Angkor Wat's Central Tower: The Lost Shrine of Vishnu

Angkor Wat's central sanctuary, the tallest tower, is often assumed to have held a grand statue of Vishnu. But what did it actually contain? This episode follows the clues left by Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan in 1296, the early French explorer Henri Mouhot, and modern archaeological surveys. We learn that the original image — a massive bronze Vishnu — was likely removed or destroyed during the Theravada Buddhist conversion in the 14th-15th centuries. Later, a Buddha image was installed, then smashed by iconoclasts. Today, the shrine is empty, but fragments of stone pedestals and a missing statue base hint at what once stood there: a monumental eight-armed Vishnu, cast in bronze and gold. We also discuss the logistics of hoisting such a statue into place, and the evidence for a hidden crypt beneath the central tower that was excavated in 1934 by French archaeologists — only to be found empty. #AngkorWat #CentralTower #Vishnu #ZhouDaguan #HenriMouhot #KhmerEmpire #SuryavarmanII #Theravada #BronzeStatue #Archaeology #HiddenCrypt #FrenchColonial #Cambodia #Angkor #SoutheastAsianHistory #ReligiousConversion #Iconoclasm #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo