ancient history assignment, yr 12.
question: "the khmer empire's capital angkor was the largest pre-industrial city in the world. Professor Roland Fletcher of Sydney University's Greater Angkor Project believes the site was ...the Los Angeles or greater New-York of ots time... What were the factors that enabled the Kmher empire to develop such a powerful and monumental city?
i have a hypothesis which is something like:
"The factors that allowed Angkor to become so powerful were its geography and its access to an abundant supply of water due to its massive artificial reservoirs."
i need help with how to elaborate my point. How did the geography and, more importantly, the water reservoirs, aid Angkor in becoming the great city it was? any relative information will be VERY much appreciated. the draft for this is due tomorrow and i am just starting. my fault i know but i am doing it now haha. Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) (Khmer: 釣⑨瀯釤掅瀭釣氠灉釣忈煉釣?, a World Heritage Site, is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation鈥攆irst Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.
Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the gods in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 km (2.2 miles) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.
Contents [hide]
1 Name
2 History
3 Architecture
3.1 Site and plan
3.2 Style
3.3 Features
3.3.1 Outer enclosure
3.3.2 Central structure
3.3.3 Decoration
4 Angkor Wat today
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
[edit] Name
The modern name, Angkor Wat, in use by the 16th century,[1] means "City Temple": Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (capital), while wat is the Khmer word for temple. Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of its founder, Suryavarman II.[2]
[edit] History
Angkor Wat is the southernmost temple of Angkor's main group of sites.Angkor Wat lies 5.5 km north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred on the Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there are an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.
The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113鈥揷. 1150), Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as Vrah Vishnulok after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended on the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.[3] In 1177 Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometres to the north.
In the 14th or 15th century the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.[4]
One of the first Western visitors to the temple was Antonio da Magdalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of".[5] However, the temple was popularised in the West only in the mid-19th century on the publication of Henri Mouhot's travel notes. The French explorer wrote of it:
An 1866 photograph of Angkor Wat by Emile Gsell."One of these temples鈥攁 rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo鈥攎ight take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."[6]
Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, was unable to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site.
A source of great national pride, Ankor Wat has been depicted in every Cambodian national flag since 1863.Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation.[7] Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.[8]
The temple has become a symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of every Cambodian national flag since the introduction of the first version circa 1863[9]鈥攖he only building to appear on any national flag.[10] In January 2003 riots erupted in Phnom Penh when a false rumour circulated that a Thai soap opera actress had claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.[11]
[edit] Architecture
[edit] Site and plan
A plan of Angkor WatAngkor Wat, located at 13掳24鈥?5鈥砃, 103掳52鈥?鈥矱Coordinates: 13掳24鈥?5鈥砃, 103掳52鈥?鈥矱, is a unique combination of the temple mountain, the standard design for the empire's state temples, the later plan of concentric galleries, and influences from Orissa and the Chola of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean.[12] Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level.[13]
Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Glaize and George Coed猫s) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple.[14] Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction鈥攑rasavya in Hindu terminology鈥攁s this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services.[15] The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower.[16] Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.[17]
A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that these indicate a claimed new era of peace under king Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above."[18] Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles.[19] She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.[20]
The north-west tower of the inner gallery at sunset.
[edit] Style
Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture鈥攖he Angkor Wat style鈥攖o which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime have been suggested.[21]
Angkor Wat has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design, which has been compared to the architecture of ancient Greece or Rome. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style."[22]
Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work.[23] Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.[24]
The Angkor Wat style was followed by that of the Bayon period, in which quality was often |
