Modern Cambodia is different from the one of the past, when it also included places like China, Thailand, and Vietnam among several others. Jayavarman II made this region the center of his empire and it was later called Angkor. Thousands of Khmer workers cleared the jungles and made the land good for farming. They also started building palaces and temples.

Each and every king of the Khmer empire built several beautiful temples and palaces. This was mostly done to show their power. However, Angkor’s finest temple, the Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II, who ruled the Khmer empire from 1113 to 1150. This temple staggers the imagination with its unbelievable architecture.

King Suryavarman gave orders for the construction of a grand Hindu temple to honor Lord Vishnu, and it took thirty-five long years to build. Sculptures of gods, including Lord Shiva grace the walls of the temple. While most other Khmer temples face the East, the Angkor Wat faces the West. Some historians believe that the West, a direction of the setting sun indicates death, but others believe that it shows dedication to Lord Vishnu.

Angkor Wat is an excellent example of the temple mountain design. An amazing work of the Khmer architecture, it showed how intrinsic symmetry and repetition are to the Khmer design. The temple has five huge towers, each one representing the peaks of Mount Meru. The unique and stunning architecture of Angkor Wat has to be seen with the naked eye to be able to experience the impact. The galleries inside the temple depict the history in a most beautiful manner.

There was a unique controversy surrounding the temple, which was soon put to an end. It questioned the history of when the temple was built. The Europeans came up with the notion that the temple was built after the–th century because the temple’s motifs look exactly like the motifs from the Italian Renaissance. However, this rumor and allegation was instantly proved wrong, with historians saying that the opposite was true – that it was the Europeans that took the oriental art from Angkor Wat to Europe.

Inscriptions on the walls of Angkor Wat reveal that Divakara Pandit, a priest who lived around 1050-1135 was highly respected. These inscriptions and his image talk of his achievements with great love. He was said to be the chief architect for this temple. Through the carved writings found in the region that show royalty as well as the common people, archeologists get a lot of information. Everything about Angkor Wat reveals a story that helps us visualize the temple and the Khmer Empire in all its glory.

Learn more about Angkor Wat at KhmerPortal.com or just visit there to enjoy pleasant Khmer music and Khmer rap.

Tet, the Vietnamese New Year is one of the most joyous of celebrations to the Vietnamese people. It is a time of year when every house is to be cleaned and freshly painted, when debts are paid and lots of food is cooked. Tet is the celebration of the New Year by the lunar calendar. This means spring has arrived and everything is new.

Most holidays celebrated by the people of Vietnam are celebrated by the cycle of the moon. For many years, the Vietnamese people closely calculate the lunar cycle, changing some of the holidays date yearly. Tet usually happens between the month of January and February.

There are a couple more significant holidays that are based on the lunar cycle. Trung Thu is the coming of autumn and it usually falls in the month of September. Another example of a holiday with a lunar date is Confucius…. ‘ birthday.

There are a few holidays celebrated by Vietnam. Their Independence Day is always at the same time of year, September 2. May 1 is otherwise known as Labor Day, and it too is a national holiday.

Vietnam is rich in spirit and culture and the celebrations for the holiday…. ‘s shows in virtually every home. There are many ways of celebrating, some with parades of children, and others by eating as much as possible for three days.

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