built around the year 1200, the Bayon
temple in Angkor Thom comprises a
central tower a hundred feet high with 54
other towers distributed throughout the
enclosure—a stone forest in the midst of the
jungle. King Jayavarman VII, commissioned
the temple be built in the center of Angkor
Thom, his new city to the north of Angkor
Wat. Scholars used to think that the faces
adorning the towers represented various
aspects of Brahma, the Hindu god and creator
of the universe. Today it’s believed that they
represent the bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be)
Avalokiteshvara. King Jayavarman’s likeness
appears to have been used as the model.chinese diplomat Zhou Da-guan, who visited
the area in 1296, described towers covered
in gold; outer galleries beautifully decorated
with rows of eight gold figures of the Buddha;
and a golden bridge, flanked by two statues
of golden lions, which served as the main
entrance to the enclosure. Today (above)
no trace of the gold coating or the gold
statues remains, but in its heyday, the site
must have been breathtaking, as the artistic
reconstruction (right) shows.GOLDEN
COMPLEX
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