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00:00:00I'm setting off on the third leg of my marathon tour of the wonders of the world.
00:00:09As I make my way through Australia and Southeast Asia, I'll see some of the most
00:00:17awe-inspiring and haunting treasures ever created by man.
00:00:21I'm heading for a world of spirits, a paradise on Earth.
00:00:51Over the past month, I've travelled through the Americas from Peru to New York.
00:01:01My next stop is another of the world's great modern cities.
00:01:08In little more than 200 years, Sydney has gone from being a dumping ground for British convicts
00:01:19to a confident metropolis with a number of potential treasures I'm keen to see.
00:01:32I've come to Sydney to seek my treasure, to find the treasure that captures the extraordinary
00:01:39history, the spirit of this city and this nation.
00:01:43There are several contenders.
00:01:55The first one is obvious.
00:01:56The Sydney Opera House.
00:01:59It's the great Australian icon and one of the most celebrated buildings of the 20th century.
00:02:06The Opera House was designed in 1957 by a Danish architect, Jorn Utzen.
00:02:18The Opera House is one of the most memorable buildings of the 20th century.
00:02:22Its forms are so strong, they're like a symbol for the city.
00:02:28These great shells, one upon the other, incredibly powerful.
00:02:34The influences are complex.
00:02:36Utzen looked at many things.
00:02:38He'd been to Mexico, seen Mayan architecture.
00:02:41He loved the platform.
00:02:42I'm on the platform now.
00:02:44The shells rise from the platform below are the self-service parts of the buildings.
00:02:49And these great steps, again, from the great Mayan temples in Mexico.
00:02:54So he's thinking of ancient, sacred buildings.
00:02:59Utzen also took inspiration from nature.
00:03:02He needed to make the structure easy to build.
00:03:05His solution was ingenious.
00:03:07The shape of each of these shells originates from one form, a sphere.
00:03:13If one takes an orange and one cuts it into components,
00:03:23I'm now creating the surface of the shells at a minuscule scale.
00:03:28And these surface shapes of standard geometrical form are the basis of the shell structure,
00:03:38of the Sidney O'Prowse, you see.
00:03:41Incredible, this use of natural history, use of simple forms, use of powerful elemental geometry,
00:03:47use of modern building materials, concrete, all very ingenious to create an emblematic building
00:03:54which sums up the city, which has captured the imagination of the world, which says, Sydney.
00:03:59My heart sinks when I enter the Opera House.
00:04:10It seems like another building.
00:04:14The imaginative design of the exterior has not been repeated inside.
00:04:18It's all because, in 1966, Utzen walked off the project after roused over the design and escalating budget.
00:04:33The consequences of Utzen's resignation were, well, tragic, really.
00:04:39The fact is, the relationship between the inside and the outside is, what should one say, unresolved, unsatisfactory.
00:04:47It's good in parts, but not as good as it ought to be, and that is very sad.
00:04:53A masterpiece has been flawed.
00:04:58For this reason, I've decided to reject the Opera House as a treasure.
00:05:04My next contender is a stone's throw from the Opera House.
00:05:08The Sydney Harbour Bridge straddles the bay like a huge longbow.
00:05:14It's one of the most famous bridges in the world,
00:05:16and from a distance, it has a majestic presence.
00:05:29But I want to take a closer look and climb to the bridge's summit,
00:05:33a journey of more than a mile.
00:05:37It's the largest steel arch bridge in the world,
00:05:40and is held together by an amazing six million hand-driven rivets.
00:05:44The Sydney Harbour Bridge, when completed in 1932, was a great emblem of Sydney, of Australia,
00:06:02and one can see why. It's a superb structure, superbly sited, too, across the harbour.
00:06:08A magnificent creature.
00:06:11There's no doubt the bridge is a great feat of engineering,
00:06:15but it's like many other bridges in the world, and I wonder what it really tells me about Australia.
00:06:20I have a third, much more surprising contender, which I believe is more symbolic of Australia,
00:06:29than either the bridge or the Opera House.
00:06:32It's a short walk from the bridge, and you'd be forgiven for missing it.
00:06:37Dwarfed by Sydney's 21st century skyline, lies the city's hidden gem,
00:06:41a charming little Georgian church.
00:06:52St James's is my treasure because it tells the story of how Australia was built,
00:06:58how a noble nation evolved out of a penal colony.
00:07:03St James's may look like any old late Georgian classical church,
00:07:06but consider the context, consider the circumstances of its design and construction.
00:07:13This church was started in 1819. The city was less than 50 years old,
00:07:18and more to the point, it was a penal settlement, a town of convicts, a sort of shanty town.
