The central building of Angkor Wat

At the end of the cross platform is the central building complex of Angkor Wat. Basically, it is surrounded by a rectangular cloister, which is composed of three sumitomo, namely, large, medium and small. The three paddocks are stacked in the order of large outside and small inside, with five pagodas standing in the center as the apex, symbolizing Sumitomo Mountain. Irina Manica, an American scholar, explained that the three corridors represent the King, Brahman, Moon and Vishnu respectively. A corridor door is built at each base point of each corridor, with two floors of corridors, four corners and four towers, and four towers on each floor. The central pagoda forms a quincunx pattern. Because the temple faces west, the position of the upper floor of Sumitomo is not in the middle of the lower floor of Sumitomo, but slightly to the east, leaving more space for the west corridor; For the same reason, the steps in the west are not as steep as those in the east.

The first floor of Sumitomo is made of sand and stones, about 3 meters above the ground; Above Mount Sumi, there is a 3-meter-high cloister that surrounds Angkor Wat. The cloister is rectangular, with a length of190m from north to south and a length of 220m from east to west. Around the cloister, there are four towers and eight corridors, one tower at each corner, three corridors in the east and west, and one corridor in the north and south. There are two stone steps inside and outside the tower gate and corridor gate, which can lead to the inner and outer courtyards on the first floor of the temple. The inner wall of the cloister is not only the outer wall of the temple, but also a giant corridor. On the outside of the cloister, there are two rows of obelisks side by side, one of which supports the vault of the cloister and the other supports the porch of the half vault. The double-eaves vault of the cloister is covered with pottery tiles to protect the stone carvings on the cloister wall from the sun and rain.

The stone wall of the gallery is lined with eight giant reliefs carefully carved by sculptors. Each relief is more than 2 meters high and nearly 100 meters long, all of which are more than 700 meters long and walk around the temple. The relief depicts the stories in two famous Indian Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as the history of some Angkor dynasties. Clockwise from the northwest corner, the West Corridor shows the scene in which Rama, the prince of ayutthaya, defeats ravana, the demon king of Rocha, and the Wawa and war stories of Bandu in Mahabharata. There are several reliefs in the South Gallery, which are related to the history of Angkor Dynasty. One of them depicts Suliye Bomo II wearing a crown, sitting cross-legged on the throne, with his left hand pointing to the left and his back on the armrest of the throne. The left and right attendants each hold a long fan to fan the wind for the king, and a maid-in-waiting behind him holds a giant candle and lights it up during the day. Enter the west gate of the cloister on the first floor, and step into a pavilion called "Thousand Buddhas Pavilion", surrounded by cloisters. Tianzi Pavilion is divided into four courtyards by the central cross verandah, and its ground is about one meter lower than the cross verandah and cloister. It used to be a pool, but now it doesn't store water. The north-south corridor of Tian Zi Pavilion is about 3 meters wide, with the outer side closed and the inner side with double rows of square columns. The cross verandah is made up of two verandahs crossing into a cross, and each verandah consists of a middle verandah, a left verandah and a right verandah, supported by four rows of square columns. Two rows of inner columns support the central corridor, and two rows of outer columns support their respective inclined corridors. The central corridor is about 3 meters wide and 4.5 meters high. The upper part is a wall and the lower part is a square column. There are flying female reliefs at the bottom of the stone pillars, and some pillars and walls are painted deep red, from which we can see the glorious scene of Angkor Wat in its heyday more than 800 years ago. The top of the main gallery is in the shape of an egg-pointed arch covered with tiles. The left and right verandahs are about 2.5 meters wide and 3 meters high; The total width of the veranda is about 8 meters. For centuries, pilgrims left many Buddha statues in pavilions, but now most of them have been removed. There are also many inscriptions praising the good deeds of worshippers in the pavilion, most of which are in Khmer and some are in Burmese. The courtyard outside the Tian Painting and Calligraphy Pavilion is the inner courtyard on the first floor of the temple, which is like an inverted zigzag. In the northwest corner and southwest corner of the paddock on the first floor, there is a sutra depository. The North Gallery, the Middle Gallery and the South Gallery of Tian Zi Pavilion each have a two-story wall of Xitong Temple with stone steps.

