok Kak Thom temple in present-day Thailand states in Sanskrit: "When Sri Yasovardhana became king under the name of Yasovarman, the able Vamasiva continued as his guru. By the king's order, he set up a linga on Sri Yasodharagiri, a mountain equal in beauty to the king of mountains." Scholars believe that this passage refers to the consecration of the Phnom Bakheng temple approximately a century and a half earlier.

Surrounding the mount and temple, labor teams built an outer moat. Avenues radiated out in the four cardinal directions from the mount. A causeway ran in a northwest-southeast orientation from the old capital area to the east section of the new capital's outer moat and then, turning to an east-west orientation, connected directly to the east entrance of the temple.

Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, a status emphasized by the temple’s location atop a steep hill. The temple faces east, measures 76 meters square at its base and is built in a pyramid form of six tiers. At the top level, five sandstone sanctuaries, in various states of repair, stand in a quincunx pattern—one in the center and one at each corner of the level’s square. Originally, 108 small towers were arrayed around the temple at ground level and on various of its tiers; most of them have collapsed.

Jean Filliozat of the Ecole Francaise, a leading authority on Indian cosmology and astronomy, interpreted the symbolism of the temple. The temple sits on a rectangular base and rises in five levels and is crowned by five main towers. One hundred four smaller towers are distributed over the lower four levels, placed so symmetrically that only 33 can be seen from the center of any side. Thirty-three is the number of gods who dwelt on Mount Meru. Phnom Bakheng's total number of towers is also significant. The center one represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the four lunar phases, each with 27 days. The seven levels of the monument represent the seven heavens and each terrace contains 12 towers which represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul Wheatley, it is "an astronomical calendar in stone."

Phnom Bakheng is one of three hilltop temples in the Angkor region that are attributed to Yasovarman's reign. The other two are Phnom Krom to the south near the Tonle Sap lake, and Phnom Bok, northeast of the East Baray reservoir.

Following Angkor's rediscovery by the outside world in the mid-19th century, decades passed before archeologists grasped Phnom Bakheng's historical significance. For many years, scholars' consensus view was that the Bayon, the temple located at the center of Angkor Thom city, was the edifice to which the Sdok Kak Thom inscription referred. Later work identified the Bayon as a Buddhist site, built almost three centuries later than originally thought, in the late 12th century, and Phnom Bakheng as King Yasovarman's state temple.

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/

Read more...

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Tourism Indochina: Former US president Bill Clinton Made a Surprise Visit to Cambodia

Tourism Indochina: Former US president Bill Clinton Made a Surprise Visit to Cambodia

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance, while on other issues his stance was center-left. Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was the Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in 1992, defeating incumbent president George H.W. Bush. As president, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. He implemented Don't ask, don't tell, a controversial intermediate step to full gay military integration. After a failed health care reform attempt, Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, for the first time in forty years. Two years later, the re-elected Clinton became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president. He successfully passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Later, he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in a scandal involving a White House intern, but was acquitted by the U.S. Senate and served his complete term of office. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clinton's presidency. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as prevention of AIDS and global warming. In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife's and then Barack Obama's campaigns for president in 2008. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and after the 2010 earthquake he teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U.S. presidents.

Tourism Indochina: Former US president Bill Clinton Made a Surprise Visit to Cambodia:
(Tourism Indochina:Date : 2006-12-06): SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton made a surprise visit to Cambodias famed Angkor Wat temples, where he impressed tourists by scaling the highest temple in the complex. Clinton, in Cambodia to tour AIDS-related projects and local organizations supported by his foundation, did not speak to reporters but shook hands with tourists. "I am so glad that the former US president came to visit the temples," said Cambodian visitor Pol Khim Pisith, who briefly saw Clinton before security officials pushed him away. "Bill Clintons visit will make our Angkor Wat more and more famous and attract more tourists," he said. Dressed in khaki trousers and a gray shirt, Clinton -- who is 60 and underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2004 -- climbed on the highest temple, surprising tourists who helped him up. "Clinton visiting the temples is a good surprise," Belgian tourist Andre Deceuninck told AFP as he tried to take a picture of the 42nd US president. "I didnt know he was coming to see the temples. I thought it was a joke."

