Siem Reap, Cambodia –
As I pulled out a couple of dollars to drop in the donation plate, the little old lady keeper of this particular Buddha statue became very excited and animated.
First, she grabbed several lit sticks of incense, put them in my hand, and mimed what I should do (3-4 bows to the Buddha).
As I was doing what she had instructed, she grabbed a length of red yarn and quickly tied it around my left wrist.
Finally, she directed me to place the sticks of incense in a pot of sand, among the remains of many other sticks from previous visitors.
I had reached the central, highest Buddha among the many in Bayon, so I thought “while in Rome”, figuring that I would curry a little favor with the local deity.
Assuming you can call Buddha “local”.
Then again, I was in his territory.
At dinner that night, my driver asked where the yarn on my wrist had come from.
When I told him, he informed me that the yarn was for good luck.
I decided to leave it on for the remainder of my trip, as I like to have good luck, wherever I go.
The thing is, wandering about Bayon, you see these faces everywhere, on each side of every tower in the structure.
And they all sort of look like Buddha faces.
It’s kinda like those paintings where you swear that the eyes are following you around the room.
Only here it’s the Bayon watching you, wherever you might wander around the grounds.
Maybe they were subtly whispering in my ear to make that donation, along with the bows and incense, when I reached the central summit.
Quiet, subtle influence.
I’ll never know.
And I did seem to have good luck for most of my trip.
At least until the last couple of days, but maybe I had used up the good luck in the yarn on my wrist by then.
For now, though, I was firmly in the good luck column.
Even if I didn’t know it yet.
Of course, the faces at Bayon might not be the Buddha at all, but instead the face of the Emperor who built this place, watching from the great beyond, as crowds of tourists wander the grounds, climbing over the stones.
Bemused at the people wondering what the deal is with all those faces.
Kind of a large feedback loop.
Hey, once you’ve passed on, you have to do something to amuse yourself.
After all, eternity is a long time…
Of course, if those faces are the Buddha, he’s probably got a bit more to pay attention to than a few tourists wandering about one old structure.
Then again, maybe he’s the one wanting the entertainment…
It’s an interesting thought, us as entertainment for the Gods.
We’re like one great big soap opera.
Without the commercial breaks.
Maybe that’s how it all works, we’re here to provide entertainment, and once we die, where we go depends on how entertaining we were…
Yes, we’re nothing more than cat videos on the cosmic Internet…
OK, that’s probably enough blasphemy for now…
The thing is, even without the big faces, there are still lots of stone faces everywhere.
Every wall, column, and exposed space is covered with figures.
A lot of them are women in what I assume were traditional dress for the time that this place was built.
Its like they didn’t have wallpaper yet, so they had to carve it out of the stone that they were building the place with.
Overall, the place is sort of an irregularly-shaped pyramid; it’s built in a series of levels, with the innermost level being the highest. Each level has both an open-air plaza all around, and then some interior spaces.
The question I have is how they originally got from one level to the next.
There’s no sign that I saw of there ever having been any stone stairs between some of the levels.
There are wooden stairs in place today, but I’m pretty certain those aren’t original.
Something about the weather here, I don’t think those would hold up over hundreds of years.
Now, its not like there aren’t any stone stairs.
On one side of the grounds, on the base level, is a separate structure called the “Library”
It’s a smaller structure, raised up to around the same level as the second level in the main structure.
And there were stone stairs leading up to the entry.
And there were some stone steps leading up to the first level of the main building, I just didn’t see any to get to the higher levels.
Maybe they were there, but hidden underneath the wooden ones.
Or they hadn’t been restored yet.
After all, there were plenty of stones lying about that were once part of the structure, but now are stacked to the side.
I know that there are lots of columns on the backside of the main plaza, just standing there.
They used to support something.
Probably some sort of roof over those areas.
But now they’re all just sort of standing stones.
With an occasional doorway, standing by itself, with no wall on either side.
And far fewer tourists.
While the main structure was crowded with sightseers, there were very few looking at the remnants of other structures on the grounds.
In the main structure, I often had to wait before climbing from one level to the next, or to enter some narrow passageway, as there was a steady flow of people coming from the other way.
Away from the main structure, there was none of that.
I almost had the place to myself.
Of course, this part was less restored.
You had to use more of your imagination to see what it may have once looked like.
Whereas the main structure was pretty much fully restored.
Except for a missing roof here and there.
Very little imagination needed.
Maybe that explains the difference in the crowd.
The restored part is obvious, something to pay attention to.
The unrestored part is not.
Like there’s a big invisible sign saying “look over there” and “nothing to see here.”
Yep, that’s it, nothing to see here.
Go back to the main structure.
Go back and rejoin the crowd.
Be just another face in the cosmic cat video…
For more photos from Bayon, click here.
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