时间已经过去半年多了，吴哥的印记却总在闲暇间闯入思绪。在吴哥巴肯山顶上，我久久地遥望着吴哥对自己说：“哎，走进了吴哥就再也走不出吴哥了!”
　　2007年春节我作了一次越南柬埔寨之旅。从西贡到金边吴哥，相机里留下了3000多张照片。西贡街头法国人的印记，湄公河上勾起的乡愁，钟屋杀人场骇人听闻的记录等等，但烙在记忆最深处的还是吴哥。尽管行前我对吴哥作了详尽的了解，但当宏伟的吴哥窟呈现在眼前时，我还是被震撼了!
　　关于吴哥，用文字是无法表达的。只有感受、回忆和沉思，才能体会到它闯过岁月的重重坎坷和存在于今天的价值!
　　吴哥比金字塔要晚三四千年，比雅典巴特农神殿要晚一千多年，但吴哥是在完全与西方文明隔绝的另一个文明中诞生的。她恢宏的建筑规模、精致的石雕艺术、缜密的设计布局，完全是人类高度文明的一种代表。
　　吴哥实在让人震慑，如此杰出的建筑群只有高度文明才能创造出来。建造吴哥时，高棉人是利用暹粒河和大象才将巨石从几百公里外的荔枝山运到吴哥的。没有水泥、没有起重运输设备、没有计算系统，他们竟用石头将庙宇垒到65米高，相当于今天的22层高楼!它将建筑和艺术、技术结合得如此完美，这在人类历史上是空前的。
　　去吴哥的游客都要去巴肯山看日出和日落，这使我回忆起读小学时争着去杭州宝石山上看日出一样。然而我那时仅仅是看日出，如今站在巴肯山看太阳冉冉升起或者徐徐落下，吴哥所显示的那是一种雄伟，一种想象。千百年来，吴哥就是这般受着日蚀雨侵和岁月的蹂躏，它笑对史事沧桑、世间盛衰。
　　让人奇怪的是如此辉煌的文明为什么没有史书记载？当年是谁发明或者下令用石头建造吴哥的呢？在吴哥城中心的皇城遗址中，当年用木头建造的皇宫早已荡然无存，唯有用石垒起的寺庙在历史长河中承载着吴哥文明屹立今日。仰望吴哥，这是个解不开的疑团。
　　在吴哥的最后一天，我们又向崩密列进发。去这座巨大的寺庙是我们吴哥之行的最后一站，它在柬埔寨的另一处密林中。走近崩密列，见它像一个残喘病人瘫倒在密林深处，它似乎已经难以述说它的历史了。只有导游在对我们说，现在的崩密列比当年法国人发现时还要破败。上世纪50年代到80年代，柬埔寨一直处于战争中。先是国内战争后来是柬越战争，崩密列受到的蹂躏比千百年来地震所受的破坏还严重得多。
　　建筑规模和风格都与吴哥窟相似的崩密列，完全是一副破败残象。护墙和主塔完全倾塌，几乎没有一座稍稍完整的塔座，巨大的古树在乱石堆中肆虐和骄横地生长着，它遭受着自然灾害和人类战争双重迫害，似乎已经哭干了眼泪。崩密列的凄美在告诉我们，是谁创造了它而又是谁摧残了它。
　　
　　鼎盛时期的吴哥王朝，东攻占波人占领了今天越南南部，北战暹罗控制了今天的泰国大部，向南将马来半岛的大部归于自己。当年的吴哥城居住着100多万人，而同时期的伦敦只有5万人呢!14世纪后吴哥文明突然消失了，一场大瘟疫将吴哥尘封于柬埔寨的密林中，直到1858年一个叫穆奥的法国人将它发现，据说当吴哥窟出现在穆奥面前时，他震惊得浑身发抖。穆奥所以能够发现吴哥，那是因为他看了一本《真腊风土记》的书，对传说中的吴哥发生了兴趣，于是他去了柬埔寨探险。这本书的作者叫周达观，是中国元朝的一名温州人，1296年他在真腊(现在的柬埔寨)首都吴哥呆了一年多，回国后写了这本书，这是目前世界上仅有的一本记载当年吴哥文明繁荣景况的书。此书证实是中国人周达观最早发现了吴哥文明，并用文字记载和讲述了这个文明，而后吴哥文明又传到欧洲和整个世界。法国历史学家伯希和说：“没有这本书，我们对吴哥文明可能一无所知。”我也曾翻阅这本不到一万字的游记，书中简洁全面地介绍了当年吴哥政治、经济、文化、社会生活等各个方面，此外它从国王的出行到孕妇奇特的生育过程、从男女共浴到贸易集市等风土人情也有许多描述。这本珍贵的游记也和吴哥一样被历史尘封了700多年，直到19世纪西方人开始大规模研究中国文化时，《真腊风土记》才让他们从中发现了一个神秘的文明：吴哥。到了700多年后的1971年，柬文版的《真腊风土记》在柬埔寨再出版，高棉人才开始了解到他们的祖先在吴哥文明中的生活场景。一个殒落的文明被异族人记载又被异族人发现，这在人类文明史中恐怕只有吴哥，这又恰恰是吴哥独有的魅力所在。
　　
　　My Visit to Angkor Wat
　　By Zhang Xinmin
　　
　　When I stood on the top of Phnom Bakheng, soaking up the panoramic view of Angkor Wat only 1.5 kilometers away, I murmured to myself that once I stepped into the site, I would never forget what I saw there. My prediction has turned out to be true so far. Though more than half a year has elapsed since my visit to Angkor Wat during the Spring Festival of 2007, I still felt as if I visited the ancient miracle just yesterday. My memories are fresh as ever.
　　
　　My trip included Vietnam and Cambodia. More than 3,000 photographs in my digital camera testified to my unforgettable tour. I saw the French impressions in Saigon, I lost myself in the boating on the Mekong, and I was horrified by the Choeung Et killing fields; the most haunting memory, however, is Angkor Wat. Although I had read up on the ancient architecture and history of Angkor Wat, when the extensive site actually loomed in front of me, the view still took my breath away. The grandeur conquered me. I remember occasionally trekking to the Gem Hill by the West Lake in my hometown Hangzhou to watch sunrise when I was a kid. The sunset was a natural wonder. Taking such a commanding view of Angkor Wat from the top of the hill, I knew I was witnessing a man-made miracle.
