Bayon, Temples of Angkor

The Bayon, the temple of the many mystic smiles.....
It is early morning when we arrive here, the sun has just gone up, but enough so for the sun rays to light up the temple and the columns with the smiling faces in stone. This place is unique, with its enormous faces carved in the stone, and that small touch of a smile. And I feel so blessed that I have the chance to visit and see it with my own eyes.

The Bayon is part of the temples of Angkor, and it is located in the center of the city of Angkor Thom. It was built during the reign of the famous King Jayavarman VII from the late 12th century to early 13th century, approximately 100 years after Angkor Wat.

Its magic is does not appear from a distance, where it looks more like a pile of stones. But when you come closer to and inside the temple which is - to my surprise - very open, the faces start to appear and reveal its magic on you.

Bayon has 54 towers (37 standing) and as many as 216 faces, all of an ever smiling Avalokiteshvara; a Bodhisattva or an art of an enlightenment-being.

The main temple mountain of the Bayon Temple is surrounded by two galleries holding an extraordinary collection of bas-relief scenes of legendary and historical events. It has over 1.2 Km of bas-reliefs on the outer wall of the outer gallery with more than 11.000 carved figures. They were probably originally painted, but this has long since faded. Most of them depict every day's life scene of the Cambodia in the XII century and the battle between the Khmer and Champa.

You've seen the faces and the bass reliefs, but there is more than just that to the Bayon. There is such a charm to the Bayon, which is hard to describe in words or even photos. Just take your time and wander through its complex maze of chambers, passages, and occasionally steep stairways, and discover the Bayon in leasure. You might end up in dead ends, where big beams block the entrance; come across one of the many Buddha statues dressed in orange, or simply see another pair of those mystic smiles but from a totally different but mesmerizing angle.

To be honest, I visited the Bayon twice, as I couldn't get enough of this place. (One early morning as mentioned before. And during early morning there was already quite a crowd visiting the Bayon). But the second visit was during a late afternoon. My tuktuk passed the Bayon on the way, and while admiring the Bayon from the tuk-tuk, I suddenly realized it was 'relatively' deserted. So I quickly requested my driver to stop, and I quickly hopped out to do a spontenous visit to the Bayon. And what a great decision this was! The stone faces were lit up by the sun, and once more I got myself lost in the labyrinth of chambers, passages and towers and the ever smiling stone faces.