Wat Damnak

I first started exploring Wat Damnak, just across the river from downtown Siem Reap, back in February, when I was taking part in the Giant Puppet Parade workshops and I have visited at least once a week ever since.

Not only is it on a slightly circuitous route to town from where I live, but its Buddhist pagoda, shrines and stupas, its gnarled frangipani trees and beautiful waterlilies, its delightful frogs and darting lizards all make good subjects for my photo-a-day project. 

I also find it a tranquil place to wander and sit – this despite the primary school incorporated inside its extensive grounds, the occasional young man asking for a donation to support some good cause or other, and the constant comings and goings of monks and laypeople.

The central pagoda is currently undergoing internal renovation

This is a living Buddhist monastery with an interesting past. It was a royal palace in the days of King Sisowatch, ruler of Cambodia from 1904 to 1927, hence its name: dam nak is Khmer for palace, and it also served as a Khmer Rouge military depot in the dark days of Cambodia’s recent civil conflict.

Now its biggest claim to fame is its Centre of Khmer Studies, an international NGO whose primary aim is to facilitate global understanding of Cambodia, its history and its culture. The adjacent CKS library is the second biggest public library in the country and its 11,000 publications draw scholars from around the world seeking to research Cambodia’s intriguing past.

The Centre of Khmer Studies

Though I am a book lover through and through, for me the library holds a very different fascination. Running along the front of the building is a long narrow water feature, filled with the most gorgeous varieties of waterlilies and the biggest population of green paddy frogs I have ever seen. The markings on the waterlily blooms, which come in subtle shades of white and cream, pink, blue and lilac, seem infinitely varied, and I return often to photograph them. I am also drawn to the cute little frogs – they actually make be laugh out loud at their frantic panicked leaps, and the comical way they sit and stare goggle-eyed at me. So funny!

The monastery grounds are also home to the Kossamak Nearyroath Institute of Buddhist Studies, a facility to educate monks and the general public in the ways of Buddha, and to a second NGO, the Life and Hope Association Sewing School, which has the wonderfully practical aim of providing young Khmer women with a vocation and a future.

Wat Damnak sits in large park-like grounds, which are well filled with buildings and meeting halls, temples and stupas, as well as a large deep pond, in which sits a bright yellow shrine. The air is sweetly scented with frangipani, the large trees provide welcome shade, and the Khmer architecture mesmerises with its intricate detail. I think you can see why I return again and again to this charming location.

Wat Atwea: the old, the new and the just plain funny!

Sunday has lately become wat day in my world, and last Sunday was no exception. And, first off, I need to modify a comment I made in a previous blog, about Wat Preah Enkosei being the only place to see Angkor-era temples for free – at Wat Atwea I discovered another (though I have heard some tourists have been asked to pay to look around).

I tuktuked, as Wat Atwea is about 4 kilometres from the city centre, along the riverside road towards Tonle Sap and then perhaps another kilometre down a dirt side road, straight in to rural Cambodia. The transition from city to country can be very rapid here.

The wat covers a large area, with the new living wat sitting within the boundaries of the ancient complex, whose boundary was once a moat that is currently mostly dry. You can’t see the ancient ruins at first approach, as they are tucked in behind the modern temple and its burial stupas.

I decided to have my tuktuk driver, Bunsoth, wait for me and was glad I did, as he was able to share some fascinating details with me, though he hadn’t been to this wat before or known there were Angkor ruins here. He came with me into the modern temple, knelt and made the appropriate obeisance, then walked around taking photos with his cellphone.

I was immediately struck by the large size of the main Buddha, especially considering how out of the way this wat is; and by the large number of colourful hangings dangling from the ceiling; and by the colourful bead hanging that was draped around all four corners of the Buddha’s enclosure, almost like the curtains around a four-poster bed.

Behind the Buddha were more surprises: two four-foot high lions – not dragons as I often think of them (Bunsoth pointed to their manes) – painted in the gaudy bright colours Buddhists seem to prefer. Against the rear wall was a large open-fronted cabinet, like a large set of bookshelves, on which sat an impressive number of small Buddha statues – gifts to the temple in exchange for favours from the deity, apparently.

On the lower three shelves were small cloth bundles, shaped a little like brown pumpkins, but much covered in dust. I was a little shocked when Bunsoth explained these were dead people, the ashes and pieces of bone that remain after cremations. 

For those well-off enough to afford it, these bundles would normally be placed in a family stupa but, for the poor who didn’t want to keep their bundles of ancestors in their homes or bury them in unmarked graves in their fields, they could deposit the bundles in the pagoda. Bunsoth said he was happy not to be in the building at night-time when the ghosts were about and, yes, he was serious. Most Khmer, especially those who live in the countryside, believe in ghosts.