00:07:25So this church, in its grandeur, was astonishing. It's metropolitan in its ambition.
00:07:32It's a declaration, really, that one day, this town of convicts, Sydney, will be a great city.
00:07:43The architect was an English prisoner called Francis Greenway.
00:07:47He'd been condemned to death in 1812 for fraud, but the sentence was commuted,
00:07:52and he was deported to Australia.
00:07:55The governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, emancipated Greenway,
00:07:59and decided to make use of his skills as an architect.
00:08:04And all this results in a building that I find absolutely haunting in this barren location,
00:08:10other end of the world, a town of pain, convict town. One gets a spectacular church built,
00:08:19a church as good as anything in Britain at the time.
00:08:22Governor Macquarie is now revered as the father of Australia.
00:08:33But at the time, his liberal policies towards emancipated convicts were attacked.
00:08:40Macquarie was ousted by the reactionary free men of the city in 1821,
00:08:45and his favourite architect, Greenway, was sacked the following year,
00:08:49before his masterpiece in James' church was completed.
00:08:53Greenway, a broken man, died in 1837, penniless and forgotten.
00:08:59But there is an optimistic twister's tale which makes one's heart and soul rise.
00:09:14One picks up a ten dollar note, not a current one, one of some years ago,
00:09:20and here we see the hero of the church, the hero of art and architecture in early Australia,
00:09:30Francis Greenway, now a hero indeed. Ironically, of course, a man convicted of forging letters of
00:09:40forgery ends up emblazoning a banknote.
00:09:45For me, this building, this church, says so much about this nation.
00:09:53It says so much about the spirit of this nation.
00:10:02There's another spirit which existed here long before Europeans moved to Australia,
00:10:07the Aboriginal spirit.
00:10:10I've always been fascinated by the ancient beliefs of Australia's early inhabitants.
00:10:15I've always been fascinated by the ancient beliefs of Australia.
00:10:24To break the long journey, I stop for a snack that I'm told is very nourishing,
00:10:28with a little shocking.
00:10:31Ah, green ants must be a nest.
00:10:34These are walking lunch baskets.
00:10:37Their posteriors are loaded with, um, vitamin C.
00:10:42And the Aboriginal people around here love to eat them, if you can catch them.
00:10:55Lovely.
00:10:55Very, very, very intense taste.
00:10:59A bit like a good wine.
00:11:02Now, here's a good one.
00:11:04Offering up his buttocks.
00:11:06And I know, the thrill of being an anteater.
00:11:17Your ass is mine, as they say.
00:11:19The ants were strangely delicious.
00:11:36But later, I chant upon a brilliant feat of insect engineering that makes me feel rather guilty.
00:11:42Insect architecture.
00:11:48About 20, 30 million termites live in this sort of high-rise structure made out of mud, really.
00:12:00Mud architecture.
00:12:01Beautiful piece of work.
00:12:04Termite skyscraper.
00:12:06Incredible.
00:12:07The termite tower is a work of nature that the Aboriginal people would appreciate.
00:12:19Indeed, to them, this whole landscape is alive.
00:12:22And tomorrow, somewhere within it, I will find my next treasure.
00:12:37I've come to the Northern Territory of Australia to see the oldest art in history.
00:12:47Art that dates from the dawn of man.
00:12:50I'm going to a site that was first inhabited 50,000 or even 60,000 years ago.
00:12:55But, although ancient, this art is not dead.
00:12:59I'm going to see a living treasure.
00:13:01It's an art form inspired by the kind of nature which now explodes all around me.
00:13:23It was painted by the ancestors of the Aborigines, the traditional owners of this land.
00:13:31I'm going to see a living treasure in this land.
00:13:50There are literally hundreds of paintings, layered one upon the other.
00:13:54And the rock faces in front of me and round about.
00:14:00They date back 20,000 or 30,000 years.
00:14:02Some are much, much more recent.
00:14:04They're living.
00:14:06Living paintings full of meaning and power.
00:14:10They tell about creation.
00:14:12About life.
00:14:14Life of the people.
00:14:15All those hundreds, thousands of years ago.
00:14:18Tells about the past.
00:14:20But, of course, also, they speak about the present.
00:14:23They speak about safeguarding the families that live here,
00:14:27that still live here, the same families.
00:14:34The paintings aren't left to fade away with the passing of the years,
00:14:38but are lovingly refreshed by Aboriginal painters today.
00:14:42They're potent works of art.
00:14:45The paintings of fish, turtles and wild animals carry deep spiritual meaning.
