A Travellers Recount of Angkor in 1935

The great temple at Angkor, which was erected during the latter part of the Khymer civilisation, about a mile from Angkor Thom, that “royal city” which lay majestically within the vast Khymer capital somewhat as the For-bidden City lies within Peiping, used to be surrounded by an expansive moat. This moat was 200 yards wide, and across it to the grand entrance was laid a stone causeway of tremendous size and substance. The entrance was flanked by a long colonnade with-in which stood statuary, and whose walls were covered with, bas-relief his-toric and religious portrayals, some of them undoubtedly decorated with gold. These were cut with marvellous artistic skill put of stone so hard as to leave them today as clear and distinct as though the work had been, of yesterday.

Nothing like them exists elsewhere on earth. They are better preserved than those of the great Boraboeder, in Java, and as lifelike, and they tell in clear and unmistakable terms the story of the rise of a great people, of their struggle, physical and economic and spiritual, and of their final triumph. They tell, also, the story of the decline of this mighty race, of the fruitless attempts to stay it, of the final dissolution and disappearance of which we have no record, of the. details of which no man can do more than guess.

There lies the mystery, the incentive to speculation, the impetus to the fancy. Why did such a people fall, when and in what manner? Sir Hugh Clifford, who knows as much about Malayasia, perhaps, as any man alive, says the slaves,*maddened* by being compelled to toil incredibly in order that all this grandeur be developed and maintained, revolted, de-stroyed their masters and then themselves in the endeavor to rule. Others believe the hostile climate was the cause, and still, others speculate along many lines. No one knows. It is a mystery, perhaps the greatest racial mystery since time began. And as tonight we sit and dream upon the water-surrounded- terrace before those strange towers, it adds to the fascination of it all and strengthens the spell that is being woven about us.

Within the main entrance to the temple another long, broad esplanade leads to the mighty sanctuary itself, with its double colonnade, its great ceremonial basins, its long, steep flights of stairs, its cornices and its galleries, and, crowning all, its five towers, those towers which, as the day wanes, are bathed in as many colors as the Pyramids at sundown and in an even deeper mystery. Within the colonnades are more and even finer bas-reliefs, religious statues that even yet retain some of their gold and enamel and lacquer. And of the noble design of the architect whose art few men who have lived since then could imitate, or would dare attempt, scarce an outline has been lost.

Nowhere in all the mighty structure is there a trace of cement, yet-so neatly fit the great stones, some of them weighing many tons, and placed at a height of more than a hundred feet from the ground, that never a knife blade could be inserted between them. By what means, over how long a period, with the assistance of how many thousands of workers, achieved the master artists and craftsmen of Angkor this stupendous, beautiful, mysterious thing? And how looked it when, in all the glory of its gold and lacquer and polished stone added to the incomparable artistry of its design, it gleamed and flamed in the, burning midday sun, or glowed softly in the moonlight with the ethereal delicacy of another Taj Mahal?

The wonder of Angkor? I see that I have already said a good deal and told you really nothing. And just beyond, a mile along the shaded jungle-bordered way, is the entrance to the “royal city,” to Angkor Thom. Within are other bewildering remains, so well preserved it is *scarcely* more accurate to call them “ruins” than to apply the word to the great temple.

The Colonial Government has cleared the fast-growing tropical foliage from many of them, and is carrying on the work with hundreds of native laborers, some of them, one doubts not, descendants of the ancient race, even as are the girls who danced the other night in the torchlight on the temple esplanade.

Archaeologists believe there is much more that is yet unknown and undiscovered, over which the jungle has placed its broad hand requiring energetic effort to force aside. But already there is revealed the great Terrace of the Elephants, the marvelous “Bayon,” the remains of the royal palace, the halls of state, the palaces of the .rich and powerful, some of them bearing the faces of Brahma, manifest of the faith of the founders of the Khymer race long ere that faith was altered to Buddhism.

Huge are some of those faces which surmount the “Bayon” temple. And, feeling a sudden aspiration to craftsmanship, I climbed up on one of the massive heads one day as I was wandering alone about Angkor Thom. I found foothold first upon a. lip, then upon a nose, then upon an ear, and at length, I stood atop the very head, high in the air. upon a vantage point whence there unfolded a never-to-be-forgotten scene, the ruins rising everywhere out of the emerald-green jungle, another face of Brahma staring upon me from close by with majestic disdain, another beyond, and yet a dozen more,’ clearcut bas-reliefs all about every stone of the structure itself adorned with some sort of design, everywhere beauty, even in disintegration, everywhere art, everywhere mystery.

Around an eighteen-mile radius which now you may traverse over hard, level roads, remains will discover themselves to you at every *road* and around every turn. They marked the bounds of such a city as even modernity has not often known. It was the capital of a nation which included all of what men call Cambodia, Siam, part of the Malay Peninsula, much of Indo-China beyond Cambodia, possible some of Burma.

It was a mighty kingdom and its people were a cultured people to an extent that would have amazed Europe, then in the grip of what history-called the ”Dark Âges.” But Europe knew nothing of these people, nor they, in all likelihood, of Europe. Great as was their country, the jungle and the unknown sea bordered it and few men braved the mysteries of either. And so none knew of their decline, of the disintegration and disappearance into [the mists of unrecorded history. It is one of the marvels of all time, but it only intensifies the fascination that holds you in thrall when you look upon these stupendous ruins of Angkor. – M.T.G