C o s m o lo g y S h a p e s D e s i g n o f A n g k o r W a t

Temple
Dr Uday Dokras

The Khmer temple was designed as a microcosm of the Hindu cosmological

universe.Moving from the temple’s entrance to the sanctuary at its center, the
visitor undergoes a symbolic three-staged journey to salvation through
enlightenment.Each of the steps are laid out in the exhibit at right.

Stage 1: Moat as Cosmic Sea

The outermost boundary of a Khmer temple was often surrounded by a moat, a

body of water symbolic of the Cosmic Sea (blue highlights above). For Hindus,
the Cosmic Sea is the source of creative energy and life, the starting point for
the journey toward salvation.The temple visitor begins his journey by crossing
the sea on causeways lined with serpents, beasts similarly intimately
associated with both Hindu and Khmer myths of creation (we explore the
serpent in detail in our guidebook to Angkor).
Stage 2: Enclosure Walls as Sacred Mountain Ranges
Continuing on his way to the center of the temple, the visitor passes through a
series of massive enclosure walls; these walls recreate sacred mountain ranges,
symbolic of obstacles that must be overcome on the path to enlightenment
(green highlights in Fig. 1). Monumental tower gateways, called gopurams,
grant the visitor passage through the walls, each successive one revealing a
more sacred area, farther removed from the outside world.
The combination of concentric enclosure walls with large gateways was derived
directly from South Indian Hindu architectural precedent. Enclosure walls
make their first appearance very early in the Khmer building tradition — at the
late 9th century pre-Angkor site of Roluos in the temples of Preah Ko, Bakong
and Lolei — and are a constant feature in all subsequent temples.

Stage 3: Five Sanctuary Towers as Mount Meru

At the center of the temple stand sanctuaries with tower superstructures (red highlights
above previous page fig.).

 The mountain residence of the gods. Under Hindu cosmology, the gods
have always been associated with mountains. The sanctuary’s form,
dominated by its large tower, recreates the appearance of the gods’
mountaintop residence, Mount Meru. The mountaintop residence of the
gods carried particular symbolic resonance for the Khmer people.
 God’s cave. The sanctuary proper, located directly under the tower, is
where an image of the deity resides (see exhibit at right). Its dark interior is
designed to represent the cave into which god descends from his mountain
home and becomes accessible to human beings.
  The sacred intersection. At the Hindu temple’s sanctuary, the worlds of
the divine and living connect: the god’s vertical axis (mountaintop to cave)
intersects with the visitor’s horizontal axis (temple entrance to cave). The
entire universe emanates from this intersection, as unity with god is the
goal of earthly existence. In Hinduism, god is believed to temporarily
physically inhabit his representation in the sanctuary; the Hindu temple is
arranged to enable the direct devotee-to-deity interaction that necessarily
follows. Unlike other faiths, there is no religious intermediary and no
abstraction; god is manifest before the devotee’s eyes, a profound
encounter.
It is here, among the peaks of Mount Meru, that the visitor’s symbolic journey
ends in nirvana: the pairs of opposites characteristic of worldly existence (e.g.,
good versus bad, right versus wrong) fuse into a single infinite everythingness
beyond space and time.
FOLLOWING QUOTE FROM THE ERUDITE ARTICLE- THE ANGKOREAN
TEMPLE-MOUNTAIN
Diversity, Evolution, Permanence-: Thierry Zephir

In many ancient religions, mountain tops—from the Greeks’ Mt. Olympus to

the highest Himalayas of Hindu mythologywere believed to be the privileged
home of the gods. Southeast Asia, largely dependent on India for its principal
religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, is no exception. On the island of Java in
Indonesia, for example, the ancient holy site of Dieng was established in the
crater of an extinct volcano. Its name in old Javanese, Di Hyang (in Sanskrit,
Devalaya), means, in effect, “home of the Gods.”
In Cambodia, in the classic Khmer architecture of the Angkorean period, we
find a temple type in which the sanctuary is built atop a stepped pyramid.
Nineteenth century archaeologists called these “temple- mountains.” Each
important sovereign was apparently obliged to build one in order to establish
his power (see Stern 1954).

