Mahayana: Buddhist Temples, Monasteries and Buddha Images Part 2

7 Temples, 6 Pagodas, 1 Dagoba and a Turtle (Roughly)

Mahayana

Attempting to explain the differences between Mahayana and Theravada is beyond my level of understanding of Buddhism, and not helped by both being ‘broad churches’. I will confine myself to a few basic points and hope not make too many howlers.

Distribution of the Different Buddhist traditions
This is a simplified map by Javierfv1212
To see his more complex map, click here

Mahayana came from India before Buddhism was abandoned in the land of its birth. It accepts the main scriptures and teachings of early Buddhism, and adds new doctrines and texts, particularly the Mahayana Sutras, writings from between 100 BCE and 100 CE preserved in Chinese, Tibetan or Sanskrit manuscripts. Mahayana also consorted with the various folk religions it encountered on its eastward journey.

There is a heavenly hierarchy in Mahayana. Arhats are those far advanced along the path of enlightenment who have escaped the cycle of death and rebirth but lack the altruism to advance further. Bodhisattvas, however, are struggling to become fully awakened Buddhas. There were Buddhas before Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment and Maitreya, the ‘Future Buddha’ will come after him.

Mahayana Buddha images often come as a triad, the Bodhisattva Maitreya (the Future Buddha), the Buddha, and Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (The Compassion Buddha).

A monastic tradition exists, but is less important than in other forms of Buddhism.

China

There are roughly 244m Buddhists in China, almost half the world’s total and most follow the Mahayana tradition. Tibetans have their own Vajrayana tradition, sometimes regarded as a branch of Mahayana.

Buddhism arrived in China during the latter part of the Han dynasty around 150 CE. Travelling teachers brought writings from India that were translated and formed the basis of local Buddhist thought. Periodically a feeling would arise that modern practices were drifting from earlier teaching, so someone set off to fetch some more written wisdom

Yuan Zhao in Suzhou

One of the earliest know teachers was Yuan Zhao, who may have been Chinese or may have come from India and been given a Chinese name. He brought Buddhism to Suzhou, near Shanghai in eastern China and his statue looks Chinese, but as he lived in the 2nd or 3rd century the likeness may not be exact – or even approximate.

Lynne and Yuan Zhao in Suzhou

He sits facing Ruiguang Ta (Pagoda of Auspicious Light). Built to house his teachings around 250 CE by the local king, it was rebuilt in the 10th century and again in the 12th and restored in 1879. By 1978 it was a ruin but has since been restored yet again – or maybe completely rebuilt, the Chinese are unfazed by distinctions between restoration, rebuilding and outright fakery.

Ruiguang Pagoda, Suzhou

See Suzhou (3), The Lingering Garden and City Gate: Part 5 of South East China (2016)

Kumarajiva and Baime Ta

Locations mentioned in the Kumarajiva story

Born in Kucha in 344 the son of a Kashmiri priest and the King’s sister, Kumarajiva studied in Kucha and then Kashmir. Back home, he became the royal priest and a renowned Buddhist teacher.

The ‘Later Qin’ Emperor in Chang’an (now Xi’an) wanted Kumarajiva to come to what was then the world’s largest city. After various vicissitudes, including time spent imprisoned by a war lord, he arrived about 400.

His life is well documented, but it is unclear who he was fleeing in 384 when his white horse dropped dead in the Dunhuang Oasis. As the horse turned out to be a disguised Dragon God rather than merely a white horse, it felt reasonable to build a Dagoba over his tomb.

Baima Ta, the White Horse Dagoba, seemed in fine repair considering its antiquity. Only as I left did I spot the plaque bearing the (English) words: 'the White Horse Dagoba, rebuilt by Dunhuang City government in 1992’. I felt cheated, but then I also doubt the horse was really a dragon god. Kumarajiva was among the greatest intellectuals of his age - sad then that his hokum is his major memorial.

Baima Ta - The White Horse Dagoba - Dunhuang

Kumarajiva’s finest achievement was the translations of a vast number of Sanskrit documents and the development of language for expressing Buddhist concepts in Chinese. Previous translators had made do with adopting words for similar Daoist or Confucian ideas. For all his efforts it can still be difficult to tell Daoist from Buddhist temples.

