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Home , Angkor, Chau Say Tevoda, Neak Pean, Phimeanakas, Preah Khan

CHAPTER SEVEN

ARCHITECTURE IN THE REIGN OF JAYAVARMAN VII

Even during the reign of Suryavarman II there was a brief attempt to lay out the kingdom in a particular fashion with the creation of rest-houses ( and Prasat Chrei, for example), but it was during the reign ofJayavarman VII that the desire to rear• range the entire kingdom became significant and the ruler went some way towards achieving it. In 1181, when J ayavarman VII was crowned king, the Angkore• an kingdom lay devastated by the war against the Cham, and, ini• tially, the king could only take up residence close to in a temporary ,Jayasri, "the city of victory", which is associated with a baray1, known as the northern or . The city rampart, a solid wall, is decorated with huge (6 m high) carved in sandstone facing. This Vishnuite motif, for the is the mount of the god 2, probably evokes the victory of the king over the Cham, but it is also linked with the myth of the churning of the sea milk which is shown on both sides of the access path; on one side of the dyke which crosses the surrounding moat are the gods and on the other the demons who united in order to rediscover the liquor of immortality. When the work on the new city of was sufficiently advanced, the king left Jayasri to take up residence in the new palace in Angkor Thom, and his earlier pro-

1 It is possible that this first installation occurred before the conversion of the king to the . The evidence for this lies in the temple ofNeak Pean which in its first state derived from Hindu forms and was inspired by the islet in the centre of the Western Baray. B.P. Groslier thinks the conversion ofJayavarman VII took place before his arrival in Angkor (about 1165), during his stay in of Kompong Svay. The spread of Buddhism occurred later; even in Preah Khan of Kompong Svay; for example, the transformation of Prasat Stung was contemporary to the with the same technique of adding a face-tower as that used in the face-tower at the crossings of the cruciform gallery in the Bayon. 2 The association of a garuda with the myth of the churning of the sea of milk is found in the Javanese Vishnuite temple of Candi Kida! which dates from the second half of the thirteenth century. ARCHITECTURE IN THE REIGN OF JAYAVARMAN VII 91

visional city was transformed, about 1191 3, into a temple to the glory of the king's father, in the form of the : the temple is known today as Preah Khan. The laying out of the city of Angkor Thom was without doubt a delicate undertaking, given the pre-existing buildings there. The vast monuments like the Bapuon, , and the extensive site of the royal palace of occupied important positions. In spite of these difficulties, the enclosure of the city, with sides of 3 km each formed by a city wall, is almost perfectly square. In its centre rises the principal temple, the Bayon, which we have discussed above (part one, chapter three).

Bayon

This monument as it seen today comprises three plans (figs. 80, 81; pls. 35 and 36). The first level includes a rectangular courtyard surrounded by a gallery facing outwards, the main wall of which is decorated with carved reliefs. The corners of this gallery are marked by pavilions and the axes by four entrance pavilions through which one reaches the courtyard. The second level also had a rectangular plan, with a gallery marked by face-towers (pl. 3 7) which, on the axes, gives on to the stairways which allow the topmost terrace to be reached. The third level includes an important foundation, and a central core with a circular plan contains a central cella. If the techniques used allowed the architecture to be considerably transformed, there was always, between the first attempts and their acceptance, a lapse of time. Their discontinuation was also brought about in a disordered fashion, most often under the influence of technical renewal. However, in the Bayon there are very few tech• nical innovations; on the contrary there was a kind of sclerosis of old practices, such as those which had been used in Angkor , but without the methodical application which makes that temple so successful. Thus the forcing wedges, pushing stones used in a course towards the corners, are indeed employed the Bayon, but without the same care which gave good structural coherence to the earlier temples. However, among the technical innovations which can be

3 It is probably at this date that Buddhism became the principal religion of the kingdom.