Today’s The World Around Us will be presented in Khmer and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, khmer, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Greetings, joyful viewers! Welcome to The World Around Us. Today, let us go to the ancient Kingdom of Cambodia. In today’s program, we will visit the beautiful temple complex called Angkor Wat. There are astonishingly more than one thousand temples of Angkor, the once capital of the Khmer Empire.

Among them, Angkor Wat is the magnificent centerpiece and one of the largest Hindu monuments in the world. Most recognizable are its five towers 65 meters high like giant lotus buds. In fact, Angkor Wat is a great symbol of Cambodia and is shown on the country’s flag. Countless visitors from all over the world visit Angkor Wat each year. Let’s join our tour guide who kindly takes us through this vast site.

Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia, the kingdom of wonder. Here, ladies and gentlemen, we are in front of Angkor Wat on the western entries. We see several hundreds of people getting here for viewing the sunrise.

Angkor Wat it has been one of the marvels in the world, inscribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in December 1992 to be one of the world heritage (sites). It has been the finest of the religious monuments of the Hindu ones which strongly we (were) influenced from India that taught from the early centuries.

Angkor Wat was constructed by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century and continued for four centuries. It was dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. Later, however, the Hindu temple became a Buddhist temple as Buddhism became more widespread in Cambodia in the 14th century.

Angkor Thom, meaning the “Great City,” is a royal city, the last capital of the Khmer Empire. The Buddhist King Jayavarman VII ordered a large construction project for Angkor Thom. He added a moat and outer wall. And of course, the king built some of Angkor’s greatest temples, including his state temple, Bayon, in the city’s center.

There are five gates to the city, one for each cardinal point, and the victory gate leading to the Royal Palace area. Each gate is crowned with four giant faces. The South Gate is often the first stop on a tour. The South Gate illustrates the Hindu creation myth about the churning of the cosmic sea.

At the time, 13 precious things were lost, one of which was the elixir of immortality. To find it, the gods and demons had to stir the cosmic sea waters to regenerate this elixir. A giant serpent named Vasuki helped them by offering himself as a rope, wrapping himself around Mount Mandara, which is shown as a tower. Vasuki was thus pulled back and forth, churning the Ocean of Immortality with the tower as a mixing stick for a thousand years.

Here we are on the south gates of the great capital city of Angkor Thom, which was built under the reign of the famous powerful Buddhist king Jayavarman VII. King Jayavarman VII was the Buddhist one, but had to combine Hinduism and Buddhism together because most of the king who crowned earlier than him practiced Hinduism.

Let me draw your attention to the statue in the rows there. Where, first, you see the statue, like tug of war, called the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk,” to generate elixir of life. And 54 demons on the left-hand side and 54 gods, good looking faced, on that side as well, holding the body of the serpent Vasuki to generate elixir of life.

Each row is 54 which symbolizes imperial states under the reign of the King Jayavarman VII. On the other hand, the combination of 54 and 54 become 108, the most splendid Hindu number.

Let me talk about the Buddhist faces. There, further, you see the gate of four faces which symbolize the faces of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. Bodhisattva means the God who was in the process of becoming the Buddha in the futures, hopefully the king Jayavarman VII will become Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. That’s why the face also symbolizes the face of Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, and also the four virtues: loving of kindness, equanimity, sympathy and compassion,

The lotus opening symbolizes the great knowledge of Buddha. This too shows you the religious combination between Hinduism and Buddhism under the reign of Buddhist King Jayavarman VII.

Now, let’s go inside the great Angkor Wat. The exterior walls of the lower level of Angkor Wat display extraordinary bas-reliefs. They depict stories from Hindu mythology and the history of the reign of Khmer King Suryavarman II.

If you talk about the detailed beautiful bas-relief, Angkor Wat has been the finest and the top architectural building of the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia from 9 to 13th centuries. For example, you look at this size, the square standing pillars with detailed carvings of beautiful ones including the bottom one with the Hindu meditation.

