The Bayon, Angkor Thom
The Bayon at Angkor Thom is famed for its serene stone faces carved into dozens of towers, offering visitors a striking glimpse into Khmer art and spirituality.
The Bayon, Angkor Thom
The Bayon stands at the precise centre of Angkor Thom, the walled capital built by Jayavarman VII at the end of the twelfth century. It is the last great temple raised at Angkor and the strangest: a dense, compact mass of towers rather than a spreading plan.
What makes it unmistakable are the faces - more than two hundred of them, carved four to a tower, each several metres high, gazing out over the four cardinal directions with the same faint smile. Whether they represent the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the king himself, or both deliberately, is still argued. Moving through the upper terrace means passing them continuously at close range, which is the experience people remember.
The outer galleries carry bas-reliefs quite unlike Angkor Wat's mythological scenes: these show ordinary twelfth-century life - markets, cockfights, cooking, a naval battle against the Chams - and are among the best records of the period anywhere.
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