Let us explore this architectural expression of royal eminence through three of

its aspects: diversity, evolution, and permanence.
Diversity: the Symbolism of the Temple-Mountain
In the Indian religious context, a sanctuary functions primarily as the
terrestrial dwelling place of the gods, the place from which they will be able to
provide aid and prosperity to humankind. Many countries of Southeast Asia
were under Indian influence; each resolved in its own way the problem of
creating a divine residence in the world of human beings. Generally, architects
and builders based the construction of their sanctuaries on strict religious
texts (unfortunately, we have none from ancient Cambodia). To the rules pre-
scribed by these texts were added numerous others relating to astronomy,
geomancy, or numerology, the meanings of which are often lost today. Our lack
of knowledge of almost everything that guided the creation of the sanctuaries
makes it difficult to understand them and to explain their symbolism.
In Cambodia, however, the study of local ancient epigraphy has furnished a
variety of insights into the symbolism of religious architecture. In the light of
some of these inscriptions, we can make a connection between Mount Meru,
the center and axis of the universe in Indian cosmography, and certain temple-
mountains of Angkor, the ancient Khmer capital. These structures provide an
image, a kind of representation of Mount Meru on a human scale. The best
known example is the sanctuary built around A.D. 906 on the top of Phnom
Bakheng, the precise center of Yasodharapura, Angkor’s first capital (Fig. 2). In
addition to being constructed on one of the rare hills (phnom in Khmer) of the
region, the monument was conceived as a square pyramid with five levels.
Locating the pyramid on a natural hill at the geometric center of the royal city
underlines the symbolic identification of the monument, center and axis of the
city, with Mount Meru, center and axis of the universe.
In fact, the temple of Phnom Bakheng restates, with much greater complexity,
the symbolic principles expressed earlier at the temple of the Bakong, founded
in A.D. 881. At the Bakong, the summit of the five-level pyramid is occupied by
a single sanctuary tower, whereas 5 towers arranged in a quincunx (a square of
4 towers with a fifth in the center) occupy the summit of Phnom Eakheng.
Again, 12 temple annexes occupy the fourth level of the Eakong, but at Phnom
Bakheng these 12 annexes appear on each of the five levels. Finally, only 8
large brick sanctuary towers are distributed at the foot of the Eakong, whereas
44 comparable towers ring the base of the Phnom Bakheng pyramid.
The temple-mountains of the Eakong and the Eakheng seem to suggest similar
symbolic considerations in their main features, although those of the latter are
more lavish. But the interpretation of the other temple-mountains at the
Angkor site is different, at least in part. No temple-mountain of Angkor is truly
comparable to another. Contrast the simplicity of the early temple of Eaksei
Chamkrong (Fig. 3) with the immense complexity of the Bayon (Fig. 4). Eaksei
Chamkrong was founded under the reign of Harsavarman I as the
representation of Mount Kai lasa, private domain of the god Siva; the Eayon
was the state temple of Jayavarman VII in which secular symbolic Hindu
principles and new Mahayana conceptions from the reign of the founding king
were unified.

If there was any continuity in the function of the temple-mountain, it was

above all as the seat of the protective divinity of the realm. In addition to
personal prestige and the exaltation of his chosen divinity (usually the god
Siva), each builder had in mind special concerns such as his ancestral cult or
that of the royal person. His successors did not necessarily care about these
concerns, at least not in the same way.
What we know about temple-mountains at the present time, therefore, seems
to confound any attempt at analysis based on firm, well-established principles
of continuity. It is better to regard each of these creations of Khmer
architectural genius as the specific expression of changing religious principles
at a particular period, in response to rules that were probably evolving from
one reign to another.

Angkor, the great medieval city located near the Tonlé Sap (the "Great Lake") in
northwestern Cambodia, was abandoned by Khmer rulers in the fifteenth
century in an effort to find a capital that could be more easily defended against
the expansionistic Thais. In the ensuing centuring - called the first "dark age"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. C o s m o l o g y S h a p e s D e s i g n o f A n g k o r W a t T e m p l e By David Raezer
Zephir, .Thierry"The Angkorean Temple-Mountain" Expedition Magazine 37.3 (1995): n.
pag. Expedition Magazine. Penn Museum, 1995 Web. 31 Oct 2021
http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=4853

