Angkor Thom

After a mixup over permission to shoot, we finally made it to Angkor Thom. We scouted the ruins... 

In front of 4-headed monument in Angkor Thom

We plan to get started tomorrow actually filming in the ruins. It's hard for me to post photos, the internet is slow.

No one's really sure if the carved heads represent the king who build Angkor Thom, or one of the Buddhas. But Angkor Thom is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Jayavarman VII was a Buddhist. The stone carvers were instructed to capture his face in a mood of contemlation. Still what an ego trip: carving your face in stone hundreds of times.

Swami Avadhut in ruins of Angkor

Angkor Thom is an amazing, spiritual place. Constructed around 10 centuries ago, it draws about 2 million tourists a year, just to see the sunset.

We'll go there tomorrow and shoot a few sequences discussing the origin of Angkor and the destruction of this great civilization.

bas relief on outer wall of Angkor

One of the greatest treasures at Angkor Thom is the continuous series of bas reliefs decorating the outside walls. They mostly depict daily life of the inhabitnts of the city, as for example fishing, or selling things in the market.