The
Bayon, Central Angkor Thom Mount,
late nineteenth - early eighteenth century.
The temple with more than two hundred faces. Each has four colossal faces of Buddhism turned to the four cardinal points. The Bayon was built by Jayavarman VII, a fervent Buddhist and great builder of Angkor.
In the center of the city of Angkor Thom lies the Bayon temple Royal, bristling with towers over fifty, on the four faces, faces huge smile enigmatic. |
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| Some of the 200 so gigantic faces in the temple of Bayon in the Angkor complex |
The bas-reliefs of the temple of Angkor evoke the past, with many details borrowed from everyday life |
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The Bayon temple is the center of the ancient city of Angkor Thom, capital of the Khmer rulers in the early thirteenth century. It is located at the intersection of roads north-south and east-west.
This is the last of the "temple-mountain" of Angkor, built by, restorer of the power of the Khmer kingdom of Angkor after the invasion of the Chams. Its decoration is exceptionally rich, at the height of the Mahayana Buddhist art, as it is constrained in a very small perimeter of approximately 150 m apart for the external enclosure. This great monument with its face towers was dedicated by the sovereign in which broadcast the Buddha doctrine.
During the reign of Jayavarman VIII, around 1350, the temple was converted to Hinduism and made revisions added to the impression of confusion of his plan.
The name derives from the Bayon Vejayant Pali (Sanskrit Vaijayant) denoting the celestial palace of the god Indra which, according to legend set in writing in Middle Khmer, Bayon is the earthly reflection.
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Former capital of the Khmer rulers
