Cambodia Architecture

Angkor is huge silhouettes that cut magnificent sunsets, towers that soar in the sky well above the "temple-mountain" to which they relate. But it is also an extraordinary human achievement that the end result was obviously more important than the means to achieve it.

The first temples were built to the same pattern of Indian inspiration: a pyramidal tower of brick resting on a pedestal and not ornamented with a corbelled roof crowned with a lotus flower stone. The bricks were produced locally and then rubbed against each other to obtain a surface smooth and contiguous before being asked a simple mortar brick dust and lime was used for joints. The brickwork was then left naked or sometimes lightly coated with a colored plaster. It was only later that these temples were stuckage with an ornamental and a door jamb sandstone carvings.

The strongest influence suffered Khmer architecture is less architectural domain of symbolism, particularly that associated with Mount Meru, based on the concept of India. This symbolism is reflected both in the construction of buildings at the top of the hill through the construction of the pyramid "mountain temples." Some temples are made of 5 shrines arranged in rows that refer to the 5 peaks of Mount Meru, and are based on platforms representing the continents themselves surrounded by a moat symbolizes the ocean.

These buildings to see their dimensions greatness reinforced by the use of trompe l'oeil, as the narrowing of the stairs leading to the shrine.

But before working the stone, the Khmer were mostly excellent carpenter. The woodwork is found both in the ornamentation of buildings - has disappeared as in Angkor Wat - in construction techniques that borrow numbers of processes carpentry. The brick appears as a transitional stage between the use of wood and stone of it, permit the construction of monumental buildings.

According to current knowledge, the realization of such works should be as follows: the stones were carved in a stone quarry, which is the main Phnom Kulen, and then pierced with several holes into which wooden wedges were pressed before be wetted. Once soaked in water, they adhered strongly to the stone. They were connected by rods vines which allowed the lifting of blocks per elephant which redeposit on bamboo boats. After a sailing channel on the same process might be used to bring each stone to its final position. Once the building's architecture was then established the time of the ornamentation. The windows were cut and the door jambs carved into the walls of which sculptors came to then make the scene: several groups have succeeded, making each outline, the outline and details of the final decoration. Finally, the murals were painted both inside and outside of some monuments.

Despite the Indian inspiration construction processes used, many defects are evident and to explain the fragility of the monuments face the invasion of the surrounding nature: the absence of rotation of joints between blocks aligned instead of be arranged in rows, the lack of connection between the interior walls and exterior siding, use, for some monuments, stone of inferior quality and the runoff of rainwater, have led to shoes, to cracking and the collapse of all or part of some buildings. But the latest scourge of which is the looting and destruction it causes, exacerbates the condition of these temples by disfiguring forever.

Nevertheless, Angkor remains the magic of ceremonies to be held provided that the life that animates, at a time when Europe was in Roman art: the restoration efforts undertaken since 1920 and the use of anastylosis resurrect the glories of this unique heritage.

Links: | Cambodia History | Cambodia History the foundation of Angkor | Cambodia History Angkor Period | Cambodia History the fall of Angkor | Angkor | Angkor Wat | Preah Vihear | Cambodian Cultural Village | Bayon Angkor Thom | Banteay Srei temple | Beang Mealea | Phnom Bakheng | Phnom Kulen | Cambodia Architecture |