The abutment on the second floor is five and a half meters higher than the abutment on the first floor, and there is also a rectangular corridor around it, which is about 1 15 meters long from east to west and about 100 meters wide from north to south. The cloister has no stone pillars or inclined corridors. There are vertical gourds and windows on both walls, and there are reliefs of the gods in the middle. The cloister has ten cloister doors, one at each corner, one in the north and south, and three in the west. Each porch gate has two stone steps, inside and outside, leading to the first inner court and the second inner court respectively. Three porches in the west lead to the Tian Zi Pavilion in the first exhibition hall. On the second floor, a pagoda stands at the top of the tower door at the four corners of the cloister; Due to years of disrepair, the tops of the four pagodas are mostly defective, and only two or three floors are left in the nine-story pagoda. There is a small sutra depository in the southwest and northwest corner of the inner courtyard of the second enclosure. The two pavilions are connected by the north-south road of a cross balcony, and the east-west road of the balcony connects the west gate of the corridor on the second floor and the west gate of the corridor on the third floor. This cross balcony was also added by later generations. The third abutment of the temple, that is, the innermost and highest abutment, is called Bagan. It is square and shaped like a pyramid, but it is composed of two sections, with12m, which is twice as high as the first abutment and the second abutment. There are twelve steps around the platform, three in the southeast and northwest, and the twelve steps are very steep. You must climb on your knees with your hands and feet, which symbolizes the hardships of climbing to heaven. The sky-shaped double-eaved cloister above the steps is 60 meters square, with five pagodas and a tower door at each corner. In the middle stands a 42-meter-high main tower, the top of which is 65 meters above the ground. The main tower is higher than the quadrangular tower. Five pagodas are arranged in a five-point plum blossom pattern. There is a shrine in each tower. The shrine of the main tower was originally a square building with a statue of Vishnu in the middle. After the seat was changed to Buddhism, there was a Buddha statue in the middle, surrounded by three Buddha walls. Between the tower gates, between the tower gates and the main tower, it is connected by Tianzi Gallery. Tian Zi Art Museum consists of cloisters and cross corridors. The cloister is divided into two parts: the main gallery and the inclined gallery. There are vertical gourd lattice windows on the outer wall of the main corridor, and rectangular railing windows on the four basic points of due east, due west, due south and due north. The inside of the main gallery is a column row, and there is a vault five meters high on the main gallery, and columns are arranged on the inside of the inclined gallery, and the half vault is three meters high. The cross veranda has a corridor, two side corridors, a vault, two semi-vaults and two rows of square columns. The vault and semi-vault of Tian Zi Gallery are paved with tiles. A lion-headed snake is carved on the ceiling at the top of the gallery, and the entrances to the gallery and shrine are covered with carved lintels and triangular walls. There are corridor doors in the middle of the southeast, northwest and four corridors, and each corridor door has steps leading to the second floor; The tower doors at the four corners of the cloister each have two steps leading to the second floor. The layout of Angkor Wat is very uniform and full of rhythm. There are two symmetrical forms of Angkor Wat architecture: mirror symmetry and rotational symmetry. From the moat, the outer wall to the central building complex, with the central axis crossing the east-west direction as the center, it presents accurate mirror symmetry: even the two Buddhist scriptures pavilions and two pools on the central axis of Plaza Avenue are symmetrically distributed on both sides. Looking at Angkor Wat Temple from Plaza Avenue, we can see that there is a tall tower in the middle, and two smaller towers are symmetrically set off to form a mountain shape. In addition to the axial symmetry, the Wuzi Meihua Pagoda Group on the top floor of the temple has two more rigorous rotational symmetries: from east, west, south and north, it presents the same mountain-shaped composition, forming a 90-degree rotational symmetry. There is also a second group of 90-degree rotational symmetry: from the northwest, southwest, southeast, northeast and four diagonal directions, it is also the same gable composition. Only in this way can the five pagodas achieve the maximum symmetrical effect and the same modeling theme can be repeatedly displayed in all directions.

