It’s that special Khmer magic. The moment you land in Cambodia, a sense of ease, lightness, and joy should descend upon you. Surprisingly, this isn’t marketing hyperbole, as most of the country’s visitors seem to feel this way – in 2021, a poll by the Rough Guides travel company voted it the “world’s friendliest country”.
Maybe it’s how the people greet you, maybe it’s the generally spectacular food (so far free of the influence of globalized fast-food), or maybe it’s the warm breeze against your skin, that “carefree day at the beach” vibe that you can experience far inland. Whatever it is, Cambodia’s cultural heritage is at the heart of it, coaxing you inwards to explore every corner of this sacred and resolutely cheerful land.
Cambodia (officially named the Kingdom of Cambodia) is a South-East Asian country that’s probably best-known for two things: its remarkable recovery from life under the dictator Pol Pot, and its plentiful Unesco World Heritage sites, including the one that dominates every traveller’s bucket-list: the Temples of Angkor, a complex of Buddhist-Hindu temples located north of Tonle Sap Lake, in the province of Siem Reap.
Stretching over 400 km2, the Angkor Archaeological Park is home to some of the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire’s most impressive remnants, dating from the 9th to the 15th Century. The vast landscape protects around 72 main temples, along with remains of hundreds of smaller sites and forested areas.
Whenever you’re visiting a country’s most famous piece of architecture, there’s usually two things going on. First there’s the objective history to take in: the dates, the what-happened-when, and procession of names and cultures and religions that bring you up to the modern day. But there’s also what the place has come to mean, in an everyday felt way, to the people who live around it.
If you want to know something about the source of Cambodia’s baked-in optimism, you should have a look at its state religion. Upwards of 95% of the population Theravada Buddhists (the oldest school of modern Buddhism) – and in daily practice, it’s a religion that’s built around 5 principles: refraining from taking lives; refraining from stealing; avoiding excessive or misguided sensual pleasures; never lying and avoiding gossiping; refraining from intoxicants. In short: the goal is to live a life of tranquil, non-aggressive moderation in all things.
How Angkor Wat fits into this might not be clear if you looked purely at its history. The site itself first operated as a central part of a capital city (the preindustrial world’s largest) during the half-millenia of the Khmer Empire – the word Angkor comes from nokor, the Khmer word for kingdom. This was when Hinduism was the empire’s main religion – and during this time in the early 12th century, King Suryavarman II ordered his architects to build the most majestic structure conceivable to be his state temple and future mausoleum (hence the word Wat, derived from the Sanskrit for “temple” and commonly used in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to refer to any sacred space for worship).
That is how Angkor Wat was born, a blend of artistic ambition and spiritual devotion to honour the Hindu god Lord Vishnu. But today, it’s also become something else.
The temple complex was finished by Buddhists, and now acts as a dramatic reminder of Buddhism’s resilience in the face of so much history – but it’s also come to stand for the country as a whole, as evidenced by its presence on the national flag since 1863.
This sense of the communal value of Angkor Wat has only been bolstered by recent discoveries. The colossal size of the site (1,626,000 square metres) had long been believed to originally cater only for the uppermost tiers of early Khmer society. However, in 2015 a team of archaeologists from the University of Sydney uncovered traces of low-density residential occupation in the region, including roads, ponds and other features that were possibly used by people servicing the temple. In the words of the project lead:
“This challenges our traditional understanding of the social hierarchy of the Angkor Wat community and shows that the temple precinct, bounded by moat and wall, may not have been exclusively the preserve of the wealthy or the priestly elite.”
Today, the temple complex is the jewel in the crown of Cambodia’s tourism industry. But for anyone walking its paths at dawn (the best time to be there, before the daily rush of visitors), watching the temple’s reflection appear in the huge pool surrounding it, it’s also an experience to be had, something deeply affecting, even if your religious beliefs differ from the average Cambodian – something of wider spiritual appeal that can transcend Buddhism itself.
One of the great gifts of travel is to begin to understand the world through somebody else’s eyes – and maybe Angkor Wat is one way into understanding the hard-won Cambodian optimism that is powering its national psyche, which anyone would be curious about. After all, while it has many delights to offer, it’s also facing many of the same challenges as its neighbours and of countries further afield: too many low-paid jobs, too much pollution and deforestation, inadequate infrastructure and a high cost of generating energy. But everyday Cambodian friendliness and optimism seem to thrive despite these things, in a way they’re not doing in other countries.
Somehow, Cambodians have discovered how to make what we all call normal life a little more bearable and satisfying, something to feel a little more grateful about. Could we be let in on this secret?
Maybe there’s only one place you’ll discover it – and it opens just before dawn.
Join us in November on our exclusive Wheel & Anchor charter aboard a replica colonial riverboat, as we make our way from the temples of Angkor Wat to the vibrant city of Ho Chi Minh. Along the way we’ll visit rural villages, local schools, and sample life along one of Asia’s greatest waterways. See all the details here.