00:14:49I meet Natasha Najee, whose families lived at Kakadu for generation upon generation.
00:15:08This is the area that we go hunting, but not now, because there's too much water at the moment.
00:15:12You, your ancestors, right back, come from here.
00:15:19Yeah, starting from the oldest man we know.
00:15:26As we walk through one of the world's oldest art galleries,
00:15:30she tells me about the creation ancestors and the dream time,
00:15:34the beginning of knowledge and understanding.
00:15:37There are also moral tales from the past, including the peculiar story of the selfish Narmagan sisters,
00:15:46who turned themselves into crocodiles to prey upon their former human companions.
00:15:54The person that paints the painting is more important than the painting itself.
00:16:00The person has to have the power, the knowledge.
00:16:01Usually, it's only just men that do this.
00:16:04Men are the ones that go out spearing fish, hunting for other sorts of things that women
00:16:12aren't supposed to do. Women are just their gatherers.
00:16:15It's incredible to be. I mean, the stories are about creation, about the past,
00:16:19but also they seem to be about things now as well.
00:16:22With the fish and shows all the insides, like we get fish today and we come back and we can have
00:16:30a look at these paintings and we can see exactly the same shapes and bones and fat and everything
00:16:37that's in the fish that are on the paintings. So that's the point of the famous so-called x-ray
00:16:42paintings where you can see the inside of the creature. It's really like a diagram of how to cut
00:16:47it up or what to eat. Yeah, yeah. And it shows you what parts are poisonous or what parts certain
00:16:53people can eat and can't eat. Tell you what, I'd love to see the rainbow serpent. She's over here,
00:17:00and it is a female, isn't it? Yes, yes. Female goddess, earth goddess. Yes, it's woman power.
00:17:05Woman power. Yes. Come on, we'll go and see.
00:17:08Here we are. Oh, look. Oh. This is... The rainbow serpent. This is the serpent. Yeah. Where's the, um...
00:17:21The head has gone underground. There. Yeah. So this is again the rain... Sorry, God, I suddenly...
00:17:29I'm so stupid. The rainbow serpent, of course, a rainbow. You know the word rainbow, this great
00:17:34bridge between this world and the next. So many religions. Of course, the rainbow serpent's shown
00:17:37as a rainbow. I didn't expect that. I thought it would be like, you know, a snake. It's much more
00:17:43powerful. It's much more abstract, much more sensual. It is. It's great. Rainbow serpent pretty much
00:17:48represents, uh, women and with women culture and how a young girl becomes a lady. The earth goddess,
00:17:55isn't it, really? Yes, yes. Life coming from the earth, life coming from the female. She, um,
00:18:00it's like what my grandfather said. She's like queen, boss. Yeah, boss lady. Yes. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:07It's deeply moving to experience a culture rooted in the myths of the earliest human society.
00:18:26To come into contact with beliefs far removed from our material existence.
00:18:37But I fear for the future of this fragile world. If Natasha's generation turn their backs on it,
00:18:52what will become of the creation ancestors and his ancient legends and memories? It's a terrible thought.
00:18:59I leave Australia for Indonesia where I will encounter another culture whose strange and time-honoured
00:19:10traditions live on.
00:19:11I'm heading into the heart of the island of Sulawesi to a region called Tarajaland.
00:19:21I'm flying north across the Timor Sea, part of the Pacific Ocean, to meet a people who have had
00:19:30traditionally a very close relationship with the aborigines of the northwest coast of Australia.
00:19:38I'm meeting these people to participate in a very special ceremony. Indeed, a ceremony that marks the most
00:19:47important moment of their lives.
00:19:53I'm about to enter a world, but the process of dying has been transformed into a way of life.
00:20:00It's one of the most beautiful places on earth and, as I'm about to find out,
00:20:05one of the most mysterious.
00:20:08This is the village of Ketu Kesu.
00:20:11The spirit houses are not quaint homes on stilts, but symbolise the realm of the dead.
00:20:31They are an important port of call for the deceased on their journey to the afterlife.
00:20:36I'm about to join them on that journey.
00:20:38On my left are spirit houses, the domain of the dead. Each one belongs to a different family,
00:20:48embellished with buffalo horns, buffalo skulls, showing the creatures that were sacrificed the
00:20:54time of the funerals. The more horns, the higher status the family has. Everywhere there is the
00:21:03cockerel. Lord cock, king of the underworld.
