The Bayon was built nearly 100 years after Angkor Wat. The basic structure and earliest part of the temple ate not known. Since it was located at the centre of a royal city it seems possible that the Bayon would have originally been a temple-mountain conforming to the symbolism of a microcosm of Mount Meru. The middle part of the temple was extended during the second phase of building. The Bayon of today belong to the third and last phase of the art style.
A peculiarity of the Bayon is the absence of an enclosing wall. It is, though, protected by the wall surrounding the city of Angkor Thom. The basic plan of the Bayon is a simple one comprising three levels (1-3). The first and second levels are square galleries featuring bas-reliefs. A circular Central Sanctuary (4) dominates the third level. Despite this seemingly simple plan, the arrangement of the Bayon is complex, with a maze of galleries, passages and steps connected in a way that make the levels practically indistinguishable and creates dim lighting, narrow walkways, and low ceilings.
Enter the Bayon from the east (5) at the steps leading to a terrace. The interior of the Bayon, the one a visitor first encounters, is a square gallery on the ground or first level (1). This gallery is interspersed with eight entry towers (7)- one in each corner and one in the middle of each side. All of the eight structures are in the shape of a cross. The gallery was probably originally covered with a root, perhaps of wood.
Tip: For those who have limited time, enter the Bayon at the east, turn left at the first gallery and follow the arrow marked on the plan.
The decoration on the pillars in front of the entry tower at the east is characteristic of the Bayon style and is exceptionally beautiful. It is the recurring theme of the Apsaras but with a different treatment. A typical composition is a group of three Asaras dancing on a bed of lotuses. They are in a triangular formation. The figure in the center is larger than those on either side. A plain background highlights both the dancers and the intricately carved frame comprising a lightly etched pattern of flowers and leaves that look like tapestry. (Although a group of three dancers is typical, similar scenes are made up only one or two dancers.)
Tip: The absence of a roof on these pillars allows sufficient light for the visitor to view and photograph this motif at all times of the day.
The two galleries of bas-reliefs are distinguished by the degree of elevation .The first or outer gallery is all on one level whereas the second or inner gallery is on different level and the passage is some times difficult. The layout of the inner gallery can be misleading but as lone as the relief are in view you are still in the second gallery .
The second gallery of bas-reliefs has a tower in each corner and another one on each side which combines to form an entry tower(8).
On the interior of the second level there is a unit of galleries at each corner that form a cross with indentation. Each corner has a tower and a courtyard. Agigh terrace parallels the profile of the cross-shaped gallery.
The architectural climax is the third level (3) ,with the Central Sanctuary and the faces of Avalokitesvara .The east side of this area is crammed with a series of small rooms and entry towers .The multitude of faces at different levels affords endless fascination. Godliness in the majesty and the size; mystery in the expression wrote de Beer ski when he looked at the faces in the 1920s.
The central mass is circular , a shape that is uncommon in Khmer art. Small porches with pediments provide the bases for the monumental faces while windows with balusters keep the diffusion of light to a minimum. The faces on the four sides of the eight tower marking the cardinal directions are exceptionally dramatic depictions.
The interior of the Central Sanctuary is and surrounded by a narrow passage. The summit of the Central mass is undoubtedly the Golden Tower which Zhou Daguan said marked the center of the Kingdom and was flanked by more than twenty lesser tower and several hundred stone chambers.
The have homely human things to tell and they tell them without affectation, wrote H Churchill Candee of the bas-reliefs in the galleries of the Bayon.
Tip: View the galleries of bas-reliefs clockwise , always keeping the monument on the right. Do not get so absorbed with the reliefs that you forget to stop at each opening and enhoy the view of the faces on the third level.
The outer gallery: depictions of historical events and everyday life the outer wall of the outer gallery features a series of bas-reliefs depicting historical events and scenes from the everyday life of the Angkorian Khmer. Though highly detailed and informative in themselves, the bas-reliefs are not accompanied by any sort of epigraphic text, and for that reason considerable uncertainty remains as to which historical events are portrayed and how, if at all, the different reliefs are related. From the east gopura clockwise, the subjects are:
A scene from the eastern gallery shows a Khmer army on the march.
• in the southern part of the eastern gallery a marching Khmer army (including some Chinese soldiers),[8] with musicians, horsemen, and officers mounted on elephants, followed by wagons of provisions;
A scene from the southern gallery depicts a naval battle; this section shows Cham warriors in a boat and dead Khmer fighters in the water.
A market scene in the southern gallery shows the weighing of goods; the fish belong to a naval battle taking place above.
