We can choose to throw stones, to stumble on them, to climb over them, or to build with them - William Arthur Ward. Country life offers so much beauty that people always tend to forget about the hardships and problems that hide beneath that beauty. Country life is simple, but not always easy. The rose-colored glasses might make us forget that, once we want to embrace the beauty of country life, we also must embrace its roughness.
Had Ta Prohm been diligently maintained from its construction in 1186 to the present day, it would be just a footnote to the larger Angkor Wat temple. But while Ta Prohm lay forgotten and neglected by men, the Cambodian jungle wasted no time in devouring it. Silk-cotton and strangler fig trees took root in the loosened stones of the temple, which was built entirely without mortar. Their roots wound through the structure, creating an astonishing merger of nature and architecture. Though Ta Prohm may look like nature unfettered, the appearance of neglect is in fact fastidiously maintained.
The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library - Albert Einstein. This separate elongated building is one of those structures usually called “libraries” in descriptions of Khmer art. Normally, they are placed south-east of the temple proper and large temples have many libraries. Their purpose is unclear, but the term library may be appropriate: modern monastery compounds in Southeast Asia have a separate building within the temple courtyard for safekeeping of Holy Scriptures or liturgical divices. Beng Mealea has two library buildings in the courtyards between exterior (third) and second enclosing galleries.
