ARSITEKTUR ASIA TENGGARA

1. Lokasi
Southeast Asia, region of Asia comprising the Indochinese and Malay
peninsulas and several nearby island groups. The region is bordered on the
north by China; on the east by the South Pacific Ocean; on the south by the
Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and
the Indian subcontinent. Southeast Asia includes the countries of Brunei,
Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), Cambodia (Kâmpŭchéa), Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam
2. Prinsip
• Arsitektur Hindu
• Arsitektur Budha

Angkor
I INTRODUCTION

Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire from the early 9th century to the mid-15th century in
what is now Cambodia. The name is also used in reference to the empire itself.

As the religious, cultural, and administrative center of a prosperous and sophisticated

kingdom, Angkor grew to be one of the world’s largest cities in the late 12th century (when it
was known as Angkor Thum), comprising an estimated one million residents. Angkor’s kings
erected magnificent temple complexes and constructed an intricate network of canals, moats,
and barays (reservoirs). Today Angkor is recognized as one of the world’s most valuable
cultural sites and as a national symbol of Cambodia. In 1992 Angkor was designated a World
Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The site covers some 400 sq km (200 sq mi).

The historic site of Angkor is located 320 km (200 mi) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s
present capital, in the northwestern part of the country. It occupies a fertile plain that is
bordered by the Kulen Mountains on the north and the Tônlé Sap (Great Lake) on the south.
The Siĕmréab River, which drains the plain, winds through Angkor. The provincial capital of
Siĕmréab lies 6 km (4 mi) south of the ruins and serves as the arrival and departure point for
visiting Angkor.

The name Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit word nagara (meaning “city”) and is pronounced
Nokor or Ongkor in Khmer and Angkor in English. The state temple of the first city of Angkor
was Phnom Bakheng, a temple on a hill whose structure symbolizes the mountain that stands
at the center of the world according to Hindu cosmology. Successive kings built temples
devoted to various Hindu and Buddhist deities, and, as Angkor expanded, new population
centers grew up around the temples that served as social, economic, religious, and political
centers. Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, and the temples within Angkor Thum are the main
temple complexes at Angkor. To the north, east, and west of these central structures lie three
vast barays, linked by canals throughout the central zone. The temples and barays of this
central area make up Angkor National Park, which was established in 1925 by the French, who
had administrative jurisdiction over Cambodia at that time. The park includes more than 40
monuments open to visitors.
II ANGKOR’S EXPANSION

In 802 AD a Khmer (ethnic Cambodian) prince known as Jayavarman II consolidated several

autonomous principalities in the Angkor region, founding the Khmer Empire and initiating the
Angkor period. He moved his capital several times before settling at Hariharalaya (present-day
Phumĭ Rôluŏs), 12 km (7.5 mi) southeast of Siĕmréab. At the end of the 9th century,
Yasovarman I moved the capital to Angkor and named it Yasodharapura, after himself. Angkor
remained the center of the Khmer Empire for most of the next 500 years.

Ancient City of Angkor

This map shows the layout of the ancient city of Angkor, capital of the Cambodian Khmer kingdom from
the 9th century to the 15th century. The city’s huge stone temples were both civic centers and religious
symbols of the Hindu cosmos. Historians believe that Angkor’s network of canals and barays (reservoirs)
were used for irrigation.

The successors of Jayavarman II created a tradition of large-scale construction that united

political power, territorial expansion, and religious belief. Khmer culture assimilated several
religious traditions: Hinduism and Buddhism, which arrived from India beginning around the
2nd century AD, and animism, a belief in spiritual forces that was practiced universally in
Southeast Asia before the Indian religions appeared. Although all three forms of worship were
sometimes practiced simultaneously during the Angkor period, the preferred religion of the
ruling king predominated. Each of the Cambodian monarchs identified or associated himself
with a particular god. Early kings favored the worship of the Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu,
whereas in the late 12th century the kings’ religious preferences shifted to Mahayana
Buddhism. Each king built a state temple dedicated to his patron divinity to solidify his
symbolic relationship with that god. Each also constructed at least one temple dedicated to his
ancestors to ensure the continuation of the royal line.

Some kings further emphasized their power by constructing barays to symbolize their glory.
The largest of these reservoirs, the West Baray, is 8 km (5 mi) long and 2.3 km (1.4 mi) wide.
Historians have long theorized that the barays and canals of Angkor were part of a centralized
water system used for large-scale irrigation. Some believe the system allowed the people
living on Angkor’s fertile plain to raise as many as three crops of rice a year, supporting a large
population and thus providing a sufficient tax base to fund the kings’ prolific construction.
However, there is little archaeological or historical evidence to support this theory, so the
purpose of the waterways remains a subject of debate.

