On temples...

I could spend all day walking around temples. I love the tranquillity and the lingering scent of incense pervading your nostrils. Travelling through this part of the world, I was spoiled for choice for great temples to visit. Obviously at the top of my list was the temple city of Angkor in Cambodia. More about that in a moment.

I was surprised by the difference in temple styles between the countries. Because the population of South East Asia predominantly practices Theravada Buddhism, I assumed most of the temples would be fairly similar. Not so.

Obviously the time during which they were built has a bearing – different styles are popular at different times but temples built a couple of hundred years apart in the same country still bear reasonable comparison.

For example, the temples I visited in Laos were far more ornately decorated than elsewhere: huge panels of intricate carvings adorning outer walls covered in gold leaf, walls and pillars covered with delicate patterns in gold paint, hundreds of tiny golden Buddha effigies set into walls. Anything that can be gilded, is. Not every temple was like this, but even less established ones in poorer areas still had grandiose décor to them. The solemnity of each was still inescapable despite the grandeur.

In Vietnam, they were less ostentatious but no less beautiful. The Zen temple complex in Da Lat was particularly striking – made of huge pieces of dark hardwood, with arresting bronze panels showing scenes from the Buddha’s life story, set in immaculate gardens with large Bonzai-like trees and neatly manicured lawns criss-crossed by small streams and dotted with ponds.

Or the somewhat garish Buddhist/Catholic/Taoist temple near Saigon, with huge dragon-wrapped pillars, all-seeing eyes staring down from window reliefs and effigies of demons above doorways. All watching over a mixed faith ceremony combining elements from each religion: streams of pungent incense, choral voices and bizarre eastern instruments combine into a heady mix of mysticism and dogmatic ceremony.

Temples in Cambodia are a strange affair. The majority were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, so what you see now are either newer temples built since, or very old huge monolithic structures like those at Angkor. These were left fairly unscathed during that period, as they were seen as a symbol of Khmer strength and capability. However, any statues within the complex were defaced or destroyed altogether during the agrarian reforms imposed by Pol Pot’s clique.

Angkor is almost impossible to describe; you just have to see it. A city of temple cities dating from 9^th to 15^th century, built by various kings and self-proclaimed ‘god-kings’ of Buddhist and/or Hindu faith depending on what period. Vast structures in black sandstone which, anywhere else on Earth, would be a huge spectacle are mere sideshows at the sideshow to the main event. Some entirely coated in wall carvings, with huge faces smiling at you from all angles. Others stark and rugged, some labyrinthine, many crumbling or being swallowed up by plants and trees. All of them rising out of the steaming jungle and home to huge numbers of frogs, monkeys, snakes and myriad insects. You can explore the complex for weeks and still not see all it has to offer. If you include the infrastructure surrounding Angkor (canals and roads etc) it covers an area over 1000 km² making it the largest human settlement prior to the industrial revolution, and comparable in size to modern day Los Angeles.

The sunrise over the main temple - Angkor Wat - was one of the most beautiful moments of the journey: mirrored in a still pond, two suns peel away in polar ascent over the holy mountain peaks of the temple spires and through the haze of clouds. Worlds are shattered as darkness is ushered away, we all reborn and the earth is made anew. A genesis of indescribable beauty. Holy is the space between spaces, the pools of light. Fractal on fractal. The day and the night.