{"id":18347,"date":"2022-04-13T02:13:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T02:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=18347"},"modified":"2022-04-13T02:13:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T02:13:22","slug":"angkor-wat-the-worlds-biggest-religious-complex-is-sacred-to-two-faiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2022\/04\/13\/angkor-wat-the-worlds-biggest-religious-complex-is-sacred-to-two-faiths\/","title":{"rendered":"Angkor Wat, the World&#8217;s Biggest Religious Complex, Is Sacred to Two Faiths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>CAMBODIA, April 7, 2022 (National Geographic): Appearing like a fever dream amid a thick, humid jungle is Angkor Wat\u2014a soaring, sumptuous city of stone with elegant spires and elevated towers, covered galleries and airy courtyards, ornate walkways and intricate bas-relief carvings. Situated on the shores of Tonle Sap, a lake in northwest Cambodia, this temple complex is a nearly 900-year-old ruin from the ancient Khmer Empire. Among the hundreds of surviving temples in the region, the vast complex is easily Cambodia\u2019s most famous sacred site\u2014it appears on the nation\u2019s current flag\u2014and is revered for good reason. Comprising over a thousand buildings and covering some 400 acres, it is the world\u2019s largest religious structure\u2014and one of humanity\u2019s cultural wonders.<br><br>Construction of Angkor Wat began in the first half of the 12th century by the Khmer king Suryavarman II (reigned A.D. 1113-circa 1150). It was probably intended to serve as his vast funerary temple where his remains would rest for eternity. Heavily influenced by Hinduism, the site, whose name means \u201ccity of temples\u201d in Khmer, was originally called Vrah Visnuloka (sacred dwelling of Vishnu) and dedicated to three Hindu Deities: Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma. Hindu Deities are recognizable among the complex\u2019s many bas-relief carvings. Angkor Wat continued to be a Hindu temple until the 1300s, when it was formally rededicated as a Buddhist site. In keeping with Buddhist tolerance for Hinduism, the iconography of its great reliefs was not demolished or replaced, although Buddhist statues were added.<br><br>Much more on Angkor Wat\u201ds history at source (subscription):<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/history-magazine\/article\/angkor-wat-the-worlds-biggest-religious-complex-served-two-faiths?loggedin=true\">https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/history-magazine\/article\/angkor-wat-the-worlds-biggest-religious-complex-served-two-faiths?loggedin=true<\/a><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAMBODIA, April 7, 2022 (National Geographic): Appearing like a fever dream amid a thick, humid jungle is Angkor Wat\u2014a soaring,,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18355,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18347\/revisions\/18355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}