The Bayon, ca. 1200, built by King Jayavarman VII (r. 1181- ca. 1220).

Description

The Bayon is at the center of the king's city, Angkor Thom. It does not have a surrounding moat, and originally did not have an enclosing wall either. This makes us think that the moat and wall of the city of Angkor Thom were meant to be the moat and wall around the Bayon. In other words, the sacred area of the Bayon would have extended throughout the entire capital.

The Bayon is approached by a long, raised walkway and terrace on the east. The temple has two galleries, and an upper platform with a central tower and connecting towers on the east - and other structures around the main tower. The wall of the corridor around the outer gallery is carved with reliefs depicting the history of the king. On the east are two topics also found at Angkor Wat: a scene to the right of Jayavarman's battle for the throne, and one to the left of his triumphant procession into Angkor. The scenes in the inner gallery are dedicated more to the religious devotions of the king and "miracles" attributed to him or his reign. These scenes were carved rather late, but before the middle of the 13th c.

There are two libraries in the outer courtyard of the Bayon, on the east. The northeast library is currently (1997) being restored by the Japanese conservation team based in Waseda University. There were also once 16 structures that went around the outer courtyard of the temple, connecting the outer and inner galleries. These 16 structures were demolished at an unknown point in time - but probably before the Khmers abandoned Angkor in 1431. The most unusual aspects of the Bayon are the faces (of guardians) on its 52 towers, the many changes seen in its construction (buried plinths and walls, for example), and a "well" shaft that still is filled with water, on the northeast side of the inner gallery.

Conjectural history

The Bayon seems to have started out following the same royal pyramid-temple format seen at Ak Yom, Pre Rup, or Angkor Wat. Soon into construction, that format was modified and there was a definite change in direction. The outer gallery was moved outward, the courtyards and top platform were raised upward, and the top platform was expanded outward. That meant that the main eastern staircase was eliminated and the "well" chamber (discussed below) became buried inside the top platform, opening only on the north. Then the 16 connecting structures and two libraries were built between the outer and inner galleries, adding a capacity for well over 100 additional images at the temple.

The Bayon's upper elevation is more like the so-called "ancestor temples" constructed on one low platform, with 3 sanctuaries along a north-south line, and a mandapa in front of the main tower. There is a conflict between this format, and the general ground plan - a series of enclosed rectangles, like at Angkor Wat. For that reason, and because of its measurements, it looks like the original Bayon was meant to be a square pyramid with three terraces but was changed in the middle of the construction process.

The alterations in the form of the upper level of the Bayon probably happened when the pyramid-temple format of a central tower, like that of Ak Yom, was changed into the elongated format of temples like Banteay Srei. This strange mixture of two temple types at the heart of Angkor Thom has no obvious explanation.

The top platform of the two early pyramids at Angkor (Ak Yom and Rong Chen) is approximately 7 m. high, and the floor level of the inner gallery of the Bayon is also 7 m. high. The length of each side of the base of the two early pyramids is 100 m., and the remains of a buried wall along the north side of the Bayon would also make a 100 m. perimeter around the temple. The original height of the intervening levels of the Bayon corresponds to the height of the terraces at Ak Yom and Rong Chen.

There is a "well" shaft opening into a chamber in the inner gallery that was meant for the sanctuaries on the upper level. At the start of construction at the Bayon, this shaft was put under the central area of the temple, right near the eastern axis - the area of the topmost sanctuaries. Based on its position, the "well" tower was meant to flank the main eastern staircase to the top platform. At that time, the top platform would have been at the level of the inner gallery. When that platform was raised up 4.45 m., the "well" chamber was buried in an expanded plinth, and lost its position at the base of the staircase. The top of the well could no longer be raised up higher because there is no room for it on the top platform.

The "well" shaft in the inner gallery extends about 5 m. below ground level. At the bottom of the shaft are two walls that cross at the center, each 2 m. high. There is a square hole in the middle of each wall. There is also an opening in the northwest quadrant, west side. These features suggest a ritual use of the water in the well. It is this well that was said to have been occupied by a large naga or snake, before the Bayon was constructed. The bas-relief telling the story of the king's battle with a snake and the king's subsequent illness is only a few meters east of the well - in an alcove.

Unlike all other sanctuaries at Angkor, the chamber over this well shaft once had a relatively large, central wooden beam spanning its floor area north to south, and there were corner beams just below the central beam. There was no sandstone floor installed here. The shaft also extends wall-to-wall inside the chamber. The beams may have provided a means of lowering and raising water from the bottom of the shaft. Once the location of the shaft was established it could not be changed, no matter how much the temple itself was altered. That is why it became "buried" in the top platform, and its entrance changed to face outward from that platform.

According to ceramic remains in the outer courtyard, the site of the Bayon was occupied from at least the end of the 10th century and probably much earlier.

Around 25 excavations were carried out at the Bayon between 1919 and the 1960s. Most of these excavations were in the northeast quadrant of the temple, especially in the outer courtyards. Three were along the axis of the temple on the upper elevation, the rest were scattered in different sectors. Very little excavation was done in the western half of the Bayon, and none in the southwest.

Jacques Dumarçay summarized the excavation history of the Bayon in Le Bayon, Histoire Architecturale du Temple, Memoires Archeologiques III-2, v. 1 (Paris: Publications d'Ecole française d'Extreme-Orient, 1973), ch. 3, "Les sondages," pp. 17-21, and "Annexe II, la ceramique," pp. 68-69.