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the river of 1,000 lingas

4 January 2010 7 Comments

Once, Shiva, a very powerful god, grew tired of the cycle of life and death and reincarnations. He decided to give up the pleasures of life and he smeared his body in ash and he didnt eat or drink or indulge in any physical pleasure. This created a terrible fire within him. It transformed him into a blazing lingam which threatened to destroy all creation. The other gods didnt know what to do. A yoni appeared, the symbol of the goddess. She absorbed Shiva’s terrible heat, restoring balance to the world and saving the universe from destruction. Thus is the one of the many origins of the Shiva Lingam.

kbal spean_hike2

Phnom Kulen which houses Kbal Spean, otherwise known as ‘River of a Thousand Lingas’ or ‘Bridgehead’ is located 50 kilometers northeast of Siem Reap. A 45-minute hike is required to get to the temple which predates the construction of Angkor Wat by 200 years. The trail was steep and Ron and I were sweating like fabulous pigs…

kbal spean_bathing locals

kbal spean_hike

 The river found in the mountains is the source of the Siem Reap River. The lingas were carved to bless the water that would eventually flow past Bayon continuing to Bantea Srei and into the plains of Angkor. 

kbla spean_lingams

Aside from the ligams carved on the face of the riverbed, an impresive carving of the trimurti of Hindu gods can be seen. Vishnu is seen reclining to give birth to Brahma from a lotus growing out of his navel. Shiva with his consort Uma is also present.

kbal spean_bas reliefIn 2003, the head of Vishnu was robbed. It was restored August 2006.

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7 Comments »

  • Caleb said:

    Coolness.. I love this post. Inggit ako!

    You know what Monnette You should write often, I think poem will suit you better just like when you quote this “The trail was steep and Ron and I were sweating like fabulous pigs” I was about to cry, if only I didn’t remember that this’s a happy blog! Miss you Monnette Happy New Year!

    I wonder how many places you guys will travel this this year…

    Kudos in advance!

    # 4 January 2010 at 9:45 am
  • flip'n travels said:

    haha! thanks caleb. just got back from a vacation that’s why ron’s been working his ass off. i’m trying hard to make up for lost time. happy new year dude! we hope we can cover a lot this year. :D

    # 4 January 2010 at 10:11 pm
  • make extra money said:

    Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

    # 25 January 2010 at 3:55 am
  • flip'n travels said:

    thanks for dropping by.
    ;-)

    # 25 January 2010 at 6:32 am
  • angel said:

    Some new ideas I found recently…..

    It was very helpful for me to spend some time on wikipedia. This really helps to understand a lot of stuff much better!…

    # 26 January 2010 at 10:45 pm
  • Opal Psencik said:

    Just thought i would review in addition to say neat design, did you code it yourself? Looks great.

    # 30 January 2010 at 12:31 am
  • flip'n travels said:

    Hi Opal Psencik

    I did the header, the rest is from a template made by this cool guys named Michael Tyson.
    thanks for dropping by.

    Ron

    # 30 January 2010 at 6:49 am

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