First Light of the Sacred Mountain

Photographs from Bakong Temple – Spirit of Angkor series by Lucas Varro

Long before Angkor Wat, there was Bakong.

Rising from the earth like a mandala of stone, Bakong was the first great temple-mountain of Angkor—an axis of heaven and earth dedicated to Shiva and the sacred stillness at the heart of all things. Its five tiers unfold like an ancient hymn, each level drawing the pilgrim inward, upward, into quiet communion with the divine.

In this rare and intimate collection, Lucas Varro brings his large and medium format film cameras to the weathered grace of Bakong. These black-and-white photographs—captured in the silence of pre-dawn and the hush that follows monsoon rain—are shaped with chiaroscuro and hand-toned by the artist to reveal not just form, but presence. A flicker of devotion in the eye of a guardian. A monk’s solitary ascent. The breath of time on stone.

Printed in strictly limited editions on museum-grade Hahnemühle Bamboo paper, each image is offered with a Collector’s Print Package that includes poetic writings, curatorial notes, and reflections from the artist’s field journals.

This collection is a return to origin—a reverent honouring of Angkor’s first sacred mountain, where the stones still remember the prayers that shaped them.