2. The Legacy of Angkor, Charles Keyes 1990

 3. Banter Srei- jewel of Khmer art-Daredevil Twilight, Virginia Brownback, Half Meadow
Press,2012

of Khmer history (the second being that instituted by the Khmer Rouge under
Pol pot) - Angkor become a ruin, destroyed as much by the inexorable
expansion of nature as by the destructive acts of humans. Although it was
never really lost to Khmers, who recalled the past glories of Angkor in folktales,
it ceased to be the cultural center of Khmer civilization after the fifteenth
century.
In 1860 the French explorer Henri Mouhot made his way to ancient ruins
surrounded by jungle in the vicinity of the Tonlé Sap. Mouhot has sometimes
been wrongly credited with having discovered Angkor, but his description of the
ruins in his Le Tour du Monde did awaken the outside world to one of the great
architectural wonders of history. Mouhot's "discovery" ushered in a period of
interest French interest in Angkor, an interest that led the French government
to support, through that Ecole Francaise d'Extrême-Orient, archaeological and
historical researches into the character of Angkorean civilization. In the
twentieth century, the colonial government of Indochina also contributed
considerable funds toward Angkor's reconstruction.

The research and reconstruction undertaken by the colonial government not

only contributed significantly to worldwide awareness of the uniqueness of the
great civilization that khmers had developed, but also sharped the historical
consciousness of the Khmer themselves as a nation. Angkor become, and
remains today, the preeminent symbol of Khmer national identity.
Angkorean Civilization

Although myths place the founding of Angkorean civilization in the ancient

past, historical records per mit the dating of its beginning in the early ninth
century A.D. A king known to posterity as Jayavarman II (c. 802-850) erected
his capital near the Great Lake, from which he and his court could obtain a
regular supply of fish to eat with the rice produced in the fertile fields irrigated
by the lake. Jayavarman II gained the support of the populace, apparently
because the rituals of his court were seen as essential to ensuring the fertility
of the land. He began what is known as the cult of the devaraja (the "god-king")
by identifying himself with the Hindu god Siva and representing the potency of
both god and king in the from of a phallic image known as a linga. All
subsequent kings of Angkor also equated themselves through ritual and the
monuments with a sacred power, sometimes Hindu, sometimes Mahayana
Buddhist.

Angkor, which is a Khmer version of the Sanskrit term nagara ("city"), was in
fact a succession of sacred cities that served as the capital of the rulers of an
empire from the ninth o the fifteenth centuries. Each pyramidal-shaped
structure or temple that we so associate with Angkor was a re-creation in stone
of the cosmology by which the Khmer rulers ordered their lives and that of
their subjects. Through such buildings, the rulers of Angkor sought to bring
the world of strife and struggle into harmony with ultimate order. The
identification of the kind with a Hindu (or Buddhist) deity become complete at
the time of the King's death. The shrine he had built during his lifetime
become, after his death, his immortal body. Members of the royal family and
the aristocracy emulated the ruler by erecting many more shrines in the capital
and provincial centers.

The culmination of the pyramid-temple form, which represents in stone and

space he sacred center of the universe, Mt. Meru, was realized in the twelfth
century with the construction of unquestionably the most well-known
monument at Angkor, Angkor Wat. Although the name Angkor Wat means
"pagoda of the capital," it was not, in its original conception, a Buddhist temple
(wat), but was, rather, dedicated to to god Visnu.
The cult of Visnu did not survive for very long as the exclusive religion of
Angkor. King Jayavarman VII (1181 to the early thirteenth century), the best
remembered king of the Angkorean period, sought (apparently form his wife's
influence)religious inspiration from Mahayana Buddhism rather than from
Hinduism. This inspiration did not lead Jayavarman VII to make a radical
break with the architectural and inconographic traditions that had preceded
his reign. His city, Angkor Thom, still centered on a representation of the
sacred Mt. Meru, but he added new Buddhist elements to his shrine. Like
Angkor Wat, the Bayon (temple mountain) has basreliefs. These are not,
however, scenes from the lives of Visnu or Rama; rather they are scenes from
the world of humans, the most important of the worlds in the Buddhist realm
of feeling and desire, Aside from their religious meaning, these murals tell us
much about life in Angkor at the time. The higher elevations of the shrine
represent the realm of the gods, a realm dominated by the Bodhisattva,
Lokesvara, whose compassion for all humans can assist them in achieving
ultimate salvation.