See Dunhuang, Dunes in the Gobi (2008)

Xuanzang and the Great Wild Goose Pagoda

Xuanzang, an illustration in Journey to the West
In Public Domain

Born in Henan Province in 602, Xuanzang became a novice monk at the age of 13. Unrest forced a move to Chengdu, where he became a full monk in 622 and then to Chang’an, capital of the peaceful and orderly Tang Dynasty. Concerned about misinterpreting the incomplete Buddhist texts available he decided to journey to India.

He left China in 629 journeying through what is now Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He travelled throughout India and Nepal before returning to China to much acclaim in 645. The Great Wild Goose Pagoda was built in Chang’an to house the writings and Buddha images he brought back from his 17-year sojourn.

The (much restored) Great Wild Goose Pagoda, Xi'an (formerly Chang'an) 2004

In 646 Xuanzang completed his Great Tang Records on the Western Regions. the longest and most detailed account of the countries of Central and South Asia of the period. 900 years later his journey was fictionalised by Wu Cheng'en in Journey to the West, one of the earliest Chinese novels and 500 years after that set to music by Damon Albarn in Monkey: Journey to the West.

The photograph of the pagoda is from our pre-blog 2004 visit to Xi’an. We re-visited in 2008

Pagodas and the occasional dagoba are easy to find in China, but temples are less obvious. It is easy to book a Chinese tour and see no temples at all – an impossibility in India or Thailand. But they do exist, and I will start with the most important (though for political rather than religious or architectural reasons)

Guangji Si, Beijing

Power in China is centralised and Xi Jinping is their most authoritarian leader since Mao; religions can offer an alternative power base so the government keeps a firm grip on all religious activity. Guangji Si, in north central Beijing, is the headquarters of the Chinese Buddhist Association, so although the Buddhist flag flies, this is as near as makes no difference a government department.

Buddhist flags fly around the Incense incinerator, Guangji Si, Beijing

The temple was built in the 12th century but most surviving structures are Ming (1368 to 1644). Inside are some important sculptures and pictures, but we missed them. From the outside it is a typical building of its period.

Guangji Si, Beijing

There were also many closed doors - the offices of the association we presumed.

Visited 06/09/2013, see Beijing (2): Xicheng and Beihai Park

Yuantong Temple, Kunming

When we visited in November 2010 Kunming had forgotten that it is the ‘city of eternal spring’ and was practicing ‘Incipient Winter.’

The Location of Kunming and Xingyi

A little north of the city centre, Yuantong was built in the 8th century, rebuilt and expanded in the 15th and took its present form in the late 17th. It is (according to the Rough Guide) the ‘most important Buddhist site in northern Yunnan Province’ - faint praise or what?

Approaching from the south an ornamental gate leads into a garden.

Entrance, Yuantong Temple, Kunming

Beyond the garden an octagonal pavilion sits in a luridly green pond.

Octagonal Pavilion in a green pond, Yuantong Temple, Kunming

At the end is space for devotees to light their incense sticks and hold them in a bunch while bowing in each of the cardinal directions.

Burning incense, Yuantong Temple, Kunming

Prayers may then be offered while kneeling before a Buddha image.

Buddha image, Yuantong temple, Kunming

see Kunming to the Stone Forest (2010)

Cave Temple, Wanfengling, Xingyi

Xingyi is a small city (by Chinese standards) some 300 km east of Kunming. On the edge of the city is Wanfengling, the Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks. It is an area of karst geology and the peaks are jagged, other-worldly limestone cones.

One of the Wanfengling peaks. I cannot vouch for there being 10,000, but there are lots.

Temples and shrines – some Buddhist, most Daoist – abound and we encountered the temple below in a cave on the side of one such peak. The cave has been sacred since ancient times, but the statues of the Buddha are relatively new, the originals having being destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The residue of scrubbed out Cultural Revolution graffiti was still visible on the cave wall.

Main Buddha Images as a triad, Wanfengling Cave Temple

To the left, in front of a wall of small Buddha images, sits Budai, often erroneously called ‘Happy Buddha’. A possibly mythical Chinese monk, he allegedly travelled and taught in the Wuyue Kingdom (the Hangzhou/Shanghai region of Eastern China) during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960CE). His name comes from the Budai (cloth sack) in which he carried his belongings. His cheerful nature and humorous personality distinguish him among Buddhist masters and some venerate him as Maitreya, the ‘Future Buddha’.

