The Bapuon temple is the most advanced and most daring contruction of the Khmers. A renewal in style commenced with the Phineanakas temple got its absolute highlight with the construction of Bapuon: steeper than steep, very tight, with 3 surrounding galleries and an overall construction that was utterly ambitious. King Udayadityavarman II was responsible for Bapuon, he wished a state-temple that was finer and more elegant than anything else built before by the Khmers, and he succeeded. Nevertheless, his project suffered the same fate as some cathedrals in Europe: in an attempt to refine the style and to built higher and steeper, the building was too fragile. There are signs that successors of king Udayadityavarman II made attempts to restore the temple, but, eventually, the construction was too ambitious and more ore less collapsed from inside out. The French conserver Bernard-Philippe Groslier and his team broke the temple down into blocks and had just started to rebuilt it when the civil war between the Lon Nol government and the Khmer Rouge broke out. The rebuilding was halted and became almost impossible when the maps of all the blocks were lost during the Khmer Rouge regime. The temple of Baphuon stil stands thanks to a long and difficult restoration process, but in August 2011 it was still not accesible.
During a new visit to Angkor in March 2015, Baphuon was fully open to the public with acces at the south side and exit at the north side. Climbing this steepest of all temples would be hard to do, so, fortunately, a wooden staircase with metal hand rail is made in place. While climbing, and especially after arriving at the top, the meaning and purpose of the architects and builders becomes wondefully clear: this is how the king and priests intended their ascencion to their place of worship, closer to their gods.
The looks on the temple from below are fantastic and arousing; the view down is equally impressive. Much credit to the people who managed to restore this elegant temple!
( scroll down for more pictures of Bapuon)