The images of Lokesvara that dominate the Bayon have long captured the
attention of visitors. Pierre Loti, in his Pélerin d'Angkor, wrote: "I looked up at
the tree-covered towers which dwarfed me, when all of a sudden mu blood
curdled as I saw an enormous smile looking down on me, and then another
smile on another wall, then three, then five, then ten appearing in every
direction." The faces represent not only the Bodhisattva alone; they are also of
Jayavarman VII, who has become the Buddharaja, the king who is also a
Buddha. The images looking in many directions were indicative of Jayavarman
VII's control over a vast domain. While Jayavarman's authority may have been
extended over a larger territory than his predecessors, the Angkorean world
had long included much of what today is not only Cambodia, but also most of
northeastern and much of central Thailand, central and southern Laos, and
southern Vietnam.
The account of Chou Ta-kuan, a Chinese envoy to Angkor at the end of the
thirteenth century, reveals that much of the populace as well as many in the
elite adhered to that form of Buddhism known as the "Way of Elders,"
Theravada, although the Chinese themselves termed it Hinayana (the "lesser
vehicle") in contrast to their own from of Buddhism, Mahayana (the "greater
vehicle"). With the adoption of Theravada Buddhism, much of the rational for
the monumental architecture of Angkor disappeared since people found greater
appeal in the rituals performed in small shrines by Buddhist monks than in
those performed by kings and priests in large temples.
As the rational for Angkorean civilization was undermined, so too did the
military power of Angkor decline. In the fourteenth century a number of new
states were formed by Tai-speaking peoples in what is today Thailand and
Laos. Although the Tai from Ayutthaya attacked and defeated Angkor in the
fifteenth century, it is more appropriated to see Ayutthaya as one of a number
of successor states to Angkor - including also those of Lan Xang (Laos) and
Phnom Penh - rather than as an aggressor intent on destroying Khmer culture.
The court of these new Tai kingdoms, like that of Phnom Penh, derived most of
their ideas about statecraft from Angkor.

The Politics of History

Although Thais and Lao lay some claim to the heritage of Angkor, it is the
Khmers for whom Angkor holds the greatest historical significance. The various
parties to the conflict that has so torn apart the country of Cambodia in the
past two decades disagree about many things, but they have all looked to
Angkor as the wellspring of Khmer identity. The national flags of the kingdom
of Cambodia under Prince Sihanouk, the Khmer Republic headed by General
Lon Nol, Democratic Kampuchea under Pol Pot and in its reincarnated form as
a coalition of the Khmer rouge, the Khmer Peoples National Liberation front
(under Son Sann), and followere of Prince Sihanouk, and the People's republic
of Kampuchea (now the State of Cambodia) under Heng Samrin and Hun Sen
all display an image of Angkor Wat, albeit somewhat different in each case.
Today, the icon most likely to be encountered in an office in Phnom Penh is not
a picture of a revolutionary hero but a painting, photo, or carved image of
Angkor Wat. Similarly, at events involving Khmer refugees, images of Angkor
Wat are likely to be very much in evidence.

The consensus - signified in the images on their flags and in other forms -
among of Khmers that Angkor is the preeminent symbol of their civilization has
not prevented the extremely destructive fratricide that has taken place in
Cambodia since 1970. Beneath the consensus lie fundamentally different
interpretations of what aspects of Angkorean civilization should be retained in
contemporary Khmer culture.
Angkorean antiquities must have been, and still must be, extraordinarily
difficult to resist.

Sra Srang, roughly translated as Royal Bath, is an artificial lake used for ceremonies and
royal baths during the Angkor time. Now it's an ideal place to watch the sunrise.

In Cambodia, Angkor is the heart and soul. It's anything and everything: on the
flag, the national beer, hotels and guest houses, cigarettes. It's a symbol of
nationhood and pride. It's n unforgettable experience with which few sights in
the world compare. See the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat, a spectacular
fusion of symbolism, symmetry and spirituality; Bayon, weirdness in stone;
and Ta Prohm, where nature triumphs over stone - before venturing further
afield to the feminine Banteay Srei and the jungle-clad Beng Mealea.

Mother of temples

Angkor Wat, the largest and undoubtedly the most breathtaking of the
monuments at Angkor, is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in
the world. It is a perfect and enduring example of man's devotion to his gods.

Many scholars believe it was built as a funerary temple for Suryavarman II to

honor Vishnu, the Hindu deity with whom the king identified, because the
temple is oriented toward the west, symbolically the direction of death.

