About 40 km east of Angkor, Beng Mealea is one of the largest ensembles in the region covering an area comparable to the most imposing temples.
No inscriptions have been found here, and nothing is known to date the temple or of its founder, at any rate stylistically it is later than the Baphuon and very close to Angkor Wat style, many even believe that it was the direct model for the Cambodia's most famous temple.
Beng Mealea |
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The temple lies within a moated enclosure almost one square kilometre, on the eastern side a bridge with a naga balustrade crosses the wide moat today filled with thriving vegetation. The sanctuary sets within three galleries, a long causeway leads to the south gate of the outer enclosure, here you turn to East and, having passed the southeast corner tower and the remains of the eastern terrace, you can enter across the remains of the outer gallery.
Like in Angkor Wat a large cruciform cloister and two ‘libraries’ are positioned within the enclosures. At Beng Melea builders pioneered the use of covered galleries, appearing for the first time supported on one side by a back wall and on the other by rows of pillars, an arrangement particularly favourable for the bas-reliefs.
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Beng Mealea
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The galleries however are not sculpted, as in Angkor Wat or Bayon, and most of the pillars and walls are undecorated. Decorations are present on pediments, lintels and, pilasters, with scenes drawn from Hindu epics, although a seated statue of Lokesvara found in the collapsed central tower, today displayed in the Angkor museum, tells us that Beng Mealea was a Buddhist temple. Lintels depict Hindu divinities such as Indra on the three-headed elephant, apsaras and a crude version of the ‘Churning of the Sea of Milk’.
Unfortunately, in its state of ruin the temple appears in a veritable chaos of fallen debris, the central tower has completely collapsed, lintels and building blocks lay around in piles and require visitors to climb up and down. Everywhere the vegetation reigns as master, little light passes through the canopy, huge trees grow from the temple's walls and towers, vines entangle columns and roots dribble down the stones.
Beng Mealea |
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The ruins of Beng Mealea are very instructive on the deficiencies of Khmer building methods that contributed to the early collapse of their temples. Stone blocks were piled vertically with joints running from top to bottom making walls very unstable. Khmer did not know the true vault and did not go beyond the corbelled arch, determining an inherent weakness of the galleries and their vaults often collapsed when the temples were abandoned.
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