Disappointment at Ta Prohm – Cambodia blog entry #18

 

After wandering around the magnificent Angkor Wat temple and grounds for over three and a half hours, we hopped into our tuk tuk for the short drive to Ta Prohm temple. 

Also called the Jungle Temple, it is a sprawling monastic-like complex where much of the jungle overgrowth has been left in place. 

It was built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries without mortar, by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and center of learning dedicated to his mother. After it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones. 

The trees eerily growing out of the ruins and the jungle have made it a popular temple with visitors to the area. Unfortunately, I feel, it is also popular for being the site of scenes from the Angeline Jolie movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. 

You can have your picture taken at the classic giant tree where Angeline Jolie stood in the movie. And I found the commercialization disappointing.   

How can a film made in 2001 compare to at temple built over eight hundred years ago? And then call it the Tomb Raider Temple? 

Ok, it was still ridicously cool. And I can only imagine how beautiful it had been in its day.