I was totally overwhelmed the moment I passed the entrance, struck by its
imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its beguiling apsaras (heavenly
nymphs), its fascinating decorations and extensive bas-reliefs. Before then I
didn't grasp how tiny and insignificant we humans are in the sweep of history
and civilization.
Pious men at the time of Angkor must have been ecstatic in these multiple
layers of meaning in stone, in much the same way a scholar might be
enraptured in James Joyce's "Ulysses."

Like the other temple-mountains of Angkor, Angkor Wat also replicates the
spatial universe. The central tower is Mt Meru, with its surrounding smaller
peaks, bounded in turn by continents (the lower courtyards) and the oceans
(the moat). The seven-headed naga (serpent deity) becomes a symbolic rainbow
bridge for man to reach the abode of the gods.

Mysterious faces

Unlike Angkor Wat, which looks impressive from all angles, Bayon looks rather
like a pile of rubble from the distance. It's only when you enter the temple and
make your way up to the third level that its magic becomes apparent.

Shrouded in dense jungle and standing in the exact center of the Angkor
Thom, Bayon is a place of narrow corridors, steep stairs and, best of all, a
collection of 54 gothic-like towers decorated with 216 enormous smiling faces
of Avalokiteshvara that resemble the great king Jayavarman VII himself.

These huge heads either look into the distance or glare down from every angle,
showing power and control with a hint of humanity. As I walked around, a
dozen or more of the heads are visible at any one time - full-face or in profile,
almost level with your eyes or staring down from above.

Power of jungle

Several kilometers west of the Bayon, Ta Prohm is undoubtedly the most

atmospheric ruin at Angkor. Its appeal lies in the fact that, unlike the other
monuments, it used to be swallowed by the jungle.
But now the jungle is cleared and only the largest trees are left in place,
making it manicured rather than raw like Beng Mealea, which is 80 kilometers
away. If Angkor Wat, the Bayon and other temples are testimony to the genius
of the ancient Khmers, Ta Prohm reminds me equally of the overwhelming
power of the jungle.

Originally known as Monastery of the King, it is a temple of towers, closed

courtyards and narrow corridors, many of which are impassable, blocked with
piles of delicately carved stones covered by the roots of decayed trees.
Trees, hundreds of years old - some supported by flying buttresses - tower
overhead, their leaves filtering the sunlight and casting a greenish pall over the
whole scene.

The most popular root formation is that on the inside of the easternmost
gopura (entrance pavilion) of the central enclosure, nicknamed the Crocodile
Tree. It used to be possible to climb onto the damaged galleries, but this is now
prohibited to protect both the temple and visitors.
treasure

“Despite having the eighth wonder of the world in its backyard, Cambodia's
greatest treasure is actually its people. The Khmers have been to hell and back,
struggling through years of poverty and social instability. But thanks to their
unbreakable spirit and optimism, they have prevailed with their smiles intact;
no visitor comes away from the nation without admiration and affection for the
inhabitants of this enigmatic kingdom.
At the center of Angkor Wat are five towers that represent the five peaks of
Mount Meru. The round towers mark out the corners and the center of the
innermost square of the complex. Like the mountain peaks they represent, the
towers are pointed on top. The pinnacle of each tower is slightly lighter than
the surrounding black stone in this image.

Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मे रु), also recognized

as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked
mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the
centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.[1]
Many famous Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples have been built as symbolic
representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne" 須彌座 xūmízuò style
base is a common feature[citation needed] of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the
finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents
Mount Meru.
Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain is Meru (Pāli Meru), to which
is added the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru"
or "wonderful Meru". Meru is also the name of the central bead in a mālā.
In other languages, Mount Meru is pronounced:

1. Burmese: ([mjɪ̰ɴ mò tàʊɰ̃])

2. Chinese: 須彌山 (Xūmíshān)
3. Japanese: 須弥山 (Shumisen)
4. Javanese: ꦱꦼꦩꦺꦫꦸ (Semeru)
5. Kannada: ಮೇರು ಪರ್ವತ
6. Khmer: ភ្នព្រ
ំ ះសុមេរុ (Phnom Preah Someru) or (Phnom Preah Somae)
7. Korean: 수미산 (Sumisan)
8. Malayalam: മഹാമേരു പർവ്വതം (Mahameru Parvatham)
9. Pāli: Sineru
10. Tamil: மகா மேரு மலை
11. Telugu: మేరు పర్వతం
12. Tibetan: ཪི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རི་རབ་
13. Thai: เขาพระสุเมรุ (Khao phra sumen)
14. Vietnamese: Núi Tu-di

