Angkor Thom’s Southern Gate

After watching dawn rise over Angkor Wat, we continued on with Day Two of our independent temple tour to explore Angkor Thom (which translates to Great City). This city was the last capital of the Khmer Empire, and housed the residences of priests, officials of the palace and military, and the Kingdom’s administration buildings.

While Red relaxed in our tuk-tuk, I introduced myself to the many faces that lined the bridge approaching the Southern gate, which is the best preserved of the five that lead into the 12 km quadrangle of defensive walls surrounding Angkor Thom. The eastern side of the city wall has two gates, but the southern gate is the most impressive.

On each side of the bridge leading up to this gate are fifty-four stone figures performing a famous Hindu story: the myth of the Churning of the Ocean.

In the Churning of the Ocean myth, the snake’s body is wrapped around the central mountain (Mt. Meru), and as the Guardians pulled the snake in one direction and the Demons pushed in the other, the ocean began to churn the elements to milk the ocean to form the earth and the cosmos.

A Godly Tug of War

On the left side, a row of fifty-four Guardian Gods (Devas) pull the head of the snake.

Here’s some close ups of the best preserved Gods from this side.

On the right hand side fifty-four Demon Gods (Asuras) pull the snake’s tail in the opposite direction. This is one of my favorite images from Angkor Thom, I just love how striking this well preserved face is within this section of eroded demons.

Here’s some of the my favorite Demon Gods from this side.

I have to say that the Demon side was my favorite – although they’re a grumpy looking bunch. I was so taken with these Gods that I completely forgot to take a closer look at the southern gate itself, which I’ve since read is an ornate collection of faces looking in all directions and elephants with gods on their backs carrying lightening bolts.

The Northern Gate of Angkor Thom

So as a consolation, here’s the one image I took of the Northern Gate that we drove through on the first day of our Temple tour, which we did in reverse order to avoid the crowds.

The faces above the gate portrays Lokeshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and at the bottom are the three trunks of Airavata, the three-headed elephant that was the vehicle ridden by Indra. Devas and Asuras line the bridge leading to the north bridge, but they are no where near as preserved or as impressive as the ones leading to the southern gate.

Hindsight

If I had my time at Angkor Thom again, I’d spend more time taking in the majesty of these gates, but we were in a bit of a rush to see inside of the Great City that we rushed this aspect. This is one of the challenges with viewing the temples of Angkor Thom and  Angkor Wat, there’s just so much to see you’re not going to do every building, face, or statue justice by paying it the heed it deserves.

In Angkor Thom we visited:

• The Bayon
• The Baphuon and the Terrace of the Elephants
• But I missed out on the Phimeanakas Temple, the Terrace of the Leper King, Prah Palilay, Tep Pranam and Prasat Suor Prat.

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