Main Tower: Prasat Bayon

Jayavarman VII established the city of Angkor Thom as the new capital overlapping the previous capital of Angkor which had been establish before by Yaśovarman I. In the center of the new city, The temple of Bayon is conceived as the abode of Buddha. The temple-city is enclosed by the city wall of 3 kilometers long. At the cardinal directions of the city wall, there are the gateways. Possibly, this new city is considered to be auspicious for the dwellers while the previous became inauspicious as it had been attacked by the Chams before Jayavarman VII’s reign.

Bayon, the temple constructed by Jayavarman VII, is the last stepped-pyramid temple in Angkorian tradition. This temple was dedicated to the supreme Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism. The towers of the temple are decorated with faces which are still iconographically problematic. Some scholars presume that the face is of Jayavarman himself while other do not belief in this theory. The multiplication of the towers increases the complexity of Prasat Bayon beyond the temple of Angkor Wat. Some scholars consider, however, that the temple of Bayon indicates the architectural declining period because the symmetrical idea has been forgotten by the architects who constructed the temple of Bayon.

The central tower of Bayon is interestingly in circular shape with multi-chambered lkyaout, reminiscent of “Maṇḍala” or the diagram in Mahayana Buddhism.