GEOGRAPHY; The dimensions attributed to Mount Meru — which all refer to it

as a part of the Cosmic Ocean, along with several other statements that
describe it in geographically vague terms (e.g., "the Sun along with all the
planets circle the mountain") — make the determination of its location most
difficult, according to most scholars.
Some researchers identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, northwest
of Kashmir.
The Suryasiddhanta mentions that Mt. Meru lies in the middle of the
Earth ("bhuva-madhya") in the land of the Jambunad
(Jampudvīpa). Narapatijayacharyasvarodaya, a ninth-century text, based on
mostly unpublished texts of Yāmal Tantr, mentions:
"Sumeruḥ Prithvī-madhye shrūyate drishyate na tu"
(Su-meru is heard to be in the middle of the Earth, but is not seen there).
Several versions of cosmology can be found in existing Hindu texts. In
one of them, cosmologically, the Meru mountain was also described as
being surrounded by Mandrachala Mountain to the east, Suparshva
Mountain to the west, Kumuda Mountain to the north and Kailasa to the
south
Main articles: Buddhist cosmology and Mount Meru (Buddhism)

Yuan dynasty 1271–1368) Chinese mandala depicting Mount Meru as

an inverted pyramid topped by a lotus.

According to Buddhist cosmology, Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is at the

centre of the world, and Jambūdvīpa is south of it. It is
80,000 yojanas wide and 80,000 yojanas high according to
the Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam and 84,000 yojanas high according to
the Long Āgama Sutra. Trāyastriṃśa is on its peak, where Śakra resides.
The Sun and the Moon revolve around Mount Meru, and as the Sun
passes behind it, it becomes nighttime. The mountain has four faces —
each one made of a different material; the northern face is made of gold,
the eastern one is made of crystal, the southern one is made of lapis
lazuli, and the western one is made of ruby
In Vajrayāna, maṇḍala offerings often include Mount Meru, as they in
part represent the entire universe.It is also believed that Mount Meru is
the home of the buddha Cakrasaṃvara

Tibetan Cakrasaṃvara sand mandala with Mount Meru in the centre.

/ Tibetan Buddhist embroidery representing Mount Sumeru.
  
 
Hindu cosmology

The cosmic tortoise, and Mount Meru

Mount Meru of Hindu traditions is described as 84,000 yojanas high,

about 1,082,000 km (672,000 mi), which would be 85 times the Earth's
diameter. The Sun, along with all the planets in the Solar System,
revolve around Mt. Meru as one unit.
One yojana can be taken to mean about 11.5 km (9 miles), though its
magnitude seems to differ over time periods — e.g., the Earth's
circumference is 3,200 yojanas according to Varahamihira and slightly
less so in the Aryabhatiya, but is said to be 5,026.5 yojanas in the
Suryasiddhānta. The Matsya Purana and the Bhagvata Purana, along
with some other Hindu texts, consistently give the height of 84,000
yojanas to Mount Meru, which translates into 672,000 miles or
1,082,000 kilometers.
Mount Meru was said to be the residence of King Padamja Brahma in
antiquity.
According to Charles Allen, Mount Kailash is identified with Mount
Meru. One description in the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that
its four faces are made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli.[23] It is a
pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges
symbolizing a lotus.[23]

Painting of Mount Meru from Jain cosmology from

the Samghayanarayana

Jain cosmology
According to Jain cosmology, Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is at the centre of
the world surrounded by Jambūdvīpa, in form of a circle forming a
diameter of 100,000 yojans. There are two sets of sun, moon and stars
revolving around Mount Meru; while one set works, the other set rests
behind Mount Meru.
Every Tirthankara is taken to the summit of Meru by Indra shortly after
his birth, after putting the Tirthankara child's mother into deep slumber.
There, he was bathed and anointed with precious unctions. Indra and
other Devas celebrated his birth.
Javanese Legends: This mythical mountain of gods was mentioned in
the Tantu Pagelaran, an Old Javanese manuscript written in the 15th-
century Majapahit period. The manuscript describes the mythical origin
of the island of Java, as well as the legendary movement of portions of
Mount Meru to Java. The manuscript explains that Batara Guru (Shiva)
ordered the gods Brahma and Vishnu to fill Java with human beings.
However, at that time, Java island was floating freely on the ocean,
always tumbling and shaking. To stop the island's movement, the gods
decided to nail it to the Earth by moving the part of Mahameru
in Jambudvipa (India) and attaching it to Java. The resulting mountain
is Mount Semeru, the tallest mountain on Java.
Mount Semeru, a large active volcano on Java, is named after the
mount.
 The five central towers of Angkor Wat, before a Hindu and later a Buddhist
temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia, symbolize the peaks of Mount Meru.

