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Ancient Temples and the Ramayana

Regaining control of the Angkor Wat temple from the Cham dynasty, who had inhabited the complex for some time. Jayavarman was a follower of Mahayana Buddhism and was likely the source for Angkor Wat's conversion to the Buddhist faith.11 At this time it is believed the statue of Vishnu at the center of the temple complex was removed and a Buddhist statue was put in its place.
             Angkor Wat initially seems to follow the traditional state temple architecture of the Khmer empire. The central temple stands as a representation of the home of the gods, Mount Meru with each of the temple's five prominent towers resembling the five peaks of the mountain. 1 In order to access the central temple, one must first traverse the one hundred and ninety meter wide moat that encompasses the entirety of Angkor Wat's central structures. This body of water and the wall incised thirty meters from its inner banks stand in as representations of the mountains and oceans that surround Mount Meru.1 The architectural planning of Angkor deviates from normalcy beyond these structures. Unlike many of the remaining Khmer temples, the Angkor complex is oriented to the west rather than to the traditional east. Furthermore, while the reliefs found on a majority of the walls read in a clockwise fashion, the highly ornate reliefs found within the temple's inner most gallery complex and southern outer wall proceed in a counter clockwise direction, reading from right to left in complete contradiction to parikrama, a Hindu custom that will be discussed later in this paper. These two deviations in architectural design, coupled with the known fact that many Hindu rituals are performed in reverse during funeral services have lead the conclusion that King Suryavarman the second intended the Angkor complex to be is final resting place. This notion is further reinforced by dictations from several of the original surveyors that describe a container that was recovered from the central tower, one that follows the traditional description of a Khmer funerary jar.


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