Angkor is both a "sculpted music", a "stone forest", a "phantom basilica [...] buried under the tropical forest"... For the archaeologist Bernard Groslier, "one must imagine Versailles, Concorde, the Louvre, the Place des Vosges and all the most beautiful cathedrals…” In fact, one cannot understand the Khmer people without having contemplated this wonder of wonders, located near Siem Reap, 300 km from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Thanks to the work of archaeologists and the help of new technologies, Angkor continues to reveal its secrets, but no lighting will ever exhaust the fundamental mystery in which this magical place is immersed.
From its foundation in the IX th century until its decline in the 14 th century, Angkor was the glorious capital of the Khmer Empire. This immense archaeological site, immersed in a beautiful and cruel nature – and threatened, alas, by stone disease – includes dozens of captivating temples. Among them, an absolute masterpiece, Angkor Wat, temple-mountain entirely dedicated to Vishnu, supreme god of Hinduism...
In Angkor, in fact, everything comes from India, first of all the Brahmanic religion, and yet everything is transformed, everything becomes Khmer. Buddhism, then, also undergoes this transmutation. The “Khmer smile” persists, mute smile, on closed eyes, faces of stone. Compassionate smile. Lighter, more mischievous smiles from the dancing apsaras. Smiles of women, half-courtesans, half-priestesses, reminiscent of some of our smiles of angels:on the other side of the world, at the same time, the "smile of Reims" flourished on the facade of the cathedral.