Angelina Jolie in Buddhist Cambodia (video)

Amber Larson, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Nat Geo; U.N. Ambassador Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie meditates, contemplates, and waxes philosophical in Cambodia.

(KJ09) 3-D animation of the central temple in the massive city and suburbs of Angkor, Cambodia. Angelina Jolie appears at Min. 4:50 and talks of her son, the U.S. wars on Vietnam and Cambodia and how it now taught in American schools.

Jolie's adopted son is Cambodian, and she is the United Nation's "Goodwill Ambassador," and even a dual citizen of the U.S. and Cambodia. Her interest and/or karma brought her to the Theravada Buddhist nation when she was working on