69 fulfillment. A realistic relief image of the merit all have accumulated so far is shown in “Hell and the Buddhist Paradise,” located on the south side of the first corridor. People would have been amazed to have noticed it before them. The cities of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were demarcated into sections, and residences of the elite, such as those of high-level officials and officials of the palace, were lined up. Several professionals, their assistants, and their families and others lived together in cramped places, which were noisy owing to human and other sounds. Villagers both from the nearby vicinity and places afar came visiting, and in the liveliness and bustle a temple-gate town was formed. Bartering business became established, and markets big and small began to be created. In other words, in the dreams of the people of those times, such a striking temple with its hustle and bustle perhaps served as a milestone in their afterlife. Against the backdrop of the jungle in the interior, the sudden gleaming of the golden spires must have left the villagers wordless with wonder. A proper expression of what they perhaps felt may be conveyed by the words, “Do not die without having had a view of Angkor Wat.” All who happened to set eyes on the large surrounding moat of 200 meters, the great triple corridors, the massive staircase that appears as though to reach the skies, and the lofty towering spires, perhaps did not believe they were observing objects belonging to this world. Those objects were gifted with a strong sense of appeal and filled with such a profound sense of realism, that they tended to make people forget where they were. This spire is a variation of the Indian view of the cosmos in Cambodian style, a glorious tower in the firmament. Here, the new cosmological world as envisioned by the people of those times was erected, by adapting it into the shape of a temple. Given the weather conditions of Cambodia with its rainy and dry seasons, the water system of the great surrounding moat at the Angkor archaeological site had a significance as a reservoir. The irrigation system of the large man-made reservoir
元のページ ../index.html#75