There was one very large stupa in the surrounding grounds. It was bright white and obviously new, and had a small open-sided marquee in front of it. It was unadorned except for the ornately framed photos of three monks. Bunsoth said this would be the burial place of all the wat’s monks and had only recently been inaugurated, perhaps during the recent Khmer New Year celebrations.

Bunsoth escaped to his tuktuk, away from the draining heat, while I continued exploring, through the other burial stupas, around the ancient ruins and amongst the other wat buildings, chatting to a rather bored official who said he didn’t get many visitors and to a couple of monks who also seemed pleased to have a visitor to speak English with.

The ancient ruins are in relatively good condition. They look rather similar to those at Angkor Wat and, by examining the style and remaining decoration - though there is a general lack of carving, there are a couple of apsara dancers, some script, and some sculptural reliefs - experts have deduced that the ruins date to the late 11th century and were left unfinished. There has been some restoration, as the numbers written on some limestone blocks and the newness of other stones testify, and the scattering of masonry to the west of the temple is thought to be the gate to a second enclosure that was also not completed.

After the solemnity of the modern temple and the solitude of the ruins, my morning finished with a charming surprise. A small family – husband, wife and young son – were sitting on the steps of one of the wat buildings and, as I watched, a monk approached and began to drench them with water, a cleansing ceremony, usually to wash away bad luck and evil spirits. The husband and wife were quite serious at first, with hands held in an attitude of prayer but after a couple of bowls the man started to clean the dirt off his legs and the young boy, struggling to contain his joy, began to giggle hysterically. I couldn’t help but laugh with him and I don’t think it was disrespectful – after all, laughter is meant to be the best medicine, especially for chasing away unhappy spirits. I left smiling after another wonderful morning.

Wat Preah Enkosei and its Angkor temples

On the first day of the Khmer New Year – year 2557 by their calendar – I set out to explore yet another of Siem Reap’s wats. This was the one I had intended to visit the previous day before I got sidetracked.

Although it is an easy two-kilometre walk from the central city, on the east bank of the Siem Reap River along River Road, I grabbed one of my local tuktuks, knowing I could enjoy the pleasant walk back a little later. This time we went further than Wat Preah Enkosa to the wat with the oh-so-similar name, Preah Enkosei.

This is a living wat, currently home to 35 Buddhist monks, but this is also the only place I know in Siem Reap where you can see Angkor temples, albeit small ones, for free. (I later found another freebie - see here.) Behind the modern temple sit two brick towers, the bases of two other structures, and the remains of the east gate of a complex dating from the mid- to late-10th century. It is possible that there were originally three towers but the third has now disappeared. As the platform base of the modern temple is made of laterite blocks, it seems likely that the building blocks of the ancient structure were used to help construct the more modern one.

The site was originally contained within a moat, though much of this has now been filled in and what remains has become something of a tipping place for garden and other rubbish. The towers, too, are now mostly ruins, though the larger of the two has a lintel with surprisingly well preserved sculptural reliefs. The broader lower panel shows a central elephant head flanked by dragons and other characters, while the narrow top panel features an interesting depiction of the Churning of the Sea of Milk. (This refers to a story from Hindu cosmology where the gods and demons toiled together for a thousand years to release from the sea of milk the nectar of immortal life.)

Gnarled old frangipani trees grew around the temples, filling the air with their sweet perfume and providing welcome shade on another of April’s over-40-degree days, and there was a pleasant breeze, so I sat a while in the shade of one tower, soaking up the peaceful atmosphere. I had expected the wat to be humming with New Year’s celebrations – and there were some (see my New Year’s blog) – but they were contained in two particular areas so didn’t encroach on the overall feeling of tranquillity.

The decoration on the modern building was relatively subdued for a Buddhist temple, but no less impressive. The reliefs above the doors and windows, the roof-edge ornamentation and the roof pediment decoration all gleamed with their gold and yellow paint.

Elsewhere in the wat, an ancient banyon tree was surrounded by more than the usual number of small shrines, and two stone Buddhas soaked up the sunshine, despite their golden umbrellas. All in all, it was rather a splendid start to 2557!

The burial stupas and a little monk washing

Wat Preah Enkosa

I spent another couple of hours exploring a new wat last Saturday morning and I have to admit I came away slightly disappointed as I had read that it had some old Angkor remains, as well as the modern temple … but, no! And it wasn’t just that I didn’t find them, as I asked the two different monks I talked to and they both said there were no old temples to be found there.

I tuktuked along to the wat as it looked from the map to be quite a long way along River Road, though, in the end, it wasn’t as far as I thought, and it was a pleasant stroll back afterwards.