The Hindu meditation whose position is very quite different comparatively to the Buddhist one. You see the Hindu with the standing crossed legs joining the two hands at the chest, and the man who makes meditation with the long beard and different head dresses. But with this (Buddhist) one, you will see the different one with lying cross-legged joining with two hands, right on the left hand, and no beard. There’s the difference between these two Hindu and Buddhist meditation positions.

When we return, we will continue our tour of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Thank you for joining us again on today’s The World Around Us. We now continue our visit to the magnificent temple, Angkor Wat, which reveals the rich spiritual heritage of Cambodia.

We are on the galleries of bas-reliefs and the west section of this northwest corner. On the back here, is where you see Prince Rama, main character of “Ramayana” (legend), and the 7th reincarnation of the god Vishnu who appears on the monkey commander in chief Hanuman to rescue his wife from demon King Ravana, who captured her for years.

This temple of Angkor Wat was built and dedicated to the god Vishnu. That’s why the entire bas-relief sculpted directly on site was describing the glorious reincarnations of the god Vishnu. For example, Prince Rama, who was the 7th reincarnation of the god Vishnu.

When the bas-relief it was sculptured completely, it was later applied with the red paint to make clearer the bas-relief and protect it from natural erosion as well. So the bas-reliefs entirely are describing the Hindu legendaries, episodes, tales, and myths and partly with history under the reign of the King Suryavarman II, founder of Angkor Wat, as well.

Now, let’s look at the classic Hindu myth, the “Churning of the Ocean of Milk,” this time depicted on the eastern gallery.

Here we are still on the gallery of bas-relief, eastern section of the southeast corner. Behind me there is where you see detailed, beautiful bas-relief describing the Hinduist mythology called tale, called the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, where you see 92 demons with evil looking faces, holding the body of the serpent Vasuki, the five-headed one. And the other side there is where 88 gods holding the body of the serpent on the tail.

The demons’ side is anchored by the 21-headed demon king Ravana. On the right, the gods with almond-shaped eyes are pulling with the help of the monkey god Hanuman as the anchor. Also shown on this bas-relief is Lord Vishnu with the smaller god Indra above him and his reincarnated form as a turtle below him.

In addition, there are Apsara dancers are celestial dancers who appeared through the churning of the cosmic sea. The bas-relief also has many fish and other marine animals being affected by the moving waters.

Hindus, as do Buddhists, believe in the law of karma, or cause and retribution. According to one’s actions, one will experience beneficial effects or harmful effects in the cycle of rebirth. It is possible for a human to exit the cycle of rebirth, or achieve moksha (liberation), by attaining self-knowledge or enlightenment.

Lord Yama is the lord of death in Hinduism. In the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat, he is sitting on his water buffalo, laying judgment on the mortals in the afterlife according to their deeds.

We are on the southern section of the southeast corner. Look at the back over here. Let me show, ladies and gentlemen, on moral principles in the belief of karma.

The centers and the top register which are describing the processions in heavenly condition to the 37 heavens. The lower register, which is partly like shiny, is describing the procession of persecution of Yama who caught those people with rope tying the necks and hand, to the 32 hells. This shows you the moral principles in the belief of karma.

“An eye for an eye,” or “What you sow, you reap,” describing the belief in karma. You see the center and the tops describing this procession on to the 37 heavens for people who did the best things, the good things, in the previous life, then, they reincarnated in the heavens. Lower registers, where you see people badly treated, because in previous lives they did the bad thing, not the good one.

Because these people in previous life were killing a lot of animals, so the moral principles in belief of karma of Vishnuism and Hinduism one would like to advise and tell people to do the best thing. In moral principles of Vishnuism or Hinduism, which tell and show the people not to kill, and tell people to do all the good things.

Today, Angkor Wat remains one of Cambodia’s most famous places, with its exquisite architectural details and breathtaking stone carvings throughout. However, our journey in Angkor has only begun. Please join us next Sunday, September 26 on The World Around Us as we explore more of Angkor Wat and other temples of this special Cambodian region.

It was a pleasure having your company today on The World Around Us. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Words of Wisdom, up next after Noteworthy News. May your life be blessed with joy and harmony.