The stylobate structure, which originated in Greece and was introduced into India, evolved into one of the important architectural features of Angkor Wat after being introduced into Zhenla from India. It may be because Cambodia often suffers from floods in Meigong River. Today, many houses are erected on viaducts to avoid floods, and many historical sites of Angkor are built on platforms. At the beginning of the tenth century, the Bakken Temple had five pedestals, and in the middle of the tenth century, the palace in the sky had four pedestals. At first, the abutment of Angkor Wat may be a flood shelter. Later, the abutment developed into an important part of the architectural art of Angkor Wat. There were no high-rise buildings with rivers, such as the small Buddhist pavilions on the second and third floors of Angkor Wat, and there were also abutments.

/kloc-In the middle of the 3rd century, the triple platform and five central pagodas in Angkor Wat became the symbols of Mount Sumi in Indian mythology. There are five peaks in Mount Sumi. Although Bakken Mountain Temple and Sky Palace have multiple pedestals, after all, there is only one central pagoda, which does not fully represent Mount Sumi. There are five pagodas on the top floor of Angkor Wat, completely symbolizing the five peaks of Xumi Mountain. The abutment of Angkor Wat has also evolved from the flat and simple abutment in the early days into the art form of Xumishan, with a wide top and a narrow middle, forming a waist; The waist is decorated with transverse ribs, which is rich and simple. Abutment plays an important role in China classical architecture, and multi-storey abutment is also a common architectural form. The biggest difference between Angkor Wat abutment and China classical abutment lies in the buildings around the abutment; Chinese abutment is often surrounded by watchtowers and stone pillars about one meter high, while the abutment of Angkor Wat is surrounded by stone pillars and circular corridors about 4-5 meters high. The multi-storey abutment of Angkor Wat is several times higher than the abutment of China on the same floor.

Cloister is another outstanding architectural art feature of Angkor Wat. The cloister of Angkor Wat consists of three elements, the inner wall is also a crescent wall, an outward row of columns and a porch roof with double eaves. In addition to obvious practical functions, the contribution of these three elements to aesthetic feeling is indispensable. A long gallery with dozens of columns in a row adds a sense of rhythm to the overall appearance of Angkor Wat. The double eaves of the gallery add a sense of longitudinal rhythm to the appearance of Angkor Wat. The cloister first appeared on the top terrace of the palace in heaven and reached its peak in Angkor Wat. Each of the three terraces has a cloister, just like the melody of music is repeating, step by step, and finally comes down to the main center pagoda.

There are many kinds of corridors in Angkor Wat, some of which have stone pillars. Where there are stone pillars, there are two rows of stone pillars on one side or two rows of stone pillars on both sides, and there is no format of one row on one side or two rows on both sides. Because the vault of Angkor Wat promenade is high, the top arch structure is not a real radial wedge-shaped brick arch, but a staggered arch made of Shi Zhuan above two walls, which is finally folded at the center line and covered with a cover stone. This overlapping vault has a small span. If there is only a single row of stone pillars and only a high and narrow vault, it is difficult to play a role in rain protection. Therefore, it is necessary to build a side gallery, increase half the vault and widen the total width of the vault to prevent rain. So there are two rows of stone pillars on the same side, one supporting the main vault and the other supporting the veranda vault. Every corridor with double columns in Angkor Wat must have a unilateral slant corridor, and only one side looks like a double eaves; Where there are four rows of stone pillars in a long corridor, that is, where there are two rows of stone pillars on both sides, there are side corridors on each side; Double eaves on both sides. There are two rows of stone pillars in the promenade. One side is open, and the other side is stone wall. The walls of the Angkor Wat promenade are carved walls, with no windows in the middle, some open windows to look out, some decorative straight gourds and fake windows; The walls between open windows or fake windows are decorated with reliefs of goddesses wearing gold crowns and bracelets. The passage to the cloister is quite elegant, and there are two forms: tower door with tower and corridor door without tower. The porch door is like a pavilion, extending outward two or three times at right angles to the veranda. Each pavilion has a vault and two or three square columns, and the top of each pavilion has a finely carved lintel and a triangular wall. There are three forms of corridor layout: one-word corridor, cloister and cross corridor; Cross verandahs and cloisters usually form the Tian Zi Gallery. The corridor from Waiguo to the top floor is as follows:

