2 say that the thought arose within me as to, “why such a massive edifice existed here.” I can never forget the thrill I experienced on that day. Angkor Wat is encircled by a moat, and it has an area of around 200 hectares. In the principal sanctuary of the temple is five large towers that tower into the sky, and the central tower which happens to be the tallest, has a height of 65 meters. What technology did the people of those days use to erect this monument? It was erected over 800 years ago when the technology of today did not exist. Many such queries and mysteries remain within my mind. The Angkor dynasty thrived from the 9th century for around 600 years, and on probing the issue we see that its territory constituted a vast empire, that spanned the entire continent of Southeast Asia. It is said the existence of the mysterious ‘God King,’ as well as the success of the economy, society, and religious culture of those days, made possible the erection of Angkor Wat. In Cambodia, it is displayed within the national flag, and printed on banknotes. It is a temple all the people of the nation deify and revere, a mammoth stone structure constituting the pride of the nation, and an object of sanctity for the Cambodian people. Cambodia became a French colony in 1863, and it was merged into French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) in 1899. However in 1953, after the Second World War, it gained full independence. Yet geopolitically, Cambodia being a small nation located between the great powers of Thailand and Vietnam, political issues like the Vietnam War that afflicted the bordering nations, immediately spread into Cambodia. The current land area is around 181,035 square kilometers, which is approximately half the area of Japan, and the population is about 1,430,000 (as of 2018). Since the population of neighboring Thailand is around 70 million and that of Vietnam 88 million, even now issues relating to both these neighboring countries, always exert a subtle influence on Cambodia.
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