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Article was originally authored by Feng Shui Scholar

Angkor Wat

      We decided to check out Cambodia after hearing so much about the glory of Angkor Wat which was built in the ancient city of Siem Riep in the 9th century. The main intention was not just going there for a vacation to check out this lost city, but also in hope to contribute some charity for Cambodians who had suffered from the civil war over the past two decade. As usual, we brought along also our compasses and other needed feng shui tools to check out the feng shui of the place.

A brief history of Cambodia actually showed that the country used to enjoy a long period of power and wealth for many centuries. But sadly, poverty, damaged families and handicap have become the culture of the Cambodians today. We decided to find out more on why the country was cursed with more than a million landmines still active today. These landmines had caused the death of over half of the population and left aplenty with broken limbs.

Beautiful architecture of Angkor City

The lost city of Angkor was found in late 19th and early 20th century. There used to be a lot of gold, diamond and precious antique left as heritage of the country. But starting mid 1960's and especially in 1970's, the country suffered from troubles and civil war. Cambodia can be considered as located in the SE direction of Asia. And coincidentally, in Period 6, the Five Yellow Period Star flew to the SE which could be the main cause of havoc for the country. We checked the feng shui of the city, there was nothing wrong with it, in fact we were amazed how well the ancient architects had considered compass directions, wide bright opening in front, water in front and mountains behind in their construction. The reason the lost city became wealthy was definitely due to their pools and ponds of water in front of the Angkor Wat. Water brings wealth! Unlike in China where all the monuments are facing south, the monuments in Angkor are all either facing east or west. The flying stars of the kingdom were also good besides having good form and landscape feng shui.

The lost city was then abandoned for many centuries till the French came. And since then the Angkor Wat became a big treasure where people from all over the world became interested in it. Many of the ruins were dug and the jungle cleared to make space for the monument. Unfortunately, many of the statues of the Hindu deities and Buddha were found to be left in broken pieces. The good ones were all taken away and ended in museums or in homes of some rich people of other countries after world war two. Since then, replicas of the Buddha or Hindu statues with broken limbs of Angkor were made in big scale by their crafters. These statues of broken limbs could be found abundantly anywhere in Cambodia. They stand as images in cities representing the pride of Angkor, they also serve as major decoration of the government bodies, school, public places, gardens etc. Most homes also have these statues as their homage to the Buddha and Hindu Gods. Handicapped statues have become part of Cambodian culture. And tourists take home these statues happily as souvenirs.

Handicapped statues are widely found in Cambodian public places

Statues of broken limbs are inauspicious. It is also a sign of disrespect to the Buddha and Hindu Gods. Instead of taking efforts to restore broken images into the complete image, they have intentionally made statues with broken limbs to represent the nation and country. It had become the reason why over two decades the civil war in Cambodia had caused many people either dead or with broken limbs. This is a good example of how symbols can strongly influence and impact our subconscious mind to realize certain outcomes. Whether we realize or not, creating symbols of inauspiciousness could reinforce bad energy levels, in this case where the whole nation had suffered from the bad effects.

It is disrespectful to have heads of the Buddha being pierced from the bottom with an iron rod onto a stand. The best is to have the Buddha in complete figure together with the body.

The question that arises now is why symbolism is so influential? From a scientific point of view, it is quite easy to explain it. Our brains consist of the left and the right brain. The subconscious part which is the right side is like an obedient slave. If certain data are too frequently captured into this part of the brain, this subconscious mind translates them into a script. This script will be stored until the day when the command is executed, materialized or realized. Like it or not, the brain is very powerful and is able to send out waves to realize something sooner or later. It makes things work for us, like a will power!

In this example, it had indicated that symbolism has strongly created a nation full of broken limbs people in Cambodia. Although there is nothing wrong with the shape, direction, landscape, time dimension and feng shui of the country, the nation had suffered bad feng shui because of bad symbolism. This serves as a lesson to us not to take symbolism lightly in our homes or country levels. That is why so many developed nations like China, Hong Kong and Singapore had used so many good symbols to enhance their wealth prospects. We should all be wise in our home decoration too. Avoid pictures, images and figurines that bring inauspicious meanings.