INTRICATE and intimate, delicate and feminine, “The Citadel Of Women” surpasses anything in Cambodia for workmanship.
23km north east of Angkor Wat, Banteay Srei has stood for 1050 years, isolated and vulnerable, yet remarkably well preserved.
Looters have done their dirty work, and Khmer Rouge units kept her off limits for foreigners for several years after the UN period. The worst must hopefully be behind for this most exquisite of temples.
Banteay Srei is the pinnacle of Khmer stonework.
The once-3 hour journey there traverses spectacular Cambodian scenery, of farms and villages.
Farmers and villagers lived simple lives, largely self-sufficient, with modest technology to aid them.
Few, if any, of the thatched houses would have had electricity back then.
The road was regularly diverted through people's front yards, to avoid puddles deep and long.
There was so much village life to see, like this traditional drummer carrying his instrument.
After the UN departed, the isolated temple, villages and roads were vulnerable to KR attacks.
Foreigners were banned from visiting, then required to hire a full millitary escort. The convoys became an obvious target, and a fatal rocket propelled grenade attack put an end to that.
That was a quarter century ago, and these days a sealed road takes (mini)buses of tourists there routinely.
In 1993, our party of four had two bored soldiers and a local kid for company.
Banteay Srei is a Hindu Shiva temple, built in 967 by one of King Rajendravarman's ministers, Yajnyavaraha, tutor to future king Jayavarman V.
A few scholars believe that this is a 13th or 14th century building on the grounds of the original temple. However, Ankgor was decidely a Buddhist kingdom at that time.
The outer entrance was once roofed, the interior walls also finely decorated galleries.
A yaksha stone guardian that once protected the temple has since been relocated to safety in the National Museum.
The central towers are flanked by a pair of libraries, decorated with false doors and carvings.
The four central shrines are decorated with tales of Vishnu and Indra.
Niches are adorned with carvings of devatas or dvarapalas.
The inner enclosure where the four shrines sit is truly a feast for the eyes.
The soft sandstone of Banteay Srei allowed the stone masons to achieve almost three dimensional works.
Pioneering Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize wrote "the work relates more closely to the art of the goldsmith or to carving in wood than to sculpture in stone."
Few surfaces are left unadorned. Here, a mythical creature representative of time and of the god Shiva, known as a kala.
There, a pediment shows the burning of Khāṇḍava Forest, an epic Mahabharata clash involving gods Arjuna, Krishna, Agni and Indra.
Others show the tales of triumph in incredible detail.
One of the most famous carvings is the splitting of the enemies.
From the very first entrance way pillars, the quality, craftsmanship and preservation will hit you.
Had I visited in the digital photography era, every tale depicted on every lintel or wall or library would have come home with me.
"Given the very particular charm of Banteay Srei....one should not hesitate, of all the monuments of the Angkor group, to give it the highest priority."