Word: angkor
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...Ironically, another nadir in Cambodian-Thai relations occurred back in 2003 when Cambodian protesters - armed with false information that a Thai actress had claimed Cambodia's national treasure, the ancient city and temple complex of Angkor Wat, as actually being Thai - burned down the Thai embassy in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The incensed Thai Prime Minister at the time? None other than Hun Sen's self-proclaimed "friend," Thaksin Shinawatra...
...stand atop elephant terrace and gaze east across the Royal Square of Angkor Thom - the last capital of the Khmer empire that dominated Southeast Asia for some 600 years until the Siamese sacked the city for good in 1431 - you feel a bit like Shelley's traveler, standing before Ozymandias' half-sunk, shattered visage. All around are lifeless things - retaining walls of blotchy laterite, and sandstone temples that speak little of Angkor's former grandeur and its golden spires. There's no hint of the regal festivals that once took place right here, viewed from this same vantage by mighty...
...Still, there's no better guide to Angkor Thom than Zhou's text, which breathes life into the mute, inanimate temples - unlike most of the Angkor-related books hawked in the tatty gateway tourist town of Siem Reap. Those are mostly bogged down with encyclopedic elucidations of Hindu and Buddhist iconography, with which Zhou hardly bothers. The Bayon, with its weird smiling heads, widely considered to be hybrids of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara's face and that of the Bayon's famous Buddhist builder, Jayavarman VII, is for Zhou simply a "gold tower." The few times he does play the amateur...
...foreigners, are still minimal by world standards). Its sculptures and chedi ooze grandeur, not rot. And the Chao Sam Phraya leads the most impressive array of museums found in the country - worth much more than a day. Get a crack at meditation upon the ages: Ayutthaya is a mini-Angkor with one-tenth the crowds...
...Meanwhile, if anyone wants to visit Angkor Wat, let me know...