But the heavy security -- from both US Secret Service and Cambodian officials -- frustrated many visitors. "I really wanted to see him but security officials did not allow me to go closer to him," said 78-year-old Buddhist monk Sim Son. The popular former president has already visited India, Thailand, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea as part of his Asian tour as special UN envoy for tsunami recovery and as head of his own Clinton Foundation. Clinton was scheduled to visit a hospital for children in Siem Reap later in the day before travelling to Vietnam.

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/

Read more...

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Tourism Indochina: Temple watch: The trip to Banteay Chhmar

Tourism Indochina: Temple watch: The trip to Banteay Chhmar

(Tourism Indochina:Date : 2008-10-13):

Banteay Chhmar​ (Khmer: បន្ទាយឆ្មារ) is a commune (khum) in Thma Puok District in Banteay Meanchey province in northwest Cambodia. It is located 63 km north of Sisophon and about 20 km east of the Thai border. The commune of Banteay Chhmar contains 14 villages.

The massive temple of Banteay Chhmar, along with its satellite shrines and reservoir (baray), comprises one of the most important and least understood archaeological complexes from Cambodia's Angkor period.

Preservation of Banteay Chhmar is currently being led by Global Heritage Fund, a non-profit organization based in California. The organization's efforts thus far have included training a local Khmer team to conserve the sandstone bas-reliefs of the temple complex. Ultimately, GHF seeks to conserve the largely collapsed temple complex as a ruin "with low-impact, safe visitor access via suspended cable platforms over the fallen structures, along with selective interventions for high-risk structures, bas-reliefs and towers." GHF is also assisting the Cambodian government with the UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination and inscription process.

Temple watch: The trip to Banteay Chhmar

The remote temple site of Banteay Chhmar is one of the greatest little-known wonders of northern Cambodia. Its scale is huge, and it originally covered an area twice that of Angkor Wat. Little remains of its original walls, but the central sanctuary within the moat has some remaining Bayon face-style towers. There are also impressive bas reliefs on the inner sanctuary walls.

This vast site is quite overgrown, and it's a wonderful place to visit in the rainy season. It's situated 70 kilometers north of Svay, also known by the Thai name Sisophon, and it's very close to the Thai border. It is unaffected by the border tensions at Preah Vihear and is jealously guarded by the Cambodian military which has a large camp nearby.

There is work in progress to restore the eastern walls and plans to restore parts of the interior of the temple. The supervisor of the work told me that the trees will eventually be removed and new ones planted outside.

Road conditions on my last visit in late September were very bad after heavy rain. It took over two-and-a-half hours by 4WD to get there from Siem Reap, but the return journey in dry conditions took less than half that time. Conditions won't improve until Route 6 is paved. Admission remains $5, and records show on average only one visitor signs in each day. So Banteay Chhmar is one of the best large temple sites to really get far away from the madding crowd.

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/

Read more...

Tourism Indochina: Volunteers clean temple site

Tourism Indochina: Volunteers clean temple site

(Tourism Indochina:Date : 2008-10-16):

STAFF from the Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa in Siem Reap held a morning cleanup of the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom on September 27, as part of the Victoria Group's annual Green Day Project.

Similar events were held for the five Victoria hotels in Vietnam, although the cleanup in Sapa was cancelled due to a storm.

This is the third consecutive year that the Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa has participated in the Victoria Group's annual Green Day Project, which originated five years ago. Resident manager Vorana Na Champassak said that the staff participated voluntarily, in lieu of a regular work day. "This is a great way to give back to the community," Champassak said.