00:21:09And these buildings are divided into these three three worlds. The ground floor is the underworld
00:21:14occupied by beasts who live at the base of the house. The middle part occupied by man. The upper part
00:21:22is amazing roof structure. That's the world of the gods, the spirits, the ancestors. They live in the roof
00:21:28space. And the roof itself is a very powerful, sacred emblem, perhaps based on a boat. These people
00:21:36came from the sea, lived off the sea for centuries. So it's a great boat shaped top. Or you can see it
00:21:42as the horns of the great buffalo. So this building itself, each building is a diagram of the sacred belief
00:21:49of these people. Here we have him. Pong la la dong, as he's called. King cock, lord of the underworld.
00:22:04Pecking at my feet. And here, this fine creature's water buffalo, this bull water buffalo, munching,
00:22:15looking at me. Maybe a trifle nervous, not surprised, because the chances are, one day soon,
00:22:22he'll be sacrificed at a funeral. If so, his spirit will join the corpse on his journey to the other world.
00:22:34I'm about to witness the fate awaiting the buffalo, and it's not a pleasant one.
00:22:38Here, death is celebrated with an orgy of blood and killing to mourn one man who's already been dead
00:22:49for four years. The village is teeming with people. It's like a festival. In fact, as these ladies in
00:22:57black reveal, it's a funeral. This is a high point, though, in the life of these people. The funeral,
00:23:03death, death leading, of course, to rebirth in a better place in the stars.
00:23:10I'm being guided by this man. He seemed to know what I want. These people are all the relatives of
00:23:15the deceased, the people here? My family. They're all family. Are you family as well?
00:23:22My family, yeah. My uncle is dead. Well, do you mind us coming to join in the funeral?
00:23:29Is it all right if we come and have a look to see your uncle? Yeah, yeah, my uncle.
00:23:39Everywhere, flesh and sacrificed creatures are being dragged inside.
00:23:42Please sit down. Please, please, please.
00:23:56So this is basically a grandstand. Or like a boxing opera. Each of these boxes numbered. I'm in 39.
00:24:05I'm being ushered in here to witness something. Everywhere people are gathering,
00:24:11waiting for something to happen. I'm not entirely sure what at this stage.
00:24:20It soon becomes clear as a new victim enters the arena of death.
00:24:35Oh, dear. I'm very fond of pigs. They've obviously tried to be merciful. They've gone to his heart, haven't they?
00:24:50Oh, dear.
00:24:54The people here believe the spirit of the sacrificed pig will join the dead man's spirit in the afterlife,
00:25:00giving him status and wealth.
00:25:01The funeral is a celebration because of the dead. They've gone to a better place. They're renewing
00:25:11the cycle of life and death and rebirth. They've gone to the stars where these people believe their
00:25:18ancestors came from, where they come from. But I must say, seeing this scene of sacrifice, this poor pig,
00:25:26they're simply as part of the ritual, rather takes the pleasure of all this for me.
00:25:36God knows how many pigs have been sacrificed here today. Remains of many round about and two here waiting to go.
00:25:44I meet Mr. Rante Tasak, the man who has organised a funeral.
00:25:56So what relation are you to the deceased?
00:25:59He's your father.
00:26:04It's your father?
00:26:06Yes.
00:26:06My dear, I'm so sorry. I didn't realise it's your father. So it's very, very...
00:26:11And so all this, the gathering here, all these people and the animals being sacrificed,
00:26:18it's in honour of your father?
00:26:20Because you love your father, because he love his father. That's why he made this kind of offering.
00:26:30What about the spirit of the animals? Where do they go?
00:26:34According to our belief, the spirit of the battle and the pig also will go to the heaven,
00:26:43join with the dead person as well.
00:26:45That's what I thought. So the flesh stays here to feed the people, the humans.
00:26:50But the spirit of the animal accompanies the deceased.
00:26:54And also everyone comes to pray to this, the dead person.
00:27:00They hope this, the dead person could go safely to paradise. We call to Puya.
00:27:07The funeral here will go on for a few more days yet.
00:27:10Finally, four years after dying, the dead man will be interned.
00:27:20I hail a tuk-tuk and go in search of his final resting place.
00:27:24In Tarajaland, death is the most important moment in life.
00:27:28It's when humans return to the place of their celestial origin.
00:27:32So commemorating the dead is sacred art of the highest order.
00:27:35This brings me to my next treasure.
00:27:50The Tau Tau are wooden statues representing the ancestor.
00:27:54They're not so much monuments as means by which the spirits of the dead can return to counsel the living.
00:28:00The body we've just seen will be brought to a grave like this and be interned in a cavity
00:28:11that's been carved out of the rock.
00:28:13Here you see a whole series of burials, little wooden doors over the hole in which the body's been inserted.
00:28:22A dozen or so here, two dozen, I mean a lot, all the way round.