　　
　　It is hard to imagine how Angkor was built and how it survived history. It was much later than Egyptian pyramids and Pantheon and it seemed totally separated from the western civilization.Yet, the splendor of the sheer scale, the refined art of the stone carving, and the architectural design represent the best of the ancient civilizations.
　　It is said that the Khmer people transported huge stones for hundreds of kilometers with the aid of elephants and on the Siem Reap River for building Angkor. Without cement and elevating devices, without an advanced computing system, they erected a temple as tall as 65 meters, that is, equal to a 22-story building today. Of the ruins, the wood palaces are long gone. Only stones have stood, bearing witness to history.
　　Angkor Wat was built when the Angkor dynasty ruled. According to history, the city was home to over 1 million residents in its heydays. Of its contemporaries, London had a population of 50,000. The Angkor civilization was wiped out by a plague in the 14th century. The French explorer H. Mouhout ran into the ruins. (需要添加年份) He shook physically and psychically standing in front of the splendid ruins. What had prompted this rediscovery adventure was a book named “The Customs of Chenla?by Zhou Daguan, a man from Wenzhou, a port city in eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province today. Zhou came in 1296 to Angkor with envoys of the Yuan Dynasty and stayed in the capital of the State of Chenla for over a year. After his return, he jotted down his experiences there.
　　
　　The book is the only existing ancient record in the world about the prosperous dynasty in Indo-China. In less than 10,000 words, the account touches upon various aspects of the empire. Among other things, it describes how the emperor’s cavalcade traveled, how a woman gave birth to a baby, how men and women took bath in communal bathhouses, and how markets operated. Just like its subject, the precious book was buried in history for about seven centuries before it was noticed in the 19th century when western scholars exerted themselves to know all about China. The account led them to the ruins.
　　In 1971, the book was translated into the language of Cambodia and the modern Khmer people got to read how their ancient ancestors lived in Angkor. In the long history of the human civilization, in all probabilities, only Angkor Wat fits the description that a civilization was first witnessed and recorded by a foreigner and, after it was long lost, rediscovered by a foreigner. Probably this is why Angkor Wat offers such an abiding fascination to the people of today.
　　(Translated by David)