Budai, not really the 'Happy Buddha'

See Xingyi and on to Huangguoshu (2010)

Lingyin Temple and Felai Feng, Hangzhou

The Lingyin-Felai Feng Scenic area is a 20-minute drive into the countryside outside Hangzhou in eastern China.

According to tradition, Lingyin (lit: Soul’s Retreat) Monastery was founded in 328 CE by an Indian monk given the Chinese name ‘Huili’. His ashes are allegedly entombed in the small, weathered Elder Li’s Pagoda.

Elder Li's Pagoda, Feilai Feng

Between the pagoda and Lingyin is Feilai Feng (lit: The Peak that Flew Here). Limestone is so unusual locally that the outcrop was surely whisked through the air from India by the power of Buddhist philosophy. It is covered with carvings many dating from the 10th century when Lingyin housed 3,000 monks.

Carvings, Feilai Feng

In the monastery courtyard visitors are presented with incense sticks.

Main courtyard, Lingyin Monastery

Which they light in the brazier...

Lighting the incense stick, Lingyin Monastery

…and bow in the four cardinal directions before planting them in the incense the burner.

Bowing to the north, Lingyin Monastery

The Guardian Hall, like most of the existing buildings dates from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). It contains four scary guardians who frighten off evil spirits…

Guardian, Lingyin Monastery

…while the main hall contains the primary Buddha image.

Main Buddha image, Lingyin

See Hangzhou (1) West Lake, Lingyin Temple and Longjing Tea (2016)

West Garden Temple, Suzhou

And finally for China, a brief look at the small and outwardly unremarkable West Garden temple in Suzhou.

Either the Drum or the Bell Tower, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

It has magnificent statues of the arhats, though doing them justice in a photograph was beyond me.

Arhats, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

But, best of all, is the pool at the back. For over 400 years it has been home to a colony of Asian giant soft-shelled turtles. As they only surface to breath twice a day it is very unlikely one will pop up when you have your camera ready. But it can happen.

Turtle, Fangsheng Pond, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

See Suzhou (3), The Lingering Garden and City Gate (2016)

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is China, but not China – as long as Xi Jinping permits.

The Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery, Shatin

The temple its on a low hill near Shatin railway station. The path up the hill is lined with arhats.

Arhats on the path ip to the 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

As an ensemble they always look eccentric, but that effect is multiplied when seen singly.

Arhat on the path up to 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

Even the courtyard at the top is surrounded by them. Clearly there is a story behind each one, as there is a story behind each Christian saint, but the statues do not make guessing easy.

Courtyard, 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

And, of course there are Buddha images, too, big ones….

Compassion Buddha, 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

….and little ones. Maybe there really are 10,000.

Little Buddhas by the thousand, 10,000 Buddha Monastery Hong Kong

North Korea

The Koreas with Sariwon circled

Buddhism arrived in Korea from China in 372 CE, largely supplanting Shamanism. Early Korean monks perceived inconsistencies in their inherited Mahayana traditions and their quest for harmony resulted in a distinctive Korean form of Mahayana known as Tongbulgyo ("interpenetrated Buddhism"). There must be something in the Korean air as over a millennium later the remarkably stable genius Kim Il Sung similarly resolved the inconsistencies in Marxism/Leninism/Maoism to create North Korea’s ruling ideology.

Songbul Monastery, Sariwon

Today the majority in both Koreas describe themselves as irreligious with only 16% of South Koreans and 5% in the North claiming to be Buddhists. There is of course complete freedom of religion in the worker’s paradise of North Korea and to prove it we were taken to Songbul Monastery near the city of Sariwon.

Founded in 898, the monastery consists of six buildings in a rough square….

Songbul Monastery, Sariwon

….including two of the oldest wooden buildings in Korea. The Kukrak Hall was last rebuilt in 1374 and the little pagoda outside is of much the same date.

Kukrak Hall and small pagoda, Songbul Monastery, Sariwon

Inside are the expected Buddha images (another appearance of a triad)...