00:28:26Of course, what's really striking are these effigies called Tau Tau, images of the dead,
00:28:34placed up there with this fixed gaze, gazing into eternity, I suppose.
00:28:43And round about are offerings below this row of images, like the dead in an opera box,
00:28:51watching life's strange doings with their hands outheld. Amazing.
00:28:55But below them is a plate wrapped in paper, hung on string, obviously offerings from a family
00:29:02to their ancestor, to sustain them, to appease them, to keep them active for the benefit of the family.
00:29:09Here are some coffins, old coffins, one, two, empty, apart from a gigantic jaw bone in this one,
00:29:31not human. Ah, and there's another one over there that looks more intact. Indeed, the lids on it is closed.
00:29:39I mean, can there be a body in storage waiting to be interned? No, but I'll have a look.
00:29:46So here's this coffin now.
00:29:47It's intact. It's closed. Is it sealed? I mean, can there be a body here left waiting?
00:30:01So it's going to open. Here we go.
00:30:05What we've got. My God, it's a rat. Completely bazaars. My God, she's giving birth as we watch.
00:30:21She's terrified with her baby. She's carrying her babies. Poor rat. Oh my goodness me.
00:30:26So a coffin becomes a natal clinic for rat. So the world goes on. Right. Gosh, what a extraordinary moment.
00:30:45I've been told about one more place called Londa, where I'll be able to complete my journey into the realm of the dead.
00:31:08Again, the cliffs are occupied by the eerie forms of the Tao Tao.
00:31:16But here I'll be able to cross the threshold into the burial caves, where the voyage to the afterlife begins.
00:31:29To my three young guides, this is a very special place. It's their own family vault.
00:31:45In this sort of natural crypt, within this rocky sort of outcrop, is this vault full of coffins.
00:32:02And obviously many must have been broken, because here are these skulls. In fact, here is a coffin now, breaking open.
00:32:09And within the coffin, one of course sees the body, stacked one upon the other.
00:32:16But of course, these dead are not dead, as far as these people are concerned.
00:32:22They're present and part of their world, their spirits, which is why there are offerings everywhere.
00:32:29Here, this skull. Cigarettes, clearly a favourite offering to the dead. The dead, obviously, like to smoke.
00:32:36In the spirit land. Extraordinary. And there's more. There's more. It goes around the corner here.
00:32:42The power of death. Incredible, isn't it? Compelling, forceful.
00:32:54In the presence of the corpses, of the family. It must be overwhelming for family members who come down here,
00:33:01to connect with the mysteries of life after death. But of course, they hold up mysteries, really.
00:33:08Because here are the people with the answers, and they come and commune and talk to the living.
00:33:15And here there's a passage going on, but no more. No coffin, no coffins yet. There's space.
00:33:21This is living and dying. There's space there for future generations. These young chaps are of the
00:33:26family that own this vault, this crypt. They will end up in here. Yes. Must be an interesting feeling.
00:33:56My journey into the Indonesian spirit world has inflamed my imagination.
00:34:11I travel 650 miles southwest to another of Indonesia's 14,000 islands, Java.
00:34:26And here we go.
00:34:44And here we go.
00:34:53My treasure is one of the most intriguing buildings in South East Asia,
00:35:03lost in the jungles of Java for centuries.
00:35:07It offers a route to heaven, a route to spiritual enlightenment.
00:35:13This is the largest ancient monument in the Southern Hemisphere,
00:35:26a giant pyramidal Buddhist temple called a stupa.
00:35:38Orobador is one of the greatest Buddhist stupas in the world.
00:35:43Built in the 8th century, it's a diagram.
00:35:48It's like an open book telling you how to, well, save yourself, reach nirvana.
00:35:56It has nine levels.
00:35:58Each level is a route which one takes as a pilgrim to learn,
00:36:04to learn those things necessary to achieve enlightenment.
00:36:13This is the second level of the stupa.
00:36:28The first level down there shows worldly desires.
00:36:32This is the first sort of sacred level.
00:36:35And these panels wrapping right the way around show the life of the Buddha.
00:36:41Princess Maya here, the Buddha's mother asleep, the queen.
00:36:46And she's having this fateful and amazing dream.
00:36:50She dreams that a white elephant circles her waist three times.
00:36:56And the third time, it enters her womb.
00:36:59She's going to give birth to some astonishing, extraordinary creature.
00:37:04The white elephant.
00:37:05The white elephant is the emblem, one of the many early emblems of the Buddha.
00:37:11And here we see the white elephant.
00:37:14Somewhat damaged, it's drunk here.
