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National Geographic : 1960 Apr
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National Geographic, April, 1960 millet, butter, curds and whey, molasses, cam phor, mustard, wax, pepper, oils, and other supplies used for offerings at the temple. Its treasury, we are told, contained gold vessels weighing more than 11,000 pounds and nearly the same amount of silver, 35 diamonds, 40,620 pearls, 4,540 other precious stones, 967 Chinese veils, 523 parasols ... Imagine, then, the splendor of other temples which were even larger! Buffalo Loll in Royal Bath Almost abutting the southeast corner of Ta Prohm is Banteai Kdei, a smaller version of Ta Prohm, also built by Jayavarman VII. More delightful than the temple is the water expanse of Sras Srang (royal bath) which stretches eastward from a naga- and lion-orna mented terrace. This reservoir is never dry, and I found its mirrored waters being put to good use by bathing groups of laughing Cambodians. In a far corner lazed a herd of water buffalo, submerged to their uptilted noses. About a mile beyond Sras Srang lies Pre Rup, a triple-terraced, five-towered shrine, built in the mid-10th century by Rajendravar man II. Cambodians today say that Pre Rup served as a funerary shrine. A group of lads follow ing me pointed out a rectangular walled pit at the base of the eastern stairway where bodies supposedly were cremated. Their num ber included, legend relates, a king whose fondness for sweet cucumbers caused his down fall. This king, the tale goes, acquired such a passion for the cucumbers grown by a certain gardener that he had a special patch planted for his personal appetite. He gave the gar dener a spear and cautioned him to keep alert watch lest some of his precious cucumbers be pilfered. Overwhelmed one night by his craving for cucumbers, the king went down to the garden. Whereupon the watchful gardener, failing to recognize his master, stabbed him to death. As fitting climax, the gardener later was chosen king, since the slain monarch had no direct heir. It is a jolting 20-mile jeep ride over a rutted road northeast of Angkor that takes you to the 10th-century temple of Banteai Srei, an exquisite cameo of classic Khmer art-and a superb example of reconstruction by the conservators of Angkor. When found in the jungle, it lay in a tumbled heap. Now its gateways, its libraries, and its three towers, set on a low platform, again stand strong. Banteai Srei means "citadel of the women." And indeed it has a smallness and grace that are orientally feminine. Built of rich pink sandstone, Banteai Srei seems to glow with the blush of a maiden's cheek. Its surface is deeply carved; the swirling patterns of leaves, flowers, and figures seem almost to stand apart from the basic stone. Lovely full-breasted, smiling dancers and serene male guards occupy numerous wall niches. Gods, monkeys, and elephants battle on the library facades. In some ways Banteai Srei is almost too ornately decorated, too feminine, its faces too sweet. And it seems as if its architect, Rajen dravarman II, sought to correct it by plac ing about its steps odd, kneeling, human bodied figures with heads of weird lions, hook-beaked birds, and apes with gaping mouths (page 564). Banteai Srei seems almost intended as a model, a toy temple, whose rich design might one day be used in some magnified master shrine. Its towers rise no more than 30 feet; the doorways are only about four feet high; and some of its steps rise no more than three or four inches. When the great temple, Angkor Wat, was built more than a century and a half later, some of Banteai Srei's classical Khmer grace and chiseled perfection went into it. But Ang kor Wat became big, solid, masculine. And its gray sandstone gives it a measure of cold, stern aloofness happily absent from tiny Ban teai Srei's blushing, lace-embroidered stones. Brooding Faces Guard Dead Empire One can spend a lifetime seeking out and studying Khmer shrines and still not see them all. Hundreds of structures, large and small, strew the forests of present-day Cambodia. More stud Thailand and Laos. Some are ruins of early capitals, some holy mountain retreats. Some, such as Banteai Chmar, in northwest Cambodia, and Beng Mealea and Preah Khan of Kampong Svai, east of Angkor, are remnants of once-spectac ular cities whose shrines rivaled those within the capital. How many temples and palaces the Khmers built of wood-for they were first of all mas ter carvers of wood-we cannot even guess. Only when the capital moved to the Angkor 568
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