A bad frog day: Trade my pet for your camera, sir?

This young gentleman follow me around while I was visiting Preah Ko in Roluos the first time. After figuring out I was friendly, and being fascinated by my camera, he was offering a trade.

I had much more need of my camera than a highly annoyed frog, so I declined. He wasn’t that pleased, but his mom come over, preventing a possible meltdown.

Sometimes the care and maintenance crew from the Apsara authority bring their kids to work at the Angkor sites. Earlier it was common to use this as an opportunity to learn some English for the children, but instances of begging and worse has reduced this kind of contact in several of the sites.

Maintenance of the first temple
Preah Ko was the first Royal temple in the first larger Angkor capital Hariharalaya, appx 20 kilometre south-east of the more famous Angkor Thom city and Angkor Wat temple. The “bull temple” was honouring the Hindu deity Shiva, and was consecrated in 879 CE.

Three kneeling bull statues are in front of the main five buildings, and Ko/Go is a Khmer word for bull. Funny enough, “Ko” is the Danish word for cow, in Norwegian the word is “ku”. Making it easy for northerners to remember the name of this six tower temple.

For anyone interesting in parallel historic timelines, 878 CE was the year of the first unification of the kingdom of Norway under one king. This was the first kingdom in what would become the three kingdoms of Scandinavia today. Denmark got unified in 935, and Sweden a couple hundred years later.


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Modern colourful Lolei pagoda

The original, classic Khmer temple Prasat Lolei was placed on an island in an artificial water basin. It was the royal family temple in Hariharalaya. That was the last capital outside what we now recognise as the core Angkor Archaeological Park area around Angkor Thom north of Siem Reap.

The water is gone, but the four old temple towers are still there. Around the old temple grounds, a modern Buddhist monastery was built and still operating.

A modern Wat and Temple
The monks here were quite interested in talking to visitors, seeking information and some of them loved to practice their English. And some German too, come to that.

This photo is from inside the modern Buddhist temple, which is among the heaviest colourful temples I have seen in the Siem Reap area. But it is also very open to the sun light, making it a place of worship filled with light and colours.

I like religious buildings with this sort of character.

Under a hundred meter away, the 1100 years older holy towers connect the old and new continuous cultural history and heritage of Cambodia.

https://drzinasia.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/prasat-lolei/

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Royal honour to the grandparents

Prasat Lolei, ប្រាសាទលលៃ, is the northernmost temple in the old capital of the Khmer empire Hariharalaya. Finished in 893CE, the temple group of four towers was dedicated to Shiva and to members of the royal family by king Yasovarman I.

The two tall brick temple towers were built in honour of the king’s grandparents. The two lower towers were for his parents. King Yasovarman I was not a big fan of his father’s plans of succession. He ended up making his own succession line and legitimized right to the throne via his grandmother’s family.

Last larger Hindu temple built in Hariharalaya
It was originally a temple on an island in a now dried out water reservoir called Indratataka Baray. This was the first Baray of many built by the imperial god kings of Angkor. A temple on an island surrounded by water is probably meant to symbolise Mount Meru, home of the gods in the Hindu pantheon.

Back then it was an Ashram nearby, today there is a modern pagoda and a monastery surrounding the classic site. The interior of the modern pagoda is worth a closer look.

This was the last large temple build by the god kings in Hariharalaya. Yasovarman I later moved the capital to Yaśodharapura centred around Phnom Bakheng, near Angkor Thom/Nokor Thom as it is known today.

https://drzinasia.wordpress.com/2021/04/06/the-modern-prasat-lolei-a-colorful-cultural/

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Sunrise greeting at the first grand temple of the Khmer Empire

Mornings are the most pleasant time to visit Bakong Temple. The large stone temple gets very hot later in the day.
Bakong was the first mountain type of temple architecture design in the Khmer imperial era. It served as a state temple for king Indravarman I, in the first dedicated Khmer imperial capital at Hariharalaya.
Today this is the Roluos Group of temples east of Siem Reap City, Cambodia. Other well-known temples here is Preah Koh and Lolei.

Large Hindu influence
The temple was dedicated to Shiva, and its main consecrated image was a lingam called Sri Indresvara. This step pyramid mountain temple draws inspiration from other large Hindu temples in the region built around the same time. Most notably the fantastic Borobudur temple in Java, outside Yogyakarta.
Bakong temple was the last large construction in Hariharalaya. Indravarman’s son and heir Yasovarman I moved the capital to Phnom Bakheng in the early 900s. Bakheng Hill is just south of what we today call Angkor Thom, the big (capital) city.

For those interested in comparative historical timeline, this temple was finished as a state temple in 881CE. In Norway, the first unification of the kingdom under one superior king established the first larger Nordic kingdom.

#Firstcapital #khmer #empire #2018CE #ancient #881CE #Angkor #ApsaraAuthority #architecture #archivephoto #art #Asia #ប្រាសាទបាគងរលួស #backcountry #bakong #BakongTemple #bike #biking #bikingintheangkorwonderland #bluesky #Buddhism #Cambodia #capitalcity #citylife #classic #countryside #daytrip #dirttrack #greentourism #Hariharalaya #Hinduism #history #humanheritage #imperial #Indravarman #Kampuchea #lolei #mobilephoto #monks #morningbiking #Note9 #novices #offthebeatentrack #AOTBT #Pagoda #PrasatBakong #PrasatLollei #PrasatPreahKoh #ricefield #roadtrip #roluos #roluosgroup #SiemReab #SiemReap #southeastasia #sunrise #travel #visitcambodia #visitsiemreap #worldculturalheritage
A trip down memory lane - my last temple of the trip - Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia http://bit.ly/3Zf2Oei #Lolei #ប្រាសាទលលៃ #AngkorArchaeologicalPark #Angkor #Cambodia
Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia

Temple number 10. “Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia” is published by Nick’s Wanderings.

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A trip down memory lane - Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia - my tenth and last temple http://bit.ly/3Zf2Oei #Lolei #ប្រាសាទលលៃ #AngkorArchaeologicalPark #Angkor #Cambodia
Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia

Temple number 10. “Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia” is published by Nick’s Wanderings.

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A trip down memory lane - visiting Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia http://bit.ly/3Zf2Oei #Lolei #ប្រាសាទលលៃ #AngkorArchaeologicalPark #Angkor #Cambodia
Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia

Temple number 10. “Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia” is published by Nick’s Wanderings.

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A trip down memory lane - exploring Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia http://bit.ly/3Zf2Oei #Lolei #ប្រាសាទលលៃ #AngkorArchaeologicalPark #Angkor #Cambodia
Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia

Temple number 10. “Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia” is published by Nick’s Wanderings.

Medium
A trip down memory lane - Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia http://bit.ly/3Zf2Oei #Lolei #ប្រាសាទលលៃ #AngkorArchaeologicalPark #Angkor #Cambodia
Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia

Temple number 10. “Cambodia — Day 3: Lolei (ប្រាសាទលលៃ), Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor, Cambodia” is published by Nick’s Wanderings.

Medium