00:37:17And here we see the parasol emblem of the Buddha above him.
00:37:43The first level and the next two above me tell the story of Sudhana, the pilgrim on his quest
00:37:50for truth, presiding over this, of course, one of the many images of Buddha himself sitting quietly.
00:37:58Amazing that Sudhana, I mean, he is the emblematic figure, he is the pilgrim, he is you, he is me.
00:38:04And people who came here would look at the panels, they would see what happened to him,
00:38:07they would learn, they would then go on.
00:38:14This is a lovely panel, rather architectural.
00:38:30And here is Sudhana, the pilgrim, the disciple of Buddha.
00:38:36Now, by this stage, we're at the third level of his story, he's getting somewhere.
00:38:43And this panel is about the power of meditation to overcome the physical world, I suppose,
00:38:50because here he is supplicating to achieve this levitation.
00:38:59This fellow is floating.
00:39:02And from here I look over the parapet to this amazing landscape,
00:39:07little changed in 1,200 years.
00:39:11Gosh, the power of the place.
00:39:18Absolutely tangible.
00:39:21Enlightenment is getting closer.
00:39:42And this is signified by a landscape of bell-shaped mini stupas
00:39:46sitting on top of the giant stupa.
00:39:49There are 72 of these up here.
00:40:01Each stupa, bell-shaped, contains an image of the Buddha.
00:40:07Now, of course, very few people would have achieved this level.
00:40:12Only, I suppose, enlightened-inspired monks would have reached this plane.
00:40:21And even they could only catch a glimpse of the Buddha through these little openings.
00:40:27I suppose they're emblematic of the difficulty of seeing Buddha of achieving enlightenment.
00:40:37Only a handful of Buddha's pilgrims now make the spiritual journey here.
00:40:41Indonesia is largely a Muslim country, and today the great stupa is teeming with tourists.
00:40:56What did this great building mean in the past?
00:41:00What does it mean today?
00:41:02Well, it encapsulates, in a most powerful way, Buddhist beliefs.
00:41:08It told and tells pilgrims and disciples coming here how to find a path to nirvana,
00:41:16how to escape the woes and ills of the world.
00:41:20It tells them that suffering comes from desire, and that to escape from suffering must escape from desires.
00:41:27And now it's still an incredibly popular place, now full of tourists.
00:41:33They've all come to look, to feel, to experience the power of this incredible temple.
00:41:41I defy anyone to be unmoved by Borobudur.
00:41:49It has an atmosphere that seems to offer a glimpse, all too fleetingly, of nirvana.
00:42:00From one of the great Buddhist monuments, my journey takes me to one of the great Buddhist nations, Thailand.
00:42:11Bangkok is a baffling mix of the old and new, the exotic and the vulgar.
00:42:17In the bustling capital city, sex and money are the new gods.
00:42:24My treasure is not here, but an hour's drive to the north.
00:42:28I've come to the ancient capital of Thailand, to Ayutthaya, to tell the tale of two battling brothers.
00:42:45A tragic tale in which the elephant plays a central role.
00:43:02It happened in the middle of the 15th century.
00:43:17The brothers were sons of the king and found themselves locked in a bitter power struggle.
00:43:22They ended up fighting a dramatic duel on elephant back.
00:43:26Both were killed.
00:43:28Their tragic story ends with the temple of Wat Ratchaburana.
00:43:49The central tower or prang is beautiful.
00:43:52It's not my treasure, but it will lead me to it.
00:43:55The surviving brother built a mighty memorial to the two brothers who died in combat, fighting each other.
00:44:07And, of course, this is not so surprising because the death of the two brothers allowed the third brother to become king.
00:44:13And this tower is part of the great memorial.
00:44:18And within here, the brother secreted a mighty treasure trove, one of the greatest in the world, buried in the bowels of this building.
00:44:29What is this building?
00:44:30What is this building?
00:44:31What is this building?
00:44:36How Moon is this building?
00:44:37How CanĆØre also controls?
00:44:38You are living here for
00:44:48O
00:44:50How CanĆØre Brothers lift a voice?
00:44:51What is this building?
00:44:53How me how could I 30 years ago?
00:44:55But to me what I had left a while.
00:44:56Hawkees and we thank God.
00:44:59It was common practice to bury precious things in the foundations of sacred buildings.
00:45:09Jewels, diamonds, pearls, images of the gods.
00:45:13And of course there was no exception.
00:45:24An incredible rich hoard.
00:45:27This was only discovered in 1957 when tomb robbers broke into here,
00:45:32burrowed in, and made away with many of the items.
00:45:35But they were caught and lots of the items, not all, but many, were recovered.