The concept of a holy mountain surrounded by various circles was

incorporated into ancient Hindu temple architecture with
a Shikhara (Śikhara) — a Sanskrit word translating literally to
"mountain peak." Early examples of this style can be found at
the Harshat Mata Temple and Harshnath Temple from the 8th century
CE in Rajasthan, Western India. This concept also continued outside
India, such as in Bali, where temples feature Meru towers.
In Buddhist temples, the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya is the
earliest example of the 5th- to 6th-century depiction. Many other
Buddhist temples took on this form, such as the Wat
Arun in Thailand and the Hsinbyume Pagoda in Myanmar.

1. Prang of Wat Phutthaisawan, a Buddhist temple in Samphao Lom,

Thailand, representing Mount Meru
2. A Buddhist prang in Wat Arun, Bangkok, representing Mount Sumeru
3. Hsinbyume Pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar, representing Mount Sumeru
4. The meru of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is dedicated to Shiva and his
consort Parvathi
 
 Depiction of Mount Meru at Jambudweep, a Jain temple in Uttar
Pradesh

Jean Filliozat of the Ecole Francaise, a leading western authority on Indian

cosmology and astronomy, interpreted the symbolism of the temple. The temple
sits on a rectangular base and rises in five levels and is crowned by five main
towers. One hundred four smaller towers are distributed over the lower four
levels, placed so symmetrically that only 33 can be seen from the center of any
side. Thirty-three is the number of gods who dwelt on Mount Meru. Phnom
Bakheng's total number of towers is also significant. The center one represents
the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the four lunar phases,
each with 27 days. The seven levels of the monument represent the seven
heavens and each terrace contains 12 towers which represent the 12-year cycle
of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul Wheatley, it is "an
astronomical calendar in stone."[
Following Angkor's rediscovery by the outside world in the mid-19th century,
decades passed before archeologists grasped Phnom Bakheng's historical
significance. For many years, scholars' consensus view was that the Bayon, the
temple located at the center of Angkor Thom city, was the edifice to which the
Sdok Kak Thom inscription referred. Later work identified the Bayon as
a Buddhist site, built almost three centuries later than originally thought, in
the late 12th century, and Phnom Bakheng as King Yasovarman's state temple
Sun set of Phnom Bakheng
The view of the Angkor Wat from the top of Phnom Bakheng is featured in the
movie Tomb Raider (when Lara Croft looks through the binoculars upon
arriving in Cambodia).
 

Phnom Bakheng/Angkor Wat seen from Phnom Bakheng at sunset

  

1. General view
2. Upper terrace
3. Stone tower and Angkor Wat far afield

Bas-relief in Phnom Bakheng

What was Phnom bakheng used for?

Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the

Hindu gods, a status emphasized by the temple's location atop a steep hill 65
m above the surrounding plain. The temple is built in a pyramid form of seven
levels, representing the seven heavens. Who built bakheng?

King Yasovarman
It is possible to see: the five towers of Angkor Wat in the west, Phnom Krom to
the southwest near the Grand Lake, Phnom Bok in the northeast, Phnom
Kulen in the east, and the West Baray. Phnom Bakheng was built in late ninth
to early tenth century by King Yasovarman dedicated to Siva (Hindi). Why is
Prasat kravan unusual?

Kravan is an unusual arrangement of five towers in a row on one terrace.

They are built of brick; the lintels and columns are of sandstone. This is the
only tower with recessed tiers intact, which are visible on the interior. The
columns are octagonal, with four bare sides and sandstone rings.

Phnom Bakheng (Bhnaṃ Pākhaeṅ):

These sources of the inscriptions have indicated the place name vakoṅ, which
is located around the Siem Reap province, and possibly make sense with
regard to the origin of the modern name Bakong. On the other hand, the old
Khmer place name vakoṅ is now still the name of the village near the Bakong
temple, namely “Phum Vakong.” This temple, which not long ago was called by
the local inhabitants “Bayon,” has the same name as the Bayon located at the
center of Angkor Thom.

