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Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 12

IBy

KATHY HOLLAND!

ANGKOR (Cambodia). THE QUIET was oppressive. Only the rustle of bat wings could be heard. The entire place had the unpleasant smell of decay.

The walls were covered with carvings of religious figures. Stone statues of the Buddha and long dead kings lined the walls or were scattered haphazardly throughout the room.

Some had lost their heads. Arms or legs were missing from others.

This was Angkor, the Lost City in the heart of the Cambodian jungle.

Getting to it had been an adventure for my two children and me. We had clattered along for 150 miles in a broken-down old bus from the Cambodian border. Now I had the feeling that I had suddenly been transported back through the centuries. The inconveniences and indignities of the day vanished as I stood enthralled, gazing into the past.

Tt was a little more than a century ago that a French archaeologist plodding through the steaming jungle of French Indo-China came upon these ruins. Built of red sandstone by the powerful Khmer kings of the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries Angkor was sacked and its inhabitants taken into slavery by neighbouring Siamese in the 13th century. Abandoned and left to the creeping vines of the jungle, it knew only the chattering of monkeys, the screeching of birds and the roar of the tiger for more than 500 years.

Better known for the milesquare temple in its centre, Angkor Wat, it consists of some 10 square miles of magnificent structures called Angkor Thom. It has been, until re. cently, a mecca for students of oriental antiquity. Living in Bangkok with my husband, a member of the United States Military Mission to Thailand, I did not want to miss the opportunity of taking my young son and daughter to see this oriental wonder. We were a little more than 300 miles from Siemreap, the Cambodian city near Angkor. It meant a 150-mile bumpy journey along potholed and

dirt roads to the border in our own car, then by public conveyance on the Cambodian side.

After a somewhat adventurous journey in a very old bus we finally arrived at Siemreap. We found a taxi, almost as old as the bus, and by sign language and a map my husband had thoughtfully drawn managed to get to the Auberge Royale Hotel, where we had reservations.

We unpacked our bags, each tried the dribbling shower and stretched out on the lumpy, musty smelling beds too tired to even worry about the little animals that scurried about. The pangs of hunger finally brought us out of our stupor and we headed for the dining rooms. The “French cuisine” turned out to be a French idea of what an American hamburger steak was supposed to be.

We went back to the room and settled for what was left of the now soggy lunch wa had packed in Bangkok. Twilight was falling as we

stepped outside. The sun was at our backs and looming stark and foreboding in front of us was the Angkor Wat, its three central towers rising out of the jungle.

What once had been red sandstone was now a dirty gray that in the sunset appeared black and eerie. A few feet across the red dirt road was the quarter-mile-long causeway that led to the temple. Wide and straight as a modern freeway, it was paved with thousands of huge stones each worn smooth and shiny by the naked feet of countless monks and pilgrims. On either side was a waist high stone wall, the top of which was shaped like a snake—the sacred snake of the Khmers. For about half the distance to the temple, the causeway was flanked on either side by the ruins of outbuildings that must have been guest houses, libraries and military guardhouses. The causeway spanned a wide moat whose waters in the dusk appeared indigo. Lotus blossoms floated on the surface.

Tall palms swayed in the

cool breeze of the tropical evening. Five monks, their saffron robes flapping around skinny shanks, were hurrying toward the temple. It was growing dark so we returned to the hotel, deciding to rise early next morning and spend a full day among the ruins. We awoke to the screeching of birds and the chattering of monkeys. The three towers of Angkor reflected the rays of the early morning sun. We walked across the red dirt road and down the stonepaved causeway with its snake-bodied balustrades. The Wat is laid out in a perfect square roughly a kilometer on each side. The moat is about seven metres (50 yards) wide. A square lintel stone bridge spans it at the entrance to the Wat, leading to some 30 high-rising stone steps. At the top square stone columns support a huge stone lintel which in turn supports a stone tower.

We climbed the steps, stepped over the raised stone sill, designed to keep out the evil spirits, and crossed into the temple itself. We wandered through four or five chambers gazing at the broken statues, and finally emerged at the centre court of the Wat

The wall carvings depicted war triumphs of the Khmer kings. The Asparas (angels)

were voluptuous figures whose clothing consisted of a tall headdress, a beautifully carved necklace and a matching G-string. Matching bracelets encircled the upper arms. The battle scenes showed elephants rising on hind legs, their trunks curled back, with warriors in howdahs wielding spears and long-handled axes, other soldiers attacking the war animals from below, and some already crushed under the feet of the gigantic beasts.

We walked the entire square following the story of the Khmers through two centuries.

We emerged on the eastern side of the Wat to gaze once again on the jungle. We came out of the temple on the third level, so that the entire panorama of the larger Angkor Thom lay to the north and east of us. This is the ancient Khmer city of which Angkor Wat is the epicentre. The tracery of stone roads was visible through the jungle overgrowth. Other temples, courts, houses, tables and statues dotted the landscape in a symmetrical design. In spite of the political turmoil in Cambodia, the French “Societe des Extreme Orient" is still carrying on its restoration of Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat. Workmen moved among the stone structures, chipping and marking stones for reconstruction.

Some of the temples have been left as they were discovered, the snake-like white roots of jungle trees (Cheese trees) still crawling through I the stone, splitting them with the vssage of time.