• still in the eastern gallery, on the other side of the doorway leading into the courtyard, another procession followed by domestic scenes depicting Angkorian houses, some of the occupants of which appear to be Chinese merchants;
• in the southeast corner pavilion, an unfinished temple scene with towers, apsaras, and a lingam;
• in the eastern part of the southern gallery, a naval battle on the Tonle Sap between Khmer and Cham forces, underneath which are more scenes from civilian life depicting a market, open-air cooking, hunters, and women tending to children and an invalid;
• still in the southern gallery, past the doorway leading to the courtyard, a scene with boats and fisherman, including a Chinese junk, below which is a depiction of a cockfight; then some palace scenes with princesses, servants, people engaged in conversations and games, wrestlers, and a wild boar fight; then a battle scene with Cham warriors disembarking from boats and engaging Khmer warriors whose bodies are protected by coiled ropes, followed by a scene in which the Khmer dominate the combat, followed by a scene in which the Khmer king celebrates a victory feast with his subjects;
• in the western part of the southern gallery, a military procession including both Khmers and Chams, elephants, war machines such as a large crossbow and a catapult;
• in the southern part of the western gallery, unfinished reliefs show an army marching through the forest, then arguments and fighting between groups of Khmers;[10]
• in the western gallery, past the doorway to the courtyard, a scene depicting a melee between Khmer warriors, then a scene in which warriors pursue others past a pool in which an enormous fish swallows a small deer;[11] then a royal procession, with the king standing on an elephant, preceded by the ark of the sacred flame;
• in the western part of the northern gallery, again unfinished, a scene of royal entertainment including athletes, jugglers and acrobats, a procession of animals, ascetics sitting in a forest, and more battles between Khmer and Cham forces;
• in the northern gallery, past the doorway to the courtyard, a scene in which the Khmer flee from Cham soldiers advancing in tight ranks;
• in the northeast corner pavilion, another marching Khmer army;
• in the eastern gallery, a land battle between Khmer and Cham forces, both of which are supported by elephants: the Khmer appear to be winning.
The outer gallery encloses a courtyard in which there are two libraries (one on either side of the east entrance). Originally the courtyard contained 16 chapels, but these were subsequently demolished by the Hindu restorationist Jayavarman VIII.
The inner gallery: depictions of mythological events
Very little space is left between the inner gallery (left) and the upper terrace (right)
The inner gallery is raised above ground level and has doubled corners, with the original redented cross-shape later filled out to a square. Its bas-reliefs, later additions of Jayavarman VIII, are in stark contrast to those of the outer: rather than set-piece battles and processions, the smaller canvases offered by the inner gallery are decorated for the most part with scenes from Hindu mythology. Some of the figures depicted are Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma, the members of the trimurti or threefold godhead of Hinduism, Apsaras or celestial dancers, Ravana and Garuda. There is however no certainty as to what some of the panels depict, or as to their relationship with one another. One gallery just north of the eastern gopura, for example, shows two linked scenes which have been explained as the freeing of a goddess from inside a mountain, or as an act of iconoclasm by Cham invaders. Another series of panels shows a king fighting a gigantic serpent with his bare hands, then having his hands examined by women, and finally lying ill in bed; these images have been connected with the legend of the Leper King, who contracted leprosy from the venom of a serpent with whom he had done battle. Less obscure are depictions of the construction of a Vishnuite temple (south of the western gopura) and the Churning of the Sea of Milk (north of the western gopura).
The upper terrace: 200 faces of Lokesvara
The inner gallery is nearly filled by the upper terrace, raised one level higher again. The lack of space between the inner gallery and the upper terrace has led scholars to conclude that the upper terrace did not figure in the original plan for the temple, but that it was added shortly thereafter following a change in design. Originally, it is believed, the Bayon had been designed as a single-level structure, similar in that respect to the roughly contemporaneous foundations at Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei.
The upper terrace is home to the famous "face towers" of the Bayon, each of which supports two, three or (most commonly) four gigantic smiling faces. In addition to the mass of the central tower, smaller towers are located along the inner gallery (at the corners and entrances), and on chapels on the upper terrace. "Wherever one wanders," writes Maurice Glaize, the faces of Lokesvara follow and dominate with their multiple presence."
Efforts to read some significance into the numbers of towers and faces have run up against the circumstance that these numbers have not remained constant over time, as towers have been added through construction and lost to attrition. At one point, the temple was host to 49 such towers; now only 37 remain.The number of faces is approximately 200, but since some are only partially preserved there can be no definitive count.
The central tower and sanctuary
Like the inner gallery, the central tower was originally cruciform but was later filled out and made circular. It rises 43 metres above the ground. At the time of the temple's foundation, the principal religious image was a statue of the Buddha, 3.6 m tall, located in the sanctuary at the heart of the central tower. The statue depicted the Buddha seated in meditation, shielded from the elements by the flared hood of the serpent king Mucalinda. During the reign of Hindu restorationist monarch Jayavarman VIII, the figure was removed from the sanctuary and smashed to pieces. After being recovered in 1933 from the bottom of a well, it was pieced back together, and is now on display in a small pavilion at Angkor.