The Khmers first followed the Indian architectural tradition of building all royal and religious
structures of wood. Wood was perishable, however, and by the 9th century brick replaced it as
the main building material for temples. Later Khmer builders added stucco and sandstone to
some areas for decoration. By the 10th century, sandstone, quarried from the Kulen hills,
replaced brick as the primary building material for religious structures. Its fine-grained texture
was particularly suitable for carving, permitting the sharp rendering seen on reliefs at Angkor
Wat. Within 200 years the source of high-quality sandstone had been depleted. It was replaced
by a softer stone that produced deeper but less sharp carving, exemplified on the reliefs at the
Bayon temple in Angkor Thum.

Preah Ko, a brick temple at Phumĭ Rôluŏs dedicated to Shiva, characterizes the architecture of
the early Angkor period. Built by Indravarman I in 879, its tall, square tower rests on a low
pedestal and displays fine stucco decoration and sandstone deities in niches. Phnom Bakheng,
the first of the temples to be built at Angkor, illustrates the symbolic function of many Khmer
temples. Yasovarman I erected Phnom Bakheng in the late 9th century on a natural hill
overlooking the plain of Angkor. From the crest of the hill, the temple rises in five square tiers.
The top tier is crowned with five shrines, one in the center and one on each corner. This
structure symbolizes Mount Meru, which according to Hindu belief is the sacred home of the
gods at the center of the universe. By extension it also represents the center of the kingdom
over which Yasovarman ruled, associating the king with the gods and celebrating his power.

Khmer artistic skill reached its peak with Angkor Wat (“City Temple”), built in the 12th century
by Suryavarman II. The king’s workmen labored for more than 30 years to erect the temple
dedicated to Vishnu. Like Phnom Bakheng and other temples, Angkor Wat was built to
represent Mount Meru. Its three walled areas enclose one another and rise successively in
height toward a central spire that towers 55 m (180 ft) above the ground. Virtually every
surface is covered with carvings depicting characters and episodes from Hindu legends. The
unity of the temple’s composition, as well as its balance, proportion, and decoration, make it
an architectural masterpiece.
In 1177 the Kingdom of Champa (in what is now central Vietnam) invaded and sacked Angkor.
Jayavarman VII, who ruled from 1181 to 1220, eventually rebuffed the Chams and rebuilt the
capital, naming it Angkor Thum (“Great City”). The king enclosed the city within a wall
measuring 8 m (26 ft) in height and 12,000 m (39,000 ft) in length. Jayavarman and his
military officers and priests lived inside the wall, while the common people lived outside. At the
exact center of Angkor Thum the king erected the Bayon, a symbol of Mahayana Buddhism.
The stepped temple is crowned with a 45-m (148-ft) pyramidal tower. More than 200 gigantic
faces gaze in the four directions from the structure, signifying the omnipresence of the king
and his protective power over the kingdom. After the death of Jayavarman VII, several kings
reigned but no other major monuments were built.

III ANGKOR’S DECLINE

Historians are not certain why Angkor gradually declined during the 13th and 14th centuries,
but several factors may have contributed. Jayavarman VII’s massive building program
eventually exhausted the kingdom’s resources. At the same time, Angkor’s vassal states
began to assert their independence, no longer paying tribute into Angkor’s treasuries.
Defending Angkor from frequent invasions by the neighboring Thais also resulted in a huge
loss of manpower, so that the irrigation system that sustained Angkor’s highly productive
agriculture could not be properly maintained. At the end of the 13th century a new branch of
Buddhism—Theravada Buddhism—was introduced from Sri Lanka. Its more egalitarian spiritual
teachings undermined the hierarchical structure of Khmer society and the political power of
prominent adherents of Hinduism. Thai raids on Angkor increased in the 14th century, and
after a prolonged siege in 1431, the Khmers gradually shifted their capital south to Phnom
Penh. Angkor never regained its former glory. Its monuments—except for Angkor Wat, which
was maintained by Buddhist monks—became shrouded in jungle.

IV RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS

The West became aware of Angkor through the published diaries and drawings of Henri
Mouhot, a French naturalist who visited Angkor in 1860. France acquired administrative
jurisdiction over Cambodia in 1863. After surveying Angkor to determine its extent and layout,
the French worked for nearly 75 years, starting in the beginning of the 20th century, to
preserve the monuments. In 1972 French archaeologists were forced to leave Cambodia during
the upheaval caused by civil war. Damage to Angkor’s monuments during the Khmer Rouge
(Cambodian Communist movement) regime of 1975 to 1979 was minimal.

In the 1970s most of Angkor’s monuments began to suffer from neglect and looting. An
enormous amount of Khmer art was transported across the border into Thailand and then sold
on the international market. In the mid-1980s an international appeal for assistance in
preserving Angkor inspired organizations from India and Poland to undertake preservation
work on Angkor Wat and the Bayon. Offers for assistance increased following the end of the
civil war in Cambodia in 1991. In recent years, international foundations and countries,
including France, Japan, and Germany, have been helping the Cambodian government
conserve sites. Advanced research techniques such as aerial photography, a geographic
information system (computer system that records and analyzes geographic data), and
satellite-based radar imaging enable archaeologists to construct maps of the ancient city and
to detect ruins in inaccessible areas of the jungle.