00:45:41And I can see those now.
00:45:43The surviving jewels have been moved to a nearby museum for safe keeping.
00:45:57And this is where I will find my treasure.
00:45:59This strong room contains the treasure from the chamber below the tower.
00:46:17It's a fabulous collection.
00:46:22Gold everywhere, wall to wall.
00:46:26These are some of the items recovered from the looters.
00:46:30And some of these items were subsequently excavated when the tower was inspected.
00:46:36But this elephant here, this is my particular treasure.
00:46:43A wonderful thing.
00:46:57A masterpiece of the goldsmith's art.
00:47:01Studied with gems.
00:47:04It's spectacular to see it made in about 1420, the same time as a tower in which it was found encrusted with gems.
00:47:19Goodness me, I've never seen it, of course, this way before, such detail.
00:47:23Beautifully, beautifully finished.
00:47:26Elephant kneeling with a howdah.
00:47:29Of course, the elephant is a very special beast in this part of the world, very auspicious.
00:47:35The war mount of kings.
00:47:38And Buddha, one of his manifestations was as a white elephant.
00:47:44The elephant's very powerful.
00:47:46But I wonder also, in this case, whether this elephant represents the means by which
00:47:52the two brothers of the king died in their elephant duel,
00:47:57fighting from the howdahs on top of the elephants.
00:48:01In that case, I suspect, there would have been two elephants in the tomb.
00:48:07One survives, the other one gone, looted, melted down.
00:48:12Or maybe somewhere, wandering around the world unrecognised.
00:48:17Spectacular thing, this.
00:48:20Leaving behind my most diminutive treasure, I head to neighbouring Cambodia,
00:48:35in search of one of my most awe-inspiring treasures.
00:48:39I've come to see the mighty remains of one of the great civilisations of the world.
00:48:53A civilisation so sophisticated it can be compared with Rome.
00:48:58This civilisation grew in the jungles of Cambodia 1,200 years ago, flourished for 600 years,
00:49:15and then was consumed by the very jungles from which it originated.
00:49:21I'm about to see one of the great wonders of the world.
00:49:36Angkor Wat is the legacy of the mighty king Saraya Varman II,
00:49:50and dates back to the mid-12th century.
00:49:53This is the temple at Angkor Wat, a place I've wanted to see for years.
00:49:59And what a place it is, is man's vision of heaven, is a Hindu image of the celestial city.
00:50:07King Saraya Varman II portrayed himself as a god-king,
00:50:18and Angkor Wat was his vision in masonry and mortar of heaven on earth.
00:50:24Angkor Wat was the sacred heart of the great city of Angkor,
00:50:29the capital of the Khmer Empire ruled by Saraya Varman.
00:50:35Angkor was home to a million people, making it one of the world's largest cities.
00:50:42I'm at the highest point of the temple, its summit.
00:50:48And that tower over there represents the sacred mountain of the Hindus,
00:50:56the centre of the universe, the dwelling of the Hindu gods.
00:51:01Its exterior is embellished with images of Hindu deities, cosmic figures.
00:51:09And inside, originally, would have been a great image of Vishnu,
00:51:16and probably the king's body, cremated as ashes, interred in there in an urn.
00:51:24This tower is many things, including a gateway to heaven.
00:51:33Angkor Wat's soaring towers, courtyards, avenues and buildings,
00:51:37are dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu.
00:51:42Vishnu is the preserver of the universe,
00:51:45a god whose miracles are narrated in great stone reliefs carved into the walls.
00:51:50This is glorious.
00:51:55Here we have, on my right, gods.
00:51:59On my left, the demons.
00:52:00They're pulling a tug of war, the great snake, Naga.
00:52:05And here she is, the snake, being tugged.
00:52:09As they tug and battle, they're churning the sea of milk,
00:52:14the sea of milk holding power and all good things.
00:52:19Beside in the middle is Vishnu, who was venerated in this temple.
00:52:24Here he is, and another incarnation of Vishnu, the turtle.
00:52:28So, here we see the battle, and the prize is immortality.
00:52:35The gods, thank goodness, get it, become immortal and prevail.
00:52:41This is a tremendous image of this duality, good and evil, gods and demons.
00:52:48The constant battle of humanity.
00:52:52This courtyard's full of apsara, these celestial nymphs who are the escort to the gods and to kings.
00:53:17This apsara staring right at me, eye to eye.
00:53:22They're beautiful and strangely shiny.
00:53:27I suppose they've been much handled over the years.
00:53:31Extraordinary sitting here.
00:53:51The whole place begins to make sense.
