Kbal Spean

The carved riverbed is pretty good too. Dozens of lingams and several yonis carved into the bedrock, symbolic of the creative sexual power of holy water (blessed by submerged carvings of Brahma) that spills form the waterfall below.

Multiculturalism began a long time ago in Asia, and here you can see carvings of Shiva (Hindu god of destruction) sitting right in the middle of a group of admiring Buddhas (human person of, erm, hardly any destruction at all really).

Banteay Srei

Shiva is the most popular god in these parts (though Brahma gets a look in, and Vishnu is Top God at Angkor Wat) and the excellent, intricate temple at Banteay Sreai is devoted to him. The carvings here are said to be the most exquisits and delicate in SE Asia, which seems about right. Its hard to see how they can have remained in such good condition over the centuries, unless these are restored versions - either way, it's top notch. 

Thanks Wikipedia for the pics (donation in the post guys. Keep up the good work).


Shiva rides a bull, and dances with a sword whenever he fancies a bit of demolition. He's quite a dancer. Here, presumably, Khmers prayed for the destruction of various enemies and annoyances.


If I were a praying man, I might have thrown my tuppence in for the destruction of the Catholic Church, Islam, N Korean gov't, seats of Bishops in the House of Lords (in the 21st century in the UK? eh??), Eric Pickles' parliamentary constituency majority, faith schools, The X Factor, homeopathic 'remedy' companies, News Corporation, the Premier League's board of directors, Robinson's brewery in Stockport, and that horrible building at the bottom of Hibel Road by Tesco's Roundabout in Macclesfield. But I'm not.   

The Centre of the Universe

As every Hindu knows, the centre of the universe is a mountain, Mt Meru. The gods very much prefer the cooler climate up there. 

Vishnu, the creator, lives there along with the others, but by definition, most of his work is done.  Brahma gets on with the ticking-over stuff, the day-to-day drudgery, sometimes injecting a bit of a magical spark to proceedings, such as a birth or harvest. Shiva works on the chaos and of mayhem side of things.

We in the West think we know about the centre of the universe. If not where it is, what it is - that is to say, nothing much, at least at the moment. Maybe a bit of cosmic wind. We know that, billions of years ago, it might have been a very different place comprising a massive singularity. Or maybe not.

Despite this, we western humans, theist and atheist alike, cling to two traditional belief systems: females think they are the centre of the universe (well fair enough: they do all the procreation and most of the work); while males, less sure of themselves, know there's a centre of the universe somewhere - but aren't sure if it's the pub, crag, hill, garden shed, fishing pond, golf club or football stadium. In more pagan times, we worshipped the sun from stone circles, which were probably built by men while women did more important stuff. Though we can't be sure whether the ancients were truly heliocentric, they were on to something a long time before Galileo was given a hard time by the purple-clad paedo mafia.