When I arrived, monks and men were preparing the pagoda for the following day’s Khmer New Year celebrations, placing flags in the pole stands on either side of the long tree-shaded driveway. One of the monks said hello and ‘where are you from?’, the universal greeting here, and our conversation continued as he gave me a tour of the temple building, unlocking it for me to see the two huge Buddhas inside, one seated and one reclining – as well as assorted smaller ones.

The monk’s name was Somurt and he is almost 23. He has been a monk for 8 years. He told me the temple is 99 years old and the interior paintings (of the ubiquitous scenes from Buddha’s life) are between 30 and 35 years old. This information may or may not be true but, certainly, the temple ceiling was showing much water damage, whereas the paintings still looked quite fresh and vibrant.

Somurt’s English was quite good but he wanted to practise so we sat a while and chatted. Eventually, he went back to his flags and I wandered a little further, though didn’t get far before I was waylaid by another young monk, Sopheap, who invited me to sit with him on a bench amongst the burial stupas. Our conversation was almost an exact repeat of the previous one but I was happy to sit and help a little with his pronunciation. Bizarrely, he had been listening to an Australian sports commentary on his phone radio. I’m not sure how helpful that was to his English learning and he admitted he couldn’t understand most of it – ‘too fast and a funny accent’ – his words, not mine.

I wandered some more, taking photos of stupas and temple buildings, a beautiful open-sided building full of golden seated Buddhas and, finally, what looked like an office building – or, perhaps, with offices downstairs and monk accommodation upstairs, as the building was mostly unfinished.

In front of its main entrance was an elaborately carved archway, under which sat another group of Buddhas and a set of glass boxes for donations for building restoration or monk education or feeding the monks or just general blessings. An elderly nun sat to one side, giving out blessings, so I tossed a buck in her basket and knelt to receive her good wishes for the New Year. She then agreed to be photographed, moving over to sit elegantly in front of the Buddhas, arranging her clothing to look her best. I showed her the photos I took and I gather from what she said next (in Khmer) that she wanted a copy of the pictures, so I’ll get some done and take back to her next week.

Postscript: I discovered, when I got back to my room, that I had gone to the wrong wat. My tuktuk driver had been going to drive past the entrance and I stopped him, thinking he hadn’t understood where I wanted to go. My mistake! There are, in fact, two wats quite close together and, turns out, their names are also quite similar: Enkosa and Enkosei. When I checked Google maps again, I discovered the first was hidden under cloudy skies – at least, that’s my excuse!

Wat Bo

Wat is the Khmer word for pagoda and, in Cambodia, pagoda is a generic term for a place of worship, and, in Siem Reap, Wat Bo is one of the oldest places of worship for the local Buddhist people in the city. It is also the pagoda closest to where I live, and I have visited it often. Click on this link to see an aerial view of the wat on google maps. 

Its large grounds, which are filled with the tombs of deceased monks and the houses of the living, provide a haven of peace amidst the hustle and bustle of this crazy city.

Nowadays, the main temple is usually locked so I haven’t been able to venture inside for a couple of years … until today. I was wandering around, taking photos of the temple, then walked over to the meeting hall. I didn’t venture inside as two monks were sitting there, talking quietly, and I didn’t want to disturb them. But, as I strolled from there towards the stupas, an old man – I don’t think he was a monk – came shuffling over to the window of the meeting hall, yelling something and waving his arm at me. I thought I was in trouble for some reason, though I couldn’t think why, having done nothing offensive and being appropriately attired for a temple (shoulders covered and shorts below the knee). I kept walking but he spotted me between the stupas and yelled out again, this time gesturing from me to the temple with one hand and jangling an impressive set of keys with the other. I got it! He was offering to let me in. In my best Khmer, I said “Jahs som. Orgun tom tom.” (That’s “Yes, please. Thanks very much.”)

Leaving my sandals at the door, I entered the gloomy interior as the old man scurried around opening up a few windows to let in the light. This was a rare treat because, although Wat Bo is a Buddhist temple, its interior walls are covered in scenes from the Reamker, Cambodia’s interpretation of the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu love story. According to Andy Brouwer, there are only two depictions of this narrative in Khmer art – the other is on the walls that enclose the Silver Pagoda in Phnom Penh. Brouwer says the paintings date from the early 1920s, but others give their date as late 19th century. Whichever is correct, the paintings are in reasonably good condition considering their age.

My photographs are not sharp as I thought it best not to use the flash on my camera and, as I’m not familiar with the love story of Rama and Sita, I can’t explain what is happening in these scenes. It is interesting, though, to see Western-like characters appearing in some scenes – presumably an influence from the days of French colonialism. The temple also has an impressive collection of Buddha statues lined up both in front of and behind the main Buddha.

