Cambodia: Bantey Srei
Exquisite detail carvings (height is about 1 foot)
Continuing on with my series of my favorite temples in the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park, this time we venture of quite a distance, 20km away from the main temples and visit the so called ‘Jewel among the Temples Angkor‘, Bantey Srei. If Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom impressed you with its sheer scale, Bantey Srei, which literally translates to ‘Citadel of the women’, will mesmerize you with one of the most celebrated Khmer Art intricately carved along its temple walls.
Elaborately designed frontons
There were already hordes of tourist with their buses and vans already parked at the temple entrance when we arrived with our tuk-tuk mid-morning. Despite it’s distance from the main temples, Bantey Srei gets its fare share of visitors. As much as I detest these tourist crowds, we have to see this temple no matter what.
Cordoned temples
There were no high rise towers this time around, let only some ruins at the entrance. And a short walkway which used to be a hallway towards the entrance to the central complex where you are welcomed by an already impressive piece of art at the fronton structure.
Central Complex shrines
Inside the central complex are shrines where you’ll be able to see a fine display of beautiful and intricate carvings than any Angkorian Temple. The area is cordoned off and the viewing time and visitors ere are being controlled to protect the temple from any further destructions. Before, there were incidents here were people would steal pieces of the walls and sell them at a high price on some museums and art collectors. That’s how intricate these temples are that every square inch is filled with detail that alone can stand as a work of art in itself.
False Doors
So a tip to any photographers visiting this temple is to bring a telephoto lens or a camera with a large zoom to be able to take detailed pictures of the inner temple walls since you couldn’t get close enough to touch them. Also the optimal lighting where the shadows just reveal their details is around mid-morning until 10:30 in the morning and 1:30pm after. I heard there’s not much crowd in the area during the afternoons.
Female Divinities at the inner temple walls
Just to give a short background, these temples were constructed in the late 10th century by king Rajendravaman. Pink sandstones were used to build these temples, sculptures and carvings as well. The inner shrines were built dedicated for the gods Shiva and Vishnu.
Male Divinities at the inner temple walls
Inspecting closely the carvings on the walls are the familiar heroes and heroines of the Hindu epic Ramayana, like Shiva, Parvati, the monkeys of Hanuman and Krishna. Also their finely carved male and female deities are carved beside the walls of the the temple doors like guardians in a watch.
fronton top corner details
As you can see, Bantey Srei has become one of my favorite temples in the park due to its rich and detailed artwork deeply carved on its walls and has no rivals in terms of intricacy. This sure is a must visit to anyone whose visiting the Angkor Archaeological Park.
Macro detail (about 2 inches sized carving)
Tags: Angkor Archaeological Park, Bantey Srei, Cambodia, Heritage, Siem Reap, Structures, Temples, UNESCO
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Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 pm 
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June 22nd, 2007 at 8:22 pm
di pa pala ako pwede bumisita dito, wala pang kong telephoto lens, hehehehe… great series ferdz…
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:16 am
Panalo sa details! Pero meron din tayo nyan dito sa Pinas iba nga lang ang motif at topic.
June 23rd, 2007 at 1:52 am
the pictures made me feel like i entered an out of this world very old wordl:) thanks for sharing.
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 am
wow, ang galing! amazing work. imagine all that detail.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 am
ang elaborate ng mga carvings… the people then seems to be such fine craftsmen.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I wonder how long and how many people it took to carve out the details in that temple. And it’s rock they’re carving. Sandstone, right? I hope those 10th century workers were well-compensated.
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Wow, really, really detailed photos! Awesome!
(:
Interesting name for the temple though.
June 24th, 2007 at 3:36 am
Ganda ng angle ng last picture. Detailed nga noh? Galing!
June 24th, 2007 at 3:58 am
Comments in Engklish please.
Be polite !
June 24th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Wow! Fascinating details! Thanks for sharing!
June 24th, 2007 at 11:49 am
ganda ng details, lalo na yung hollow 3d curves sa 1st pic. mukhang gamit na gamit dito yung bago mong telephoto ah
June 24th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
last night i was gazing at our cabinet that was carved.. (And i was thinking about the effort and of course the art…. of the person who made it)…
and now im seeing this… a temple with intricate carvings… sooooooo lovely… wew… grabee..
June 25th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
wow!!! amazing carvings… such a talent no
June 25th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
the details are astounding and dizzying bro. siguro, i’ll camp out sa angkor wat if and when i go there. keep it up ferdz!
June 25th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
These date back to the 10th century? Whoa! The archipelago was merely trading with the early Chinese traders back then and there was no Philippines, yet.
Incredible carvings!
June 25th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
ang tiga ng gumawa nito hanggang sa pinakamliit na curvings. galing galing pati nung kumuha ng mga pics.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Naku Ferdz… talo mo ko… never been there yet… was always too lazy to go all the way there… I still have a year though.
This temple has just recently become popular nga because of its pink sandstones and intricate carvings. Grabe photos mo… probably the best photos of Banteay Srei I’ve ever seen.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Great shots bro
This brings us back in time . Kudos to the Cambodian govt for preserving these historical monuments. I always wonder how these temples withstood the ravages of time and weather 
Definitely one of the places I’d like to see 
June 26th, 2007 at 12:36 am
thank you for sharing. ikaw ang bahala dyan, kami naman ng ibang bloggers and bahala dito sa pinas. thank you for your wonderful comments on my posts in my blog, especially about my sagada video. enjoy your trip.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:45 am
For a while, when I clicked on your site and saw the title of your entry - Cambodia: Bantey Srei, I thought I was in Toe’s blog! hehehe.
But wow! Look at t hese carvings! Grabeh! Haven’t seen carvings as intricate as these!
July 5th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Such intricate detail! You take such gorgeous photos. And reading your posts really takes me there with you. I’ll be going to Siem Reap next year, and you’ve got me even more excited!
July 8th, 2007 at 3:23 am
really deserve a place in the 7 wonders of the world
August 12th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
[...] our destination that morning is the elaborate temple of Bantei Srei, but on our way, there are several temples we passed by and one that’s quite impressive is [...]
March 25th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Great pictures.
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