Contributed By:
Dawn F. Rooney

Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat, renowned Hindu temple complex at Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire of
Cambodia from the early 9th century to the mid-15th century, now a destination for Buddhist
pilgrims. Built for King Suryavarman II in the 12th century, Angkor Wat is the most famous
temple in Cambodia and is probably the largest religious monument ever constructed.

The complex, built of both sandstone and laterite (a dense, porous, iron-bearing soil that can
be quarried like stone), forms a rectangle of about 850 m by 1000 m (2800 by 3800 ft). It was
constructed to serve both as a sepulchre for Suryavarman II, whose regime had adopted some
aspects of Hinduism, and as a celebration of his status as an incarnation of the Hindu god
Vishnu. As a sepulchre the temple was built facing west (the direction taken by the dead in
going to their next life, in Hindu belief), rather than facing east, which was traditional for Hindu
temples. Taking more than 30 years to build, the layout of the complex was conceived as an
architectural allegory of the Hindu cosmology (world concept). At the center of the complex
stands a temple with five lotus-shaped towers, a larger central tower, and four smaller
surrounding towers. These represent the five peaks of Mount Meru—according to Hindu belief,
the mountain where the gods reside and from which all creation comes. The central tower
enclosure is surrounded by three square, terraced enclosures that rise toward the central
towers. The series of terraces symbolizes the mountain ranges that in Hindu cosmology
surround the habitable world. The entire complex is surrounded by a moat over 5 km in length,
representing the primordial ocean, over which extends an elaborate 475-m causeway, leading
to the main of four gateways into the temple complex. The causeway was decorated on each
side with carvings depicting the divine serpents, known as nagas.

Angkor Wat is famous for having the longest running bas-relief in the world. Beautifully crafted,
many of the carvings were once painted and gilded. They decorate the 2-m high, galleried
walls having roofed walkways that run along the inside of the protective moat, just outside of
the temple complex itself. The reliefs depict historical episodes in the life of King Suryavarman
II; scenes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; the exploits of the Hindu
gods Shiva and Vishnu with celestial nymphs known as apsarases; and scenes from the daily
life of the Khmer people at the time the complex was built. Some of Angkor Wat's bas-reliefs
suffered damage at the height of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge movement in the 1960s and
1970s.

Angkor Wat fell to the Cham army from northern Cambodia in 1177, after which the complex
proper began to fall into ruin. It was then reclaimed, though not inhabited, by Khmer King
Jayavarman VII when he defeated the Chams soon after the beginning of his reign in 1181.

Both Angkor Wat and Angkor Thum, Jayavarman VII's royal city to the north, were altered by
subsequent inhabitants. Pillaged by Thai invaders in the 15th century, they were expanded by
later rulers of Cambodia, some of whom replaced existing aspects altogether. In the 1400s the
Angkor area was abandoned as a political capital for reasons of security and, after the Thai
invasion of 1431, was not permanently inhabited as a capital again. Angkor Wat was
intermittently inhabited by Buddhist monks, and about 1550 portions of its bas-reliefs were
finally completed. It subsequently became a destination for Buddhist pilgrims from all over the
world.

Ruins of the Temple of Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, located in central Cambodia, is the largest temple complex in the world. The complex was
built in the 12th century under King Suryavarman II to celebrate the king as the incarnation of the Hindu
god Vishnu. The complex is made entirely of stone, with corbeled roofs and relief friezes depicting scenes
from Hindu mythology.
The Stock Market/Greg Davis

Angkor Thum
Angkor Thum, royal city and Buddhist temple complex at Angkor, the capital of the Khmer
Empire of Cambodia from the early 9th century to the mid-15th century. Khmer king
Jayavarman VII, who reigned in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, began building the vast
monument at Angkor Thum (Khmer for “Angkor-the-Great” or “Great City”) after he had
regained control of the Angkor region from the Cham army of northern Cambodia, which had
seized it around 1177. Angkor Thum was built over and around buildings and temples built by
earlier Khmer kings, but its layout was modeled on Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple complex south
of Angkor Thum. Angkor Wat was finished about thirty years earlier under Khmer king
Suryavarman II, who was overthrown by the Cham army. Jayavarman was a recent convert to
Mahayana Buddhism, and is thought to have abandoned Hinduism as a result of the defeat of
the Hindu Suryavaram II by the Chams.