The exterior of the temple is also beautiful, with ornate sculptural reliefs above the windows and doors, fantastical creatures guarding the entrances and adorning the rooftop, and thin carved panels painted in multiple colours decorating the lower level of the building.

Having made a donation to help with the upkeep of this exquisite building, I wandered a little longer in the grounds, where there is an interesting collection of old and new buildings and, of course, the ubiquitous burial stupas. If you manage to visit and happen to get yelled at by a toothless old man, don’t despair. You, too, might get to take a peak inside the temple.

Wat Polangka

Meet Seth, the lovely young monk who approached me today while I was exploring the grounds of his monastery. I am going to do a series of blogs on the wats around Siem Reap, so I was very lucky that Seth approached and started talking to me.

Monks are usually very reserved and there are all sorts of rules of etiquette surrounding encounters with them. These include not speaking to them first, not approaching them, not touching them – to the extent where, if you need to hand something to a monk, you should place the object on a surface near them (a table, bench, chair, etc.) for them to pick up rather than hand it to them directly. This prevents an accidental touch of the hands.

Seth may have been less restrained than most monks as he has only been a monk for a year, though he has lived at the monastery for a very long time; he didn’t know what age he had been when he arrived but indicated the height of a small child.

He has a family – in fact, a large one, of mother and father, two sisters and six brothers – but they live in the countryside about 50kms from Siem Reap. He didn’t elaborate on why they had placed him in the monastery – it may have been that they couldn’t afford to keep him, or it may have been to educate him, as monks usually receive a better standard of education and many, especially the younger ones, learn English, or Seth’s family may have been following the local tradition of sending at least one son to the monastery.

My first impression of Wat Polangka was how unkempt and uncared for it appeared. Weeds grew around the edges of the main pagoda platform, the building’s paint and plaster were chipped and peeling, and large areas of black mould stained the underside of the roof overhang. From Seth I learnt that the pagoda had been built in the 1940s, though it had been renovated since then. It was obviously in need of another renovation but I presume that would be dependent on the generosity of benefactors as monasteries usually have no fixed sources of income.

The meeting hall / dining hall is much newer than the pagoda, having been built in the 1970s, and had recently been reroofed. The climate here is harsh on buildings so frequent maintenance is necessary. The hall consists of one large open space, with a ceiling supported by two rows of columns, and both the ceiling and walls are covered with brightly painted scenes from Buddha’s life. One wall also has charts with the names and photos of former monks. There are currently 37 monks living at Wat Polangka but the monastery is home to about 100 people in total – the others are nuns and an assemblage of lay people. This is quite normal for Cambodia. If local people have nowhere to live and are prepared to do some work around the monastery, they are permitted to live there, subject to available space, of course.

At one end of the meeting hall, there is a shrine, with a large Buddha statue and, nearby, a monk was giving a blessing to a young couple. On the other side of the hall, lunch was being set out on low tables. It was then about 10.30 and lunch would be at 11am. It was prepared by the nuns – mostly old widows, who come to live at the monastery when their husbands die. As Seth and I talked, monks were returning from their morning walk around the houses and businesses that surround the wat with the alms and food that had been donated. They passed the food dishes over to the nuns, presumably to augment whatever else had been prepared for lunch.

Outside again, Seth showed me the cremation area, explaining where the body is placed and where the fire is lit, though recent ashes made that fairly obvious! Nearby is a small three-sided building where the body is placed prior to cremation while the monks perform the necessary rituals. I thought the body would lay there for three days (the usual time for Cambodian funeral rituals – more on that in a future blog) but Seth said the bereaved families sometimes keep the body at home for one or two days before moving it to the wat for the final rituals. We also wandered through the burial area, with its magnificent and rather ornate stupas, painted in shades of gold, green and red.

Seth and I talked for a time in the very welcome shade of a huge tree that was fenced off and had a ring of seated Buddha statues around its circumference. It is a banyon tree and so is sacred to Buddha. Next, Seth showed me the small wooden hut he calls home. He even invited me inside but I felt that would have been an intrusion. It has only one room, though there is a tiny porch at the front where he has a small desk and chair for his studies. I took some photos of him in front of his house and have since emailed them to him. He wants us to be friends and invited me to visit (and perhaps help at) the Cambodian Buddhism Association for Vulnerable Children, where he works as a teacher. Their school is only open during the week, so volunteering there will not be possible for me, but he tells me they are doing good work there, teaching the local children.

Seth is a very personable young man. I really enjoyed the time I spent talking to him and am very grateful for his willingness to tell me about himself, his life and his home.