Buddha Images, Kukrak Hall, Songbul

…while beside sits what what looks like an overlarge jury but is, presumably the arhats.

Arhats, Kukrak Hall, Songbul

They wheeled out the abbot to greet us….

Actors, Songbul Monastery

… but it’s not this chap, he is an actor like those lining the buildings in the top photo. The North Korean film industry is booming and ancient monasteries make excellent locations. The ‘real abbot’ is the guy below.

Lynne and the Abbot, Songbul Monastery

‘Are there any other monks?’ I asked through the interpreter. He assured me there were. ‘But where are they?’ ‘They are not here, but they are nearby.’ After a few days in North Korea you get used to the bland and unconvincing. I preferred the actors, at least they admitted they were just pretending.

See Sariwon to Nampho (11/09/2013)

Vietnam

Although officially atheist, Vietnam seems to permit genuine freedom of religion. According to the government 15% of the population identify as Buddhists and 8.5% as Christians (French colonialism created a catholic elite). Most of the rest are lumped together as no religion/folk beliefs. Folk religion has seen a revival and every house we entered, whether grand or humble had an ancestor altar in the entrance hall. Vietnamese Buddhism has no hierarchy to direct teaching and there is a growing overlap with folk beliefs.

Buddhism has deep roots in Vietnam, but it has never been the majority religion and Buddhist temples are harder to find than catholic churches.

The locations of pagodas mentioned below (and Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon)

The One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi

The tiny One Pillar Pagoda, once considered a symbol of Hanoi, is today overshadowed by the adjacent Ho Chi Minh museum and mausoleum. Built in the 11th century by King Le Thai Tong, it has suffered some heavy-handed restoration; the concrete single pillar looks anything but 11th century.

See Hanoi (3), the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature (2012)

The One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

In Vietnam ‘pagoda’ is applied to the whole temple complex not just a particularly shaped building, though the 17th century ‘pagoda style’ building at Thien Mu is a symbol of the city.

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

The pagoda was busy and the local school parties noisy…

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

….but inside the atmosphere was calm and subdued, like the lighting.

A novice monk and a triad of Buddha images, Thien Mu, Hue

In one of the sheds around the courtyard was an elderly, rusting Austin Westminster.

Thích Quàng Đúc's Austin Westminster, Thein Mu Pagoda, Hue

In the early sixties, as the Vietnam war picked up ferocity, the autocratic, Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem marginalised Buddhist voices and ensured all positions of power went to Catholics. Buddhists felt persecuted.

In June 1963, Thích Quàng Đúc, the abbot of Thien Mu, drove to Saigon in this Austin Westminster and notified the foreign press that “something important” would happen. He sat in the lotus position at a major road intersection while a monk poured petrol over him, then he set himself alight. The “Buddhist crisis” was old news and only one press photographer turned up. Malcom Browne’s picture was World Press Photo of the Year 1963. It is an appalling image, as are many that came out of the Vietnam war. I will not reproduce it here but it can be seen on the relevant website.

The shrine of Thích Quàng Đúc on the corner where he died, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)

See Hue (2), A Self-immolating Monk, an Impotent Emperor and an Imperial Dinner (2012)

and
The Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Great Temple (2012)

Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho

In the heart of the Mekong delta, My Tho’s Vinh Trang Pagoda resembles none of the previous temples. Completed in 1850, it was seriously damaged ten years later during fighting between the French and Emperor Tu Duc. There was more major rebuilding after a tropical storm in 1907.

It has been described as ‘like a rajah’s palace’ or ‘blending classical European and Asian architecture’ but to me Vinh Trang is typical southern Vietnamese exuberance, not always in the best of taste but always vigorous, even flamboyant.

In front of the façade is a garden of tropical profusion....

Vinh Trang Pagoda behind its luxuriant garden, My Tho

...with a Disneyfied shrine...

Shrine, Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho

... and a large Budai, often, though incorrectly called the 'Happy Buddha'. It may have something to do with my build but I have occasionally been greeted with the words ‘Happy Buddha’ when sitting down in restaurants, I have even had my stomach patted. This should be taken as a compliment, the Vietnamese consider being well-nourished a sign of prosperity; they do not (yet) live in our strange inverted world where obesity and poverty so often walk hand in hand.