Last year, when the staff cleaned Angkor Wat, there was a staggering amount of rubbish, and several tonnes of garbage were collected. Even though Angkor's temple grounds are now kept relatively clean by hired companies, almost 100 of the hotel's staff trekked to Bayon in a parade of honking motorcycles and created teams to clean the site.

The hotel coordinated its efforts with local authorities who were receptive to the idea.

"The response from local authorities has been very good," said marketing and communication coordinator Lina Nguyen. "More and more, they think it's important to protect the environment."


Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/

Read more...

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Tourism Indochina: The Australian Funds-in-Trust

Tourism Indochina: The Australian Funds-in-Trust

(Tourism Indochina:Date : 2008-12-15):

The Funds-in-Trust was created to support World Heritage-related activities in Asia and the Pacific region, with a particular priority to projects in the Pacific region, which is still one of the least represented regions on the World Heritage List.

The Australian Funds-in-Trust, established in August 2008 between the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Australian Government, has been increased. A sum of $AUS830, 000 has been added to the Australian Government's first generous contribution of $AUS2.5 million. From the Funds-in-Trust, $AUS1.13 million will be used to support the development of a conservation and management plan for the World Heritage property of Angkor, Cambodia, through a project called Heritage Management Framework. The framework is designed to strengthen the technical expertise and governance of the Cambodian Government managing agency, APSARA, so that the benefits of tourism and development at Angkor can be shared fairly while ensuring environment protection.

The Funds-in-Trust will also support the organization of a workshop on the future direction of the World Heritage Convention to be held in February 2009. This workshop, requested by the World Heritage Committee, is meant to reflect on global strategic issues, key challenges, trends and opportunities facing the World Heritage Convention in view of its upcoming fortieth anniversary in 2012.

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit: http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/

Read more...

Friday, June 17, 2011

Volunteers clean temple site

STAFF from the Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa in Siem Reap held a morning cleanup of the Bayon temple in Angkor Thom on September 27, as part of the Victoria Group's annual Green Day Project.

Similar events were held for the five Victoria hotels in Vietnam, although the cleanup in Sapa was cancelled due to a storm.

This is the third consecutive year that the Victoria Angkor Resort and Spa has participated in the Victoria Group's annual Green Day Project, which originated five years ago. Resident manager Vorana Na Champassak said that the staff participated voluntarily, in lieu of a regular work day. "This is a great way to give back to the community," Champassak said.

Last year, when the staff cleaned Angkor Wat, there was a staggering amount of rubbish, and several tonnes of garbage were collected. Even though Angkor's temple grounds are now kept relatively clean by hired companies, almost 100 of the hotel's staff trekked to Bayon in a parade of honking motorcycles and created teams to clean the site.

The hotel coordinated its efforts with local authorities who were receptive to the idea.

"The response from local authorities has been very good," said marketing and communication coordinator Lina Nguyen. "More and more, they think it's important to protect the environment."

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/

Read more...

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Temple watch: The trip to Banteay Chhmar

The remote temple site of Banteay Chhmar is one of the greatest little-known wonders of northern Cambodia. Its scale is huge, and it originally covered an area twice that of Angkor Wat. Little remains of its original walls, but the central sanctuary within the moat has some remaining Bayon face-style towers. There are also impressive bas reliefs on the inner sanctuary walls.

This vast site is quite overgrown, and it's a wonderful place to visit in the rainy season. It's situated 70 kilometers north of Svay, also known by the Thai name Sisophon, and it's very close to the Thai border. It is unaffected by the border tensions at Preah Vihear and is jealously guarded by the Cambodian military which has a large camp nearby.

There is work in progress to restore the eastern walls and plans to restore parts of the interior of the temple. The supervisor of the work told me that the trees will eventually be removed and new ones planted outside.

