Palilay Temple

This guide to Palilay Temple in Siem Reap reads the carved pediments above its small entrance tower as scenes of the Buddha at his most vulnerable: the meal from a young woman named Sujata that revived him after six years of starvation, the wild elephant Nalagiri sent to trample him, and his retreat into the Parileyyaka forest when everyone else had turned away. It follows what each scene meant to the Buddhists who kept carving them onto this modest gopura. Look for the chimney-shaped tower behind the gate, worn from centuries of monsoons.