Two Happy Buddhas, Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho

The temple courtyard is lined with monks' cells and beyond there are more courtyards, more statues and a hall, but Vinh Trang is not about inside, it is a place to be enjoyed outside.

see The Mekong Delta (3) Cai Rang and My Tho (2012)

Finally

When I compiled the same sort of posts about mosques, it was obvious that, with rare exceptions, the buildings retained a definite Arabian style in deference to Islam’s Arabian origins. The opposite is true of Buddhism, Chinese Temples look Chinese, Vietnamese look Vietnamese – though different in north and south - and Korean look Korean. Buddhism is far more flexible and readily bends to the society in which it is taught, both in doctrine and architecture.

Buddhist Temples, Monasteries and Buddha Images

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Mahayana Buddhism
Part 3: Tibetan Buddhism
Part 4: Theravada (1) Sri Lanka
Part 5: Theravada (2) Myanmar
Part 6: Theravada (3) Laos, Cambodia & Thailand

Phnom Penh (1), Palaces and Museums: Part 4 of Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

A Speedboat into Cambodia and a Tour of Phnom Penh

The Victoria Speedboat: Chau Doc to the Cambodian Border

The ‘Victoria Speedboat’ to Phnom Penh was scheduled to leave Chau Doc at 7.00. We arrived for breakfast at 6 to find the restaurant packed. Having seen photos of the boat online I knew it was too small for this crowd, but where they were going was, for the moment, a mystery.

We checked out and placed our bags at the indicated spot. No sooner had we sat down to wait than a man with a luggage trolley was beckoning us to follow as he wheeled our cases down the steep ramp to join the crowd on the dock.

11 people, we discovered, were going to Cambodia with us, the rest were bound for a cruise ship moored in deeper water.

Inside the Victoria Speedboat heading north

We sped upstream for an hour or so through much the same scenery we had been watching more slowly for the past two days, although here there were more villages on stilts like the Cham village we had visited yesterday.

Speeding north from Chau Doc

The river was some 50m wide until it merged with a larger branch on the right. We had left the delta and the Mekong was now a single stream the best part of a kilometre wide.

The Vietnam-Cambodia Border

The Vietnamese border post was built on stilts beside the river. Handing over our passports to the boat’s conductor, we disembarked and went to the waiting room where I changed my last dong into Cambodian riels.

Our stamped passports were returned, we re-embarked and sped upstream for a few minutes before disembarking again for the Cambodian formalities.

The Cambodian border post beside the Mekong

The Vietnamese post had been starkly functional; the Cambodians had a semi-circle of folksy wooden offices set round a garden. Photography is not usually permitted in border posts, but then there is little to photograph. Here, though, were trees, flowers, Buddhist shrines and a crowd of people waiting for visas in the shade of a mango tree.

Waiting for visas, Cambodian border post beside the Mekong

Formalities were reasonably brief and around 9.00 we re-re-embarked for the final three hours to Phnom Penh.

The Victoria Speedboat: The Cambodian Border to Phnom Penh

Cambodian village beside the Mekong

Cambodia

Cambodia seemed less densely populated and the few villages we saw looked basic and scruffy. The banks here were several metres high so villages were not built on stilts. Beyond the shacks, cattle - rarely glimpsed in Vietnam - sat in the shade of the trees. There were fields of crops, mainly maize, but the wide river, high banks and flat land made it difficult to see far, though we did glimpse several temples with high, steeply pitched roofs and gold finials, more Thai style than Vietnamese.

A temple beside the Mekong

We passed a container ship. Relatively small as it was, we were surprised to see one at all so far from the sea. 40 minutes short of Phnom Penh we passed a modern container port.

Container ship on the Mekon south of Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

We reached Phnom Penh around 12.30. It was the first major urban centre we had seen from the river, but there were few high rise building and little in the way of soaring temples – hardly an exciting river frontage.

The Tonle Sap joins the Mekong at Phnom Penh. We turned into the tributary and moored at the main dock a hundred metres from the confluence.

Lunch at the Bopha Phnom Penh Restaurant

We were met by Kim and a driver, stowed our cases in the car and walked into the Bopha Phnom Penh Restaurant which is described by the Rough Guide as ‘a huge, decadent restaurant …with an open front looking over Tonle Sap.’ It is undoubtedly large and stages Apsara performances in the evening - and a taster at lunchtime - but ‘decadent’?