Road conditions on my last visit in late September were very bad after heavy rain. It took over two-and-a-half hours by 4WD to get there from Siem Reap, but the return journey in dry conditions took less than half that time. Conditions won't improve until Route 6 is paved. Admission remains $5, and records show on average only one visitor signs in each day. So Banteay Chhmar is one of the best large temple sites to really get far away from the madding crowd.


Source Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/

Read more...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Will there a wall around Preah Vihear Temple

Preah Vihear temple, CambodiaAccording to reports from some agencies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is planning to build a "Berlin-style" wall to shut-off Thailand and develop tourist facilities around the still disputed Preah Vihear Temple by its own.

The Cambodian government will build a series of walls at "complicated border areas," while still calling for talks to mark and properly demarcate the frontier, Camdodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith and a government spokesman told reporters at a press conference.

"Both sides should start to discuss to plant border markers from undisputed border areas to the complicated border areas and some complicated border areas will be built with border markers or concrete walls," Khieu Kanharith said.

"Cambodia will allow private companies to invest at least $2 million dollars at the Preah Vihear Temple to set up cable cars for tourists," he explained, adding that the government is also trying to rebuild an existing road to the temple.

It seems that the Preah Vihear border gate to Thailand will only be opened again, when the situation there is stable, but foreign tourists could visit the temple from the Cambodian side. At the moment, authorities have closed the temple grounds to visitors. For decades, the only way to get to Preah Vihear was through Thailand, because the temple is situated atop a sharp cliff on the Cambodian side (http://www.tourismindochina.com/history-cambodia.htm).

Cambodia and Thailand share a border of over 800km with only 73 demarcation markers, the Cambodian official said on Sunday. At a meeting on Aug 18-19, Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers agreed to arrange second-phase troop redeployment at the disputed border area near the temple.

They agreed to a meeting of the Cambodian Temporary Coordinating Task Force and the Thai Regional Border Committee on Aug 29 in Cambodia to discuss the troop redeployment.The two foreign ministers also agreed to recommend to their governments that the next meeting of legal experts and the Thai-Cambodian Joint Border Committee be convened in early October, to discuss the issues related to border survey and demarcation of the relevant frontier sectors.

On July 15, Thai troops went into the border area to fetch three trespassers who had intended to claim Thai sovereignty over the Preah Vihear Temple. The incident triggered a military standoff, as troop strength on each side grew to more than 1,000 soldiers. In 1962, the International Court of Justice (or World Court) in Den Haag/Holland decided that the 11-century temple belongs to Cambodia (http://www.tourismindochina.com/preah_vehear.htm).



By Reinhard Hohler, eTN Ambassador, Chiang Mai

Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/

Read more...

Monday, May 9, 2011

The famous film, actress and temple complex, all in Tomb Raider

Film tourism is a growing phenomenon worldwide, fueled by both the growth of the entertainment industry and the increase in international travel. To get to know Cambodia, one of the most famous films called Tomb Raider, the fantastic and enjoyable movie, taken apart in the area of famous temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia, can be one of the thousand ways that make you interesting both the amazing cultural destination in Cambodia and the most famous Hollywood Star, Angelina Jolie, known as Lara Croft who plays substantial role in Tomb Raider


Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie has been awarded Cambodian citizenship in recognition of her environmental and conservation work in the country. King Norodom Sihamoni signed a royal decree approving the citizenship on 31 July 2004. Regarding to the film, The Cambodian temple complex, where Croft must retrieve the half of the triangular MacGuffin, is at Siem Reap in Cambodia, where she arrives, with game-style ease, onto Phnom Bakheng, a hill topped by a Hindu temple (though the site later became a Buddhist centre).


This film is absolutely cool. Jolie is a talent and active actress in this film. She made the whole film interesting and performed well with the most famous Angkor, the largest the religious monument in the world and a World Heritage Site.


Prepared by CHHEM Samnang


Cambodia tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/

Read more...
Copyright © 1999-2009 TourismIndochina.blogspot.com, Managed by Bayon Heritage Travel & Tours All rights reserved.