Despite Angkor Thum's origins in Buddhism, it reflects the typical allegorical architectural
pattern of Hindu temples, which symbolize the entire Hindu cosmology (world concept). At the
center of Angkor Thum remains a stepped central temple—the Bayon—with a 45 m (148 ft)
high pyramidal tower at its center. The tower has four massive heads carved into its top. Each
head, representing both the Buddha and King Jayavarman VII as the Buddha's reincarnation,
faces one of the four directions. Fifty-one smaller towers surrounded the central tower, each
likewise ornamented with four carved heads facing the four directions. The two walls enclosing
the Bayon were decorated with bas-relief carvings. The exterior of the outer walls included
bas-reliefs depicting historical events, and the bas-reliefs on the exterior of the inner walls
depicted legendary scenes. In Hindu symbolism, the central temple area represents Mount
Meru—the mountain on which the Hindu gods reside and which is regarded as the center of the
universe. After the death of King Jayavarman VII, the Bayon was in fact converted into a Hindu
temple by Brahman priests.

The structures of Angkor Thum were built of sandstone, laterite—dense, porous, iron-bearing
soil that can be quarried like stone—and wood. The entire complex was surrounded by a 100 m
wide moat that was used both for defense and as part of the irrigation system, which included
large artificial lakes, or barays, outside of the temple complex to the east and the west. The
moat symbolized the primordial ocean that according to Hindu cosmology surrounds the
habitable world. Numerous causeways led over the moat to the complex. The 8 m high exterior
walls of the complex formed a perfect square, two sides running east to west and two sides
running north to south. In the center of each wall was an elaborate gateway and road into the
complex, each leading to the gateways in the center of the exterior walls of the Bayon. A fifth
gate led directly from the Royal Enclosure, just north of the Bayon, out of Angkor Thum and to
the East Baray. The Royal Enclosure, including an official palace, living quarters, and royal
gardens for the court, was originally constructed by Khmer king Suryavarman I in the first half
of the 11th century.

The sculpture and bas-relief carvings that decorate the gallery walls of much of Angkor Thum
appear to have once been painted and gilded. Although extensive, they are generally
considered to be of inferior quality to those of Angkor Wat. The interior walls of the temple
buildings themselves are devoid of ornament, although it is thought that they were once
covered with murals. Because these temple buildings were built exclusively for the priests or
high royalty, only a limited group of people would have ever seen the murals. The working
population of peasants and craftspeople lived outside the wall of the royal city and worshiped
at the temples lining the exterior galleries.

Both Angkor Thum and Angkor Wat were altered by subsequent inhabitants. Pillaged by Thai
invaders in the 15th century, the complexes were extended by later rulers of Cambodia, some
of whom rebuilt existing structures altogether. In the 15th century the Ângkôr area was
abandoned as a political capital for reasons of security and, after the Thai invasion of 1431,
was not permanently inhabited as a capital again.

Bayon Temple, Angkor Thum

The giant faces carved on the Bayon temple at the Angkor Thum complex represent both the Buddha and
King Jayavarman VII (ruled about 1130-1219). Although a Buddhist temple, Angkor Thum was modeled
after the great Hindu temple complex of Angkor Wat.

Borobudur
Borobudur, Hindu-Buddhist temple, near Magelang on the island of Java in Indonesia. Built in
the 9th century under the Sailendra dynasty of Java, it was abandoned in the 11th century and
partially excavated by archaeologists in the early 20th century. Influenced by the Gupta
architecture of India, the temple is constructed on a hill 46 m (150 ft) high and consists of
eight steplike stone terraces, one on top of the other. The first five terraces are square and
surrounded by walls adorned with Buddhist sculpture in bas-relief; the upper three are circular,
each with a circle of bell-shaped stupas (Buddhist shrines). The entire edifice is crowned by a
large stupa at the center of the top circle. The way to the summit extends through some 4.8
km (some 3 mi) of passages and stairways. The design of Borobudur, a temple-mountain
symbolizing the structure of the universe, influenced temples built at Angkor, Cambodia.
Borobudur was rededicated as an Indonesian national monument in 1983 following extensive
reclamation, aided by the United Nations.

The temple-mountain design symbolizes the structure of the universe. The central stupa is on
a massive stepped base and is surrounded by scores of lesser stupas, the whole representative
of Buddhist beliefs. Borobudur architecture influenced the famous Khmer temples, or wats, of
Cambodia such as Angkor Wat (early 12th century), which has three vast rectangular terraces,
each edged with passages, one higher than the other. The outermost, largest terrace wall is
marked by low towers, the second by higher ones, and the innermost by still taller ones
centered around the tallest of all—an awesome composition. The whole is covered with miles
of religious relief sculpture.
Model of Borobudur Temple, Java
A model of Borobudur, a Hindu-Buddhist temple on the island of Java in Indonesia, reveals in this aerial
view the eight stone terraces built in steps, one on top of the other. Constructed in the 9th century and
abandoned in the 11th century, Borobudur influenced the design of many other temples.