Lunchtime 'Apsara' performance Bopha, Phnom Penh

The set meal of fish skewers marinated with lemon grass, Khmer chicken curry, stir fried vegetables with cashew nuts, rice, fruit and Khmer ‘pastries’ – much gelatine but no pastry – was very enjoyable. The chicken curry, not highly spiced, but featuring a rich coconut milk sauce was worth the journey from Chau Doc on its own. Unlike the Vietnamese, Cambodians eat rice dishes with a spoon and fork depriving us of an opportunity to further show off our chopstick skills.

Lunch at the Bopha, Phnom Penh

We checked into our hotel, a rather characterless building in the narrow grid of streets away from the riverside. The hotel’s ban on durians, guns and smoking, in that order, was less than totally reassuring.

The Royal Palace, Phnom Penh

The royal palace was nearby, though nothing remains of the original palace built by King Ponhea Yat in 1434. The current Coronation Hall was constructed in 1919 by King Sisowath, the grandfather of the present King, and is a concrete replica of the wooden hall built by Sisowath’s brother and predecessor King Norodom (reigned 1860 to 1904).

The Coronation Hall is hidden until you are well inside the palace compound, and the first view of it is breath-taking – concrete or not.

Coronation Hall, Phnom Penh

Sometimes the public are allowed in, though not today, but we could look through the windows and open (but barred) door at the high throne – used for the coronations of King Sihanouk in 1941, and of his son, the present monarch King Sihamoni in 2004. A set of normal chairs are arranged in front of the throne for use when the king meets high ranking foreign delegations.

Photography is not permitted, and the rule is strictly enforced. The man next to me raised a camera and was given a firm slap on the wrist (and not a metaphorical one) by a security guard I had not previously noticed. The message was clear, do not dis the king, and do not dis the security guards, even if they are little old men.

The royal residence – at the back of the hall – is in use so is never opened to visitors.

The Royal Residence, Phnom Penh

The Royal Waiting Room is beside the Coronation Hall while at the edge of the compound is the Dancing Pavilion – a hall without walls were dance performances could be watched by moonlight.

The Dancing Pavilion, Phnom Penh

A strange wrought iron pavilion covered in scaffolding to the left of the Coronation Hall is, bizarrely, the pavilion from which Empress Eugenie watched the opening of the Suez Canal. When it was dismantled, her husband, Napoleon III, gave it to King Norodom and it was re-erected here. It is in a poor state of repair and the current restoration is overdue. The scaffolding was home to a group of monkeys who came to stare at the tourists. The tourists stared back. Inevitably somebody approached too close and a monkey leapt at his leg and climbed to his waist. There was a certain amount of panic, but no harm came to monkey or human.

Wat Preah Keo, the Silver Pagoda

Wat Preah Keo, the Silver Pagoda, is next door, the site interconnected with the Royal Palace. Built in 1962, its name comes from the 5329 silver tiles that cover the floor. Now there is a polishing job!

Again photography was not allowed so I have stolen Wikipedia’s picture of the (not quite) life sized golden Buddha. Its 90Kg of gold are encrusted with a lot of diamonds (9584 according to Wikipedia, 2086 according to the Rough Guide). It was made in the Royal workshops in 1906/7 on the orders of King Sisowath.

The golden Buddha, Silver Pavilion, Phnom Penh
(picture from Wikipedia - looks like the security guards missed this one)

It rather overshadows the Emerald Buddha, which is only 50cm tall and carved from jade. It is a 17th century replica of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok, on which the Silver Pagoda looks to have been modelled. Click here for the 2015 post with the full story,  myth and reality, of the Emerald Buddha.

On the outside wall the long mural of the Ramayana, much praised by the Rough Guide, is in poor condition and needs serious work before it will be worth looking at.

Topiary teapot, outside the Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh

The Pagoda’s garden is a delight with abundant brightly coloured flowers in pots, and some topiary, including this rather pleasing teapot.

