The Coolidge examiner., 1933-07-28

Prepared BY National Geogr-aphic Society
Washington. y. C.-WNU Service.
TAR up in the jungles of French
FIndo- China. some 300 miles from
the doorstep Of the world as
measured in distance, a thousand
years in the past as measured in
time, and aeons back In the unknown
as measured In history, is Angkor
one of the most puzzling works ever
contrived by the hand Of man.
Temple and town and network OF
dim and forgotten shrines, II rep
resents a culture that must have
been far in advance of anything Co
eval with II and a power that must
have been virtually irresistible even
In Asia where men at arms were
plentiful and warfare was a IA
vored business.
But the culture died and the men
who had built it disappeared. and
for hundreds Of years the forests
Of banyan and bamboo hid from
the eyes and memory of the world
what had been metropolis Of a
million inhabitants.
Two generations ago a French nat
urallst broke through the wall of
jungle in a search for specimens Of
tropical life and came upon a spec
tacle such as the slaves of the lamp
might have contrived for Aladdin.
Before him, In the quivering silence,
rose the five towers Of a vast step
pyramid, a stone tapestry repre-
sentative Of an art and architecture
like nothing else within the ken Of
man.
A moated wall surrounded IL and
a cl0istered gate opened upon
causeway that led to its rocketing
staircases; and, for all that jungle
growths were close about its lower
stage and odd clumps Of verdure
grew from its arched roofs, it
seemed that life had been in its
shadOwy galleries only a moment
ago. The temple was virtually in
tact, ---~a- f-Fl- - -szl'- s.---
- Still an Unsolved Puzzle.
1t is now more than seventy years
since the stunned eyes of Mouhot,
the naturalist, looked upon the mag
nificent heights of Angkor-more
than seventy years since the great
est detective story in the history of
the world was laid out with its mil
lion stony clews to puzzle the sa-
wants. Today, with its principal
remains classified and ticketed, its
Inscriptions translated, and its mon
uments lifted out of the jungle. Ang-
kOr is still the vast and silent mys-
tery that itwas in the beginning.
But the monuments are there and
no mere shutting of the eyes will
dispose of them: Angkor Thom, a
walled city within whose metropol-
itan area at one time must have
lived more people than were to be
found in the Rome of Augustus or
the Carthage of Hannibal, and Ang-
kor Vat. supreme architectural eff
fort of this strange culture, not only
the most grandioSe temple of the
group, but one of the most stupen-
dous undertakings begun by man
since the cornerstone was laid for
the Tower of Babel.
About Angkor Thorn are scattered
remains of earlier edifices, and far
in the jungle are capital cities built
and abandoned with that prodigal-
ity which seems always to have been
characteristic of oriental monarchs.
Traces of this lost civilization
have been found wherever a lean
tributary of the MekOng river
branches out toward the north.
Once Splendid Metropolis.
Here at Angkor was the finest me-
tropoiiS in Asia-a town whose
staggering splendor is permanently
embossed in temple wall and tower
and terrace. 1t was the perfect ex-
preston of a race of conquerors and
must have been as wealthy as Baby
Ion under Nebuchadnezzar. And
yet, for some cause which an archie
OlOgist can only guess. the populace
walked out of it and never came
back. The jungle moved in and en-
quilted it for five centuries.
There begins and there ends the
mystery of Angkor.
Little enough is known about the
origin of the race that evolved the
culture which centered in Angkor
Thorn. The people were called the
Khmers and were either of Hindu
extraction or the diligent pupils of
Hindu teachers. That about sums