Friday, June 27, 2014

Three Temples In Cambodia II



Beng Mealea’s name means Lotus Pond and is a recent one, its original name being unknown because as yet no inscription giving details about who built the temple, when and what they called it has been found. This  temple has been  constructed with exceptional  care, unlike  Banteay Chamr for example, which shows signs of hast and carelessness. Where the stonework is in its original position  at Beng Mealea you can walk through  mysterious halls and galleries. In other places tree roots have prized the stones apart causing whole sections to collapse, the great piles of stones looking  like toy blocks  scattered by some giant child. In other places moss transforms such stones into cubes of green velvet. But it is the  tree;  their  roots, their  foliage  and the play of light and shade they create on surfaces that  make Beng Mealea so worth a visit.

3 comments:

brahmavihara said...

It looks like some kind of "Post Modernist" installation artwork. Is it constructed from that stone like Borobudur was built from?

Shravasti Dhammika said...

Dear Brahmavihara, your right! Some parts do look like a modern art installation. The image that came to my mind was a pile of toy blocks that a giant child has been playing with. Borobudur is made from a porous volcanic stone while Beng Mealea is made from a fairly hard sandstone and some laterite. However, both temples are similar in that each rough stone was cut to fit the already laid ones and thus every one is a different size and shape. As a consequence the walls are not as strong as if all the stones were the same size and laid alternately.

Unknown said...

Huge historical tree.