“Seeing that in the middle of Jambudvipa, the home of the gods, there rose up a golden mountain. He made a golden mountain in the center of his city, out of emulation. On the summit of this mountain, in a golden temple, shining with celestial brilliance, he set up a Shiva linga made of gold.” Ancient Khmer writers were masters of hyperbola, but this inscription didn’t exaggerate the Baphuon’s magnificence.
King Suryavarman I might have begun its construction, but it was mainly built by his successor, Udayadityavarman II (r. 1050-1068), who consecrated it in 1060. A devotee of Shiva, he continued the Khmer tradition of erecting a massive temple mountain to represent the center of the world and house the royal lingam, which supposedly empowered the king and crop fertility. This custom went back to the ninth-century temple Bakong. The Baphuon expanded it to a massive scale, providing a strong precedent for Angkor Wat and the Bayon. It was next to the royal palace, so both combined to give an overwhelming impression that visitors were approaching the center of the world.
A 656-foot-long causeway supported by thick columns and paved with sandstone slabs leads to the temple. Suggesting a bridge, the causeway invokes the concept of the temple as the central mountain surrounded by the cosmic ocean.
Four buildings conventionally called libraries (one is in the above photo) are in front of the temple, but they probably housed ritual paraphernalia as well as scriptures.
The temple’s plinth is breathtakingly elegant.
The cosmic mountain is Shiva’s and other gods’ home, so the plinth projects the highest ideals of beauty.
The formal ritualized atmosphere continues in a narrow sandstone gallery that surrounds the second level. It divides the outer world from the mountain’s upper reaches, and priests might have walked through it to consecrate the area.
Many historians have especially admired the Baphuon for the exuberant bas reliefs, which for the first time in Khmer history, surround the entire temple. The large area enabled the thematic scope of the carvings to widen into a panorama of the whole universe. Scenes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Harivamsa (which contains stories of Krishna’s childhood), and daily life are combined.
Heroic scenes from the epics are shown.
They include Hanuman’s monkey-army from the Ramayana.
Episodes from Krishna’s infancy are also depicted.
In the above scene, his mother, Devaki, hands him to Vasudeva so he could carry him out of reach of his uncle Kamsa, who intended to kill him.
The temple shows these hoary tales from Hindu mythology with a great deal of liveliness.
They’re mixed with lots of images of daily life, including the above dance,
fighting horses,
other animals,
people attending or hunting animals, and
a vomiting rishi.
A lot of the scenes lack perspective, and they’re enclosed within small panels rather than being integrated into long friezes, as images are on Angkor Wat. But they’re animated, showing a love of nature’s and humanity’s vitality. They combine cosmic mythological themes with ordinary life into a full view of the universe that’s worthy of the cosmic mountain they adorn.
The worldly perspectives dissolve into the heavens when you reach the top terrace. Another gallery surrounds it (above), making it clear that you’re entering a higher realm.
The central tower hasn’t been restored.
But the towers of the gopuras of the lower gallery are refined up to the crown, so the main tower must have been spectacular.
The exuberant forms and natural abundance complement the lower friezes’ vitality. From the top terrace, priests must have felt that they were in the central place that empowered the whole kingdom.
But things in the world weren’t so harmonious. Udayadityavarman II had to endure a conflict with the Cham in what is now Vietnam as well as a mutiny in his southern territory. His brother Harshavarman III (1066-80) succeeded him, but he disappeared from the scene after only 14 years. Several historians think he was ousted by a prince from a northern vassal state in what is now Thailand, who ruled as Jayavarman VI (1080-1107). When Suryavarman II took the throne in 1113 and consolidated royal power again, he could leverage plenty of prior inspiration to build Angkor Wat.