Religion in Angkor

During my trip to angkor, i learned about religion. Before this I never took any interest in hinduism. As a buddist, i knew little about buddhism. As for christian, muslim and jew, i knew a bit or two about their religion because of the war that has been going on for years. Hinduism, nothing! It is such a shame that i stayed in penang where all the festivals are hugely celebrated and i know nothing about hinduism. I know, i am just another young generation of ignorant with the 'tidak apa' attitude. Well it is never too late to take notice now.

Hinduism, in my point of view, after much reading and listening is a complex religion. Complex because i find it hard to understand. It had so many story going on at the same time. Sometimes it clashes with the monkey god story, i suspect it came from the same religion. Its not surprising because buddhism and hinduism both came from india. Hinduism alone exist a long time ago, nobody knows when. In Hinduism the three main gods are Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma.







one of the few cravings in angkor wat

Shiva is known as the destroyer. Like the old saying goes 'the old one don't go, the new one wont come'. Yes, Shiva is responsible to take care of the world cycle, the cycle of death and rebirth. Shiva was worshiped in the form of linga. i didn't know what a linga was. the guide would always mentioned 'shiva linga', which i assumed lord shiva's fullname was shiva linga. He would point to us the linga and said 'this is shiva linga'. many of the statues in angkor were destroyed, some without heads, some without faces and some only left with the feet. I thought to myself, there must had been where lord shiva's statue used to be, someone must had stolen it. As i visited more and more of the temples in angkor, the guide showed us many types of shiva linga all the the form of a pillar just difference in height and width. I then realized shiva was worshiped in the form of linga. A pillar. Worshiper would pour water on it and it flowed around the linga. The water then exited through an opening behind the linga and worshiper would drink the holy water.







One of the lingas in the 'river of a thousand lingas'. People would washed their face with the river water which is considered to them as holy water.







a broken linga. Initially i thought a statue was stolen here and what was left was a hole. How wrong i am.

Brahma is the god of creation. According to the guide, worshiper that worship brahma mostly wanted to conceive. There were not many temples dedicated to lord brahma in angkor. The only one that i know was Bayon. I was certain the faces i saw in bayon were lord brahma's but there were sayings that bayon was more to buddism than hinduism. There was a story behind the four faces of Lord Brahma. It was known that Lord Brahma had fallen in love with a goddes, Shattarupa. Everytime Lord Brahma tried to look at Shattarupa, she avoided his gaze. Therefore Lord Bharma developed five heads, four on each side and one on top so that Shattarupa can't avoid his gaze. At this time, Lord Shiva noticed that Lord Brahma had neglected his duty therefore Lord Shiva cut off Lord Brahma's top face and replaced it with lotus flower. Lord Brahma's 'unholy-ness' resulted very few worshiper to worship him which was why only few temples were dedicated to him.







Bayon temple. Anyone wants to count the faces of brahma?


Apart from Shiva, Vishnu is also widely worship in hinduism. Vishnu is known to be the god of protector. I find Lord Vishnu the hardest to understand among all the other hindu gods. When the guide was explaining Lord Vishnu, he pointed to a statue with four arms on each side saying 'this is Lord Vishnu'. I took a josstick and prayed to him for a safe journey in angkor and to take care of every member of my family. Well Vishnu is responsible for world order and harmony, which is why i prayed or safety. As we continue to explore the many many carvings in angkor wat, the guide pointed to the turtle in 'the churning sea of milk', and said 'this is Lord Vishnu'. I tried finding the 8 arm Lord Vishnu in the 49 metre panel of 'the churning sea of milk' and all i saw where the guide was pointing, a turtle! I assumed the craving was too small for me to noticed and moved on with the guide. Moving on, the guide told us about the story of krishna and rama. I got confused because i thought there were only 3 main gods in hinduism so who were krishna and rama? Then i do a little read up and realized that in order to get close to the living world, Lord Vishnu would changed form. He was known to had changed in 10 different forms and few of them were the turtle, rama and krishna. Isn't this complicated and confusing?!







Although religion is a tough and a very sensitive subject to touch on, i find it quite interesting. Understanding a bit or two about each religion help me to view things in a different perspectives. There were gazilions of stories in hunduism and to elaborate about it would be novel thick. That's it for now. Will update soon.