Flowers and chedi outside the Silver Pagoda

There are two chedi, one containing the ashes of King Norodom, the other those of his queen. There is also an equestrian statue of King Norodom. Like the wrought iron pavilion it was a gift from Napoleon III and was originally a statue of him. It is now a statue of Napoleon III's body with Norodom's head.

Equestrian statue of King Norodom/Napoleon III

Behind the pagoda is a model of Angkor Wat. Large and detailed it would have saved us the bother of going there, if the trip had not been already booked. It is precisely to scale, except for the fish in the moat, which is a relief. 100m long carp would be scary.

Model of Angkor Wat, Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh

There are various side rooms and halls on the way out with collections of photographs, palanquins and silver elephants among other things. They are all worth a brief visit.

Elephant room, Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh

The National Museum of Cambodia

We returned to the car and drove to the National Museum, though a look at the map later suggested it would have been quicker to walk.

A large, single storey building it is, as national museums go, relatively compact.

The country’s history is neatly divided into 3: pre-Angkorian (before the 9th century), Angkorian (9-13th century) and post-Angkorian.

The first two are largely represented by stone statues, Hindu until the 11th century and Buddhist afterwards. Some are huge, some are fragmentary and one or two are huge and fragmentary like a reclining Vishnu who lacks several arms and most of his body yet still dominates the end of the first gallery. Some of the later statues are impressive, the faces emerging from the stone are clearly real people. The best known, though not, I thought, the best statue, is that of the Leper King, Jayavarman VII (1181-1218). Photography in the museum is not permitted, so this is my photograph of the replica which now sits in Angkor Thom where the original used to sit.

Replica of the statue of the Leper King on its original site, Angkor Thom

Post-Angkor is more of a mixed bag including funerary urns, wall panels and other objets d’art.

It is not the biggest or most varied collection, but it is well labelled in English and is worth an hour of anybody’s time.

The Romdeng Restaurant- Training Street Children for a Career

In the evening we followed Kim’s advice and ate at Romdeng – it involved little more than crossing the road from our hotel. The restaurant is a non-profit making school for former street children, the waiting staff wearing identical tee shirts labelled ‘student’ or ‘teacher’ as appropriate.

Through the arch from the road is a relatively quiet garden, but there was no room for us there. The restaurant is popular and without a booking we were lucky to be found a single spare table on the balcony. The service was excellent, the students a real credit to their teachers, and the food was good, too. We had rice pancakes stuffed with yam, beans and beansprouts, and stir fried chicken with courgettes and red chillies.

Having tested out ‘Cambodia Beer’ at lunchtime, we now tried ‘Angkor Beer’ so we had sampled both the country’s main brews. There was little, possibly nothing, to choose between them. Both, made with more rice than barley, are lightweight, fizzy and largely flavour free, but they are cold and wet, which is important in the Cambodian climate.

The meal, including coffee (not a patch on Vietnamese coffee) came to a steepish $22, but it was all for a good cause. The Cambodian currency, the riel, is only used for small change. All prices are quoted in US dollars (not just for tourists) but as there are no coins Cambodian banknotes are used instead of cents. Pegged at 4000 riels to the dollar, the 1000 riel note is used as a ‘quarter’, the 100 riel note as 2½ cents (they are easy to collect and hard to spend) while the 500 riel note must actually be the ‘bit’ American’s refer to when they call a quarter ‘two bits’.

Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Part 1: Return to Saigon, Cookery and Music

Part 2: Through the Mekong Delta by Sampan
Part 3: Chau Doc
Part 4: Phnom Penh (1) Royal Palaces and Museums
Part 5: Phnom Penh (2) Killing Fields and Torture Chambers
 Part 6: Across Cambodia to Siem Reap
  Part 7: Siem Reap (1) Angkor Wat
Part 8: Siem Reap (2) Angkor Thom and Other Temples
 Part 9: Siem Reap (3) Tonle Sap Lake
Part 10: Luang Prabang (1) The Old Town
 Part 11: Luang Prabang (2) Back on the Mekong
Part 12: Luang Prabang (3) Elephants
 Part 13: Luang Prabang to Phonsavan
Part 14: Phonsavan, the Plain of Jars and UXO
Part 15: Vientiane (1) Wats, Stupas and a Heavy Buddha
Part 16: Vientiane (2) A Buddha Park and a Fond Farewell