While Cambodia is currently Buddhist, when Angkor Wat was built, the country was Hindu.  Angkor Wat was dedicated to the god Vishnu who is pictured here.  Many times elderly people take up the task of cleaning and caring for the various idols in Angkor Wat in exchange for food and money given by worshipers.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat is a must if you ever get a chance to visit.  The day of this photo it was quite cloudy, but that made this photo quite dramatic.

I met this man up inside Angkor Wat.  His job is to make sure the floors are clean.  We exchanged greetings and I asked him a question about an inscription I read in one of the carvings on the temple wall (specifically about Preah Se-Ah Metrei, a promised coming savior in the Buddhist scriptures).  Because the language is some type of Old Khmer, most of it cannot be read, but I was suprised to find that certain religious words can be made out.  I asked him after talking if I could take his picture, he obliged, and there is the result.

A Buddhist nun watching over an idol, making money selling incense in the Angkor Wat temple complex.  While women are not ordained within Buddhism, older women, especially widows, can become nuns. They live in their local wat and many take care of the grounds, or in this case, Angkor Wat.  They shave their heads and eyebrows and generally follow the same precepts as monks.  It is almost like a welfare system, for nuns are almost universally destitute.

Angkor Wat was built early in the 12th century by Suryavaram II, honors the Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Mt. Meru of Hindu mythology.  This shot was taken just as you enter the main complex.  And while this ancient temple was built to a Hindu god, today Buddhists actively worship, burning incense and offering prayers to the idols contained within its walls.  Pray that the Lord would bring the people of Cambodia to see Him alone as the One true God, and that they would be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is my favorite photo of Angkor Wat (taken summer of 2007).  Had to get up early for this one!  Angkor Wat was built by Khmer king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city.  The temple was first known as Preah Pisnulok, named after the posthumous title of its builder, and then later (in the 16th century) re-named Angkor Wat, meaning “City Temple.”  It was built as a Hindu temple, dedicated to the god Vishnu, and later, as the religion of the Khmer Empire changed, used in Buddhist worship.  The temple is still an active religious site – worship still goes on each and every day.

This was taken midday last summer during a visit to Cambodia in Siem Reap at Ta Prohm Temple. It is my favorite temple at Angkor Wat because they have left it pretty much as it was found (although I noticed they have begun to do some restoration…). The trees are amazing (mainly the silk-cotton tree, and the smaller strangler fig), and one can’t help but take a good picture here.

You feel just like an explorer when you’re walking around these ruins of Ta Prohm in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  What’s not to like?

One of the five towers at Angkor Wat symbolizing Mount Meru home of the devas in Hindu mythology.  While Cambodia is currently 95% Buddist, this temple was built when the country was widely Hindu.  But this fact does not inhibit Buddists’ worship at the temple, nor does it inhibit national pride over the temple (it is Angkor Wat on the current Cambodia flag).