00:53:55This, Angkor Wat, is a model of the cosmos, the universe, containing at its heart, the great temple there.
00:54:07There's a world within a world, this, with its boundary walls, great causeway,
00:54:13surrounded by moats, representing the oceans of the world.
00:54:18And in here, one has images of heaven, of hell, celestial beings.
00:54:24And sitting here, this is paradise, isn't it?
00:54:28To appreciate the full meaning of Angkor Wat, I take to the skies.
00:54:49Suraya Varman's vision becomes clear.
00:54:56It's a homage to the gods and a statement of his own divinity.
00:55:02There it is, his sacred mountain, protected all sides by moats representing mythic oceans.
00:55:09But in reality, the moat could not keep the dangers of the outside world at bay.
00:55:20In 1177, the kingdom of Angkor was invaded by the neighbouring chams from Vietnam, who sacked the temple.
00:55:27Angkor was plunged into darkness and despair.
00:55:32But this was not the end of Khmer civilisation.
00:55:46A new god king, Jayavarman VII, came to the throne and in 1181 drove the invaders out.
00:56:02Jayavarman wanted to stamp his own imprint on Angkor.
00:56:06So a mile away from Angkor Wat, he built the city of Angkor Thom.
00:56:10A monument to his triumph, surrounded by a strong wall to defend it from future invaders.
00:56:18Jayavarman brought one major change to Angkor.
00:56:21He replaced Hinduism with Buddhism as the official religion.
00:56:25The centrepiece of Angkor Thom is a tomb in the Buddhist temple called the Bail,
00:56:32hauntedly enigmatic and beautiful.
00:56:35Its walls are adorned with huge and powerfully carved faces.
00:56:39These are my treasure.
00:56:48This place is all to do with politics and power, and such power.
00:56:54These towers incorporating these gigantic human faces.
00:57:01They really do capture the imagination.
00:57:03They are so haunting.
00:57:06It's quite hard, really, to explain why.
00:57:09They have such an enigmatic and persuasive quality.
00:57:15And they tell a very particular story.
00:57:19What you have here are the images of all that was powerful and important in this land at the time this place was built.
00:57:27Here we see the king making images to entice and unite his people.
00:57:32We have images of his great military commanders.
00:57:35We have images of the king himself.
00:57:37It's all here, all brought together in stone to speak of this land, to speak of how this land could be united.
00:57:44And on the tallest tower of them all was a huge image of the king himself combined with the image of the compassionate Buddha.
00:57:54He was the king, the great conqueror, the great commander, the great protector of his people, yet also a man of compassion, a man of caring.
00:58:02This is really, absolutely brilliant political architecture.
00:58:07And one looks around and these stones, though ancient, these faces, though antique, still speak a very potent and powerful language.
00:58:18This is really brilliant.
00:58:46There's nothing quite like these faces anywhere.
00:58:51They are beautiful.
00:58:54Art in the service of politics, perhaps.
00:58:59Certainly sacred art.
00:59:03Sculpture and architecture combined, of course.
00:59:08That's one of the reasons why they are so exciting.
00:59:11Not one thing or the other.
00:59:13Building a portrait, both things at once.
00:59:17And the smile is knowing.
00:59:21Smile.
00:59:22The eyes.
00:59:24They stare, don't they?
00:59:25Look.
00:59:26They look into your soul.
00:59:28I've travelled through two continents.
00:59:47I've travelled through two continents.
00:59:49In this programme.
00:59:50And seen wonderful things.
01:00:02But what I found most moving, most memorable, are the connections that traditional people have with nature.
01:00:08They see life, soul, spirit, in all things.
01:00:13Animals, rocks, the landscape, stones of buildings.
01:00:18It's amazing, really.
01:00:20And I find it a very, very, very convincing view.
01:00:24In the West, arrogantly, we see souls only dwelling in humans.
01:00:28This can't be right, can it?
01:00:29These stones are given huge human faces.
01:00:36What's it saying?
01:00:37Of course it's saying the same thing.
01:00:38The stones, the buildings are alive.
01:00:41As one looks, one knows it's true.
01:00:43Because the building has such a personality.
01:00:47Such a presence.
01:00:48The presence of a living thing.
01:01:11From half of one is nonviolence.
01:01:13That'sā¦
01:01:14Noblemats
01:01:15ā¦
01:01:20To a source of ש×å,
01:01:23There's a Š²ŃŃ impact.
01:01:24theory 4
01:01:29The art of others
01:01:31The art of others
01:01:33That's definitely the most notable experience.
01:01:36The art of others
01:01:36The art of midnight
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1:01:38
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