Banyon Temple

Banyon Temple is the largest in the complex of Angkor Thom. This is the Sistine Chapel to their Vatican. Built in the late 12th century, it has 54 towers, which represent the 54 provinces of the Khmer Empire in ancient times.

There’s a lot of numerology involved that we really didn’t get a grasp of, other than to understand that 9 is a sacred number to the Cambodians. You can go through a lot of mathematic gyrations with the 4 and 54, and it reduces to 9.

Temples in Cambodia tend to be either Hindu or Buddhist, depending on who was king at the time and their particular religious proclivities. The two seem to have a lot of overlap, though.

In Angkor Thom, there are amazing relief carvings on the wall. If you know the stories, you can see details about different battles and wars over time, who won, who got killed, etc. Rat was great about telling us the high points of these.

There are also depictions of everyday life and important events in the city. There were 102 hospitals built throughout the provinces, and one picture showed a maternity ward and woman in childbirth. Apparently “suck it up” was used in place of an epidural.

Animal fighting was a significant sport, including turtle fighting. You put them in a narrow ditch, facing each other, and poke them from the backside with a stick. First one to make his opponent turn upside down wins. There were also dogfights, cockfights, wrestling matches and a variety of other sporting events, along with observation facilities from which to watch them.