Waiguo fence: double-column double-eaves corridor, straight gourd, virtual window. Grass-roots enclosure: carved screen double-column double-eaved corridor, middle-level enclosure: straight gourd virtual window single-eaved corridor, top-level enclosure: double-column double-eaved windowed corridor, and top-level middle-level Tian Zige: four-column cross-eaved corridor. The architects of Angkor Wat skillfully use space, display the sense of space depth with long avenues, construct the sense of building width with the horizontal corridors, and construct the sense of building loftiness with the perspective overlapping of corridors at different levels. Although there is no large central building in Angkor Wat, its appearance can be compared with the huge central building.

The stone pagoda with dense eaves below the upper circle of Angkor Wat has a solid upper layer and overlapping vaults, and the lower layer is organically combined with the promenade to form a pagoda door with a shrine in it. The outline of the circular pagoda is parabolic, surrounded by eight or nine beautiful lotus eaves. Angkor's stone pagoda has gone through several stages of development. At the beginning of the 9th century, Angkor's stupa was an independent pagoda with dense eaves. In the 10 century, a group of pagodas arranged on the platform appeared, such as the Twin Towers of Doukou Temple (92 1) and the Twin Towers of Dongmeiben (95 1), while the central tower of Tiangong stood on the altar with cloisters. The pagoda and promenade of Tabu Temple (1 19 1) are combined into the Tamen promenade, where you can see the prototype of Angkor Wat Waiguo promenade. Angkor Wat is known as the pinnacle of Khmer architectural art, precisely because it organically combines the elements of pagodas, cloisters, altars and so on in early architectural art: pagodas and cloisters are integrated into the Talmen cloister, and the Talmen cloister and altars are integrated into one, which are layered into altars of multiple Talmen cloisters. The round carvings in Angkor Wat are not excellent. The circular statue on the pedestal is heavy and dull, but the relief is extremely delicate and realistic. There are reliefs on the inner wall, columns, stone walls, cornerstones, window lintels and railings of the cloister. The content is mainly about the legend of Vishnu, a Hindu god. It is based on the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Hindu myth The Sea of Milk. There are also secular scenes such as war, royal travel, cooking, handicrafts and agricultural activities. Decorative patterns are based on animals and plants. Among them, the corridor around the main hall 1 floor platform is called "relief corridor", which is 800 meters long and the wall is more than 2 meters high, and the wall is covered with relief. The milk churning map on the east wall, the battle map of Vishnu and Monty on the north wall, and the battle map of the monkey god assisted Rama on the west wall all depict fairy tales. The map of Suriye Pomo II riding an elephant in the western half of the South Wall is a secular theme. These relief techniques are skillful, the scenes are complex, the characters are vivid and lifelike, and the overlapping levels are used to express the far-reaching space, which can be called masterpieces in the history of world art. Looking out from the inside, I suddenly found a lot of graceful portrait reliefs on the wall, which are said to symbolize the descent of fairies. With the carving technology thousands of years ago, the fairy can be portrayed so vividly, and the expression, appearance and clothing of each statue are completely different. It can be said to be a wonderful work. This group of dancing beautiful fairies is called Apsara, also known as the Mona Lisa in the East, which is said to be deformed by waves. The magnificent Angkor Wat survived because of these beautiful little fairies.

In addition to the fairy outside the wall, it attracts people's attention. Walking in the temple, you can see exquisite and delicate depictions everywhere, sometimes on the pillars and sometimes in the corners. It is not difficult to find convex and concave works or even alternating works. Even the windows in the corridor are surrounded by small stone pillars. When sunlight shines into the corridor through the window, it blends a sense of beauty of humanity and nature.