A Tale of Two Civilizations - Part I

During this year's summer holidays, we made two trips -  one to Belur/Halebid in Karnataka and the other to Siem Reap in Cambodia. The experiences, more similar than I had expected in many ways. Both involved visits to temples and ruins, about a thousand years old. Talk about building something sustainable!

We went to Belur/Halebid in April as part of a Karnataka trip, covering Chikmagalur, Kemmangundi, Mulliyanagiri, Sringeri, Agumbe, Udupi, Marudeswarar, Dharmasthala, Sakleshpur and Belur/Halibed in 6 days. An unforgettable road trip and one that I highly recommend.

As far as the kids were concerned, they would probably say that four things stood out. First the home-stay in Chikmagalur, trysts outside by themselves, mountains and hills, lakes, picking fallen coffee beans, pepper and oranges. Second, running around unrestrained in Malpe Beach near Udupi. Third, eating ice cream and pizza for lunch at the beach site restaurant in Marudeswarar.  And fourth, taking an ad hoc break between Agumbe and Udupi and playing in one of the little streams near the road on a really hot afternoon! Can't argue with any of those now can we ?! I personally remember something called Mangalore bun that we had for lunch at a road side eatery on the road down from Agumbe.

As far as I was concerned, while Chikmagalur was very relaxing, Sringeri was awe-inspiring in its own way with the ambience of reverence, Agumbe an eye-opener in terms of what the Western Ghats must have looked like many years ago, Udupi was even more than what I had expected. One knew what the Amar Chitra Katha had told the unitiated 10 year old many moons ago about the Lord Krishna idol at Udupi turning around to give Sri Kanakadasa a view when the priests wouldn't let him have one. Then of course, the story about how Sri Madavacharya found the Sri Krishna and Balarama idols in a cargo of sandalwood from a merchant vessel that he rescued on the stormy seas. The temple was more than appealing enough to warrant a couple of visits, very distinctive with its temple tank, layout and of course the deity himself. We also heard about a temple dedicated to Lord Balarama in the Malpe area. Other than the priest, there was one other devotee in the temple. Talk about two siblings, one getting all the attention with the other out-of-sight and away from the main scene of action!

I'll mention a few things about my Belur-Halibed experience. Both being significant symbols of temple architecture from the Hoysala empire period. As much as one has seen temple art, sculpture and architecture - I had described my Melkote/Sravanabelagola experiences previously on this blog - this one was special considering the size and scale of things involved. All within a 20 mile radius. Almost like a modern-day Special Economic Zone for artisans a thousand years ago developed by the Hoysala kings ! Simply incredible to see so much beauty and life created out of stone, by so many anonymous.

The Chennakesava temple at Belur, dedicated to Lord Vishnu and still functional, left one in a daze. This one was supposed to have been built in the 12th century during the reign of King Vishnuvardhan . The original, not the modern day superstar from Karnataka ... The king was a follower of Jainism originally who converted to Vaishnavism and apparently promoted both in his kingdom. One got to see sculptures of numerous dancers in various Bharatanatyam poses. Queen Shantala Devi was apparently the inspiration for many of these pieces. My head was literally in a spin while I looked left, right, front, behind, at the ceiling and all other kinds of acute and obtuse angles on the protractor, admiring all the creativity. A perfect place for one looking for a shot of the creativity Kool-aid. Really! Not to mention, the film making going on near the entrance, the heroine being a fellow guest at the local hotel we were staying in.

After Belur, we went to Halibed to see the Hoysaleshwara temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathy. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, but what the heck, this was yet another awe-inspiring experience. While the inside was impressive enough, the exterior was even more so. Other things that stuck to my mind were the presence of multiple structures in the complex, the use of soapstone, intricate designs depicting scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and the fact that the temple was built on a platform. Not to mention the use of elephants pretty much everywhere, perfectly lathed pillars and exquisitely carved balustrades. Standardization maybe ?!

Other temples that we visited in the vicinity included temple structures at Belawadi, Holikeri, Jain Basti, Marle and Doddagaddavally. Marle was interesting for the wrong reasons. This was a small temple complex in a little village off the beaten path. When we found it and went in, the only folks inside were a couple of seedy-looking guys playing cards who ran when they saw us. The temples themselves were in quite a decrepit state. Sad. There were a couple of really exquisite elephants holding Lotuses in their trunks. Doddagaddavally, again, not mainstream, still in use for worship of Goddess Lakshmi among other deities, was interesting for the Betala figures that we saw.

We did all of Belur/Halibed and their environs in about a day and a half. Pretty soon, Aneesh's refrain 'I'm never going to a temple again', became more and more frequent!

One of the more nicely planned road trips, I might add, without being too much of a strain on any of us. In spite of the numerous signs of vandalism, the temples seemed to be in decent shape for the most part, with renovation and maintenance by the Arch. society of India. The lack of facilities for tourists, although one saw many non-Indians, was a disappointment.

We took Aneesh's feedback to heart, when we planned our visit to Cambodia. It was just us, without the kids.

A Tale of Two Civilizations - Part II

Angkor Wat, Cambodia is one of those places that has been on my list for quite some time. So we finally decided to make it happen this summer.
Cambodia offers visa-on-arrival. If one chooses to, one can get an e-visa electronically as well, prior to arrival. Our travel agent had booked us hotel accomodation and a tour guide plus car.

And so, off we went, the missus and I, e-visa in hand, via Singapore.

Siem Reap was our port of arrival, near to the Angkor temples. We had decided to skip Phnom Penh the capital. Siem Reap was pretty even from the air, with a view of a reservoir near the airport. The airport had a very welcoming air about it, small in size. About the size of Tiruchy airport for those of us familiar with Tiruchy. The afore-mentioned tour guide plus car stood waiting for us at the airport.

And so, off we went, excited to be in Angkor country!

On first look, the roads from the airport were very nice, no traffic worth mentioning. Made a good first impression on us, who are still not used to the mayhem that passes off for traffic in Bangalore. Our hotel had a nice welcoming feel to it, on a road that I can only describe as 'avenue of the hotels'. Seems there's been quite a bit of hotel/resort building going on, thanks to the tourism boon in that region. Modern day works of art for the weary traveler, there to see their ancient temples.

Once checked in, we were quickly off within the hour, to go to our main item of interest - Angkor Wat temple. Our guide suggested that we eat at a restaurant overlooking the temple. A tempting suggestion that we lapped up quickly. Angkor Cafe had enough veggie fare on the menu. With hunger pangs quickly satiated, off we went.
First agenda item required getting a sunhat for the missus. This was quickly checked off the list, with some deft negotiation with a road side vendor (kid) getting us an 80% discount on the list price. Only kidding! No such thing as list price. There was another business establishment where I asked why they did not list the price of the item for sale. After repeating the question a few times, pat came the response.
'You tell me what you pay and I tell you what it cost!'

And that seemed to be the business model. Crystal clear.

Our first view of Angkor Wat brought one word to mind. Big.
The complex had a moat around it. The causeway leading up to the entrance had stone sculptures depicting the story of churning of the ocean of milk by the Devas and Asuras from the Puranas, using Mount Meru as the churning rod and Vasuki the snake God as a rope. Wow! This was a common welcome theme at all the temples we visited.

You can look at the details here about the Angkor area. The Khmers ruled over this area for a long period between the 9th and 15th century, much of it prosperous, with an abundance of rice and water. One kept hearing about all the reservoirs built by so-and-so king. Seemed very similar to all other civilizations that had developed near water bodies. Temples seem to have been a reflection of the ruling class' urge to build heaven on earth, with Kings seeing themselves as Divine. Saw a few instances of multilevel temples symbolic of Mount Meru on earth. The dynasty seems to have been a mix of kings following Hinduism or Buddhism. Much of what we saw seemed more Buddhist than Hindu, but the Hindu influences were pretty clear. So many instances of stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Hindu mythology depicted on these stones. Would be pretty amazing to get on a time machine to see these places in action during those times.. how globalization must have actually happened in the ancient world!

Over a 3 day period, we covered Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom , Bakong, Bapuon, Bayon, Banteay Srei, LoLei, Preah Ko, Preah Khan and Ta Proehm. Quite a bit of walking involved in the hot sun. Most of these were built using soapstone and seem to have been dedicated to Lord Vishnu and/or Lord Shiva. All of them seemed to be built on elevated platforms, quite unlike many temples that I've seen in South India. Read my previous post on this blog about Belur/Halebid and the similarities are spectacular. Elephants, lathed pillars, beautiful balustrades and all! Amazing to think that these were built so long ago and to think how privileged we were to actually be able to visit.

Also an amazing feat of archaeology, engineering etc. considering how forests had pretty much taken over these monuments and how these have slowly been reconstructed over the last 70 plus years with a lot of International help to the Cambodians. Vandalism and theft of such works of art were also very much on display.
Sad.

Our last leg on the trip was a boat ride on the Tonle Sap, the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia. This lake apparently swells by up to 5 times during the rainy season, relative to levels during the dry season. Quite amazing to see folks living in these floating villages. Imagine the fortitude of the people living in these communities, if one has to literally pack up and leave 3-4 times a year in search of higher ground, when the lake floods the area. Every year!

All in all, a wonderful experience. A poor country no doubt, economically speaking. A rich one, no question, when it comes to its past, culture and traditions. The people we encountered - very warm and friendly. The hotel staff did their best to ensure that we were fed with whatever veggies they could drum up for us. I've never had so much Thai veg curry in my life! I remember this incident when we visited Preah Khan. A couple of kids were trying to sell us post cards. Suddenly one of them said to the wife, 'Indian Lady. Can I get dot from your head?'. She wanted the Bindi (pottu)!

Overall, a pretty unforgettable summer experience for us, visiting such amazing ancient places in Karnataka and Cambodia. Great civilizations. Also left one thinking about how temporal things can be...
I can't but remember the kid during the boat trip, who sidled up to us, with a python wrapped cozily around, asking me 'Picture with snake? 1$ '.