OK, I said that I don’t have a snake fetish. But if you’ve been reading my blog lately, you might think that I have an Angkor Wat fetish.
I’ve been writing a lot about Angkor Wat and snake lore in Southeast Asia to immerse you in deep thought patterns of a different culture. These patterns are very deep and creative. The more you explore Southeast Asian societies, the more wealth you’ll find. I found yet another type of wealth while taking the above photo.
My first trip to Cambodia was during the dry season, but this time the monsoon in its full glory energized the land. I had spent the day exploring the temple, and I was now leaving. Suddenly the place became noisy with the sound of crickets. I couldn’t identify one place where they came from–they pervaded the whole area.
I took the above shot while walking down the hill that the great temple of Phnom Bakheng rules from. I stopped because the mixture of crickets and birdsong that filled the air was as full and energetic as the forest.
Recent posts have shown several aspects of Southeast Asian assumptions that life-giving and spiritual energies fill the world, and are basic in nature. Jungles, monsoons, rivers, snake lore, the abundance of life forms all reinforce these assumptions–they’re multidimensional. Sound is another dimension that reinforces them.
You thus see Angkor Wat’s power in its huge scale and intricate forms.
You feel it in the tropical sun’s heat, and in the monsoon.
And you hear it in the many creatures within its walls.
If you go to Angkor Wat, don’t just hop back on the bus with a tour group. Stick around, and return many times. More dimensions keep opening up that take you back to how the ancient Khmers probably experienced it. It projects the universe’s power and envelops you in it.
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