Phnom Bakheng (Bhnaṃ Pākhaeṅ):

In sum, the modern name of Phnom Bakheng used to be Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (Phnom
Kandal, Central Mountain) in the ancient period, which mountain was located
in the center of Yaśodharapura (the city of Yaśovarman). It was also called
Yaśodharagiri (the mountain of Yaśovarman) wherein was installed the linga on
the top of the mountain, named Yaśodhareśvara (the lord of king Yaśovarman).
Hence, the meaning of the modern name Bakheng has the same sense as
installing the Royal Linga,and it means “force, power, or the male reproductive
organ.” It was also a symbol of the king’s power at that time.
This temple is located on the top of the natural mountain ‘Phnom Bakheng,’
along the road between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. It was built in the
beginning of the 10th century, during the reign of king Yashovarman I, who
accepted Brahmanism under the posthumous name Paramaśivaloka.
The present name of Bakheng is a Khmer word meaning “force, or power,” and
it also means the “male reproductive organ that is effective.” Perhaps this word
indicates the Shiva Linga, which was adapted by the local people in memory of
the 10th century royal Linga of Yaśodharapura, namely Yaśodhareśvara (the
lord of Yaśovarman).

The word “Kheng, or Khaeṅ” has rarely been used in the Khmer language, but
it is currently used in the Thai language. However, the word Kheng is found in
the Khmer Rāmakerti, in the scene of the giant Kūkhan, “ri Kūkhan khaeṅ
mohhimā rūp rū pabbatā”, “Kūkhan force, colossal, form similar to a
mountain…” and “khluon khloh khlāmṅ kheṅ beñ bāl, “youthful, force, power.”
Bakheng could be equivalent to the old Khmer vraḥ kheṅ, if the two particles
braḥ and pā are interchanged for writing as place names. We can say that braḥ
which is equivalent to pā, indicates a sacred vocabulary, and it could be equal
to the word “khaeṅ”, or it may have the meaning of the Linga.

There are several names of Phnom Bakheng in the ancient period, which are
found in the inscriptions. In the inscription of Sdok Kak Thom, it is clearly
affirmed that Yaśodharapura (the name of the ancient city of Angkor) was
established on the top of Phnom Bakheng by the king Yashovarman I (889-910
AD). The name of this mountain was also Yaśodharagiri (mountain
ofYaśovarman), Indrādri, and Madhyādri in the 12th century, and it was also
called by the old Khmer name Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (central mountain).

The inscription of Sdok Kak Thom mentioned the following: “ … vra ḥ pāda
paramaśivaloka oy vraḥ liṅga dvihasta saṃnal=ti sthāpanā āy vna ṃ kan ṭāl gi [t]i
sthāpanā āy bhadrapattana… which mean “The majesty king-Paramashivaloka
gives (him) two cubits high of unused (stone) from construction at Vna ṃ Kan ṭāl
for establishing royal Linga at Bhadrapattana.” Paramashivaloka established
the royal city of Śri Yaśodharapura, and took the Devarāja from Hariharālaya
to this city, and he subsequently established the Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (Central
Mountain) and installed a Linga in the center.56 The Phnom Bakheng
inscription, K. 684,57 informs us of the purchase of a piece of land for two
people (loñ) who were the devotees (pādamūla) of Vnaṃ Kanṭāl: “ (8) 　loñ prāṇa
pādamūla kamrateṅ (9) jagat vnaṃ kanṭāl ti vra ḥ kamrate ṅ” The name of Vnaṃ
Kanṭāl (Central Mountain) moreover clearly indicates the representative Mount
Meru, if we study the Sanskrit text. The temple itself that was built on the top
of the mountain (Phnom), presents the symbol of the mountain in the center of
the world, Meru or Sumeru of Indian cosmology.
IN BUDDHISM Mount Meru (also Sumeru (Sanskrit) or Sineru (Pāli)
or Kangrinboqe) is the name of the central world-mountain in Buddhist
cosmology. Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain
is Meru (Pāli Meru), to which is added the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in
the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful Meru".
The concept of Sumeru is closely related to the central Mount Meru of Hindu
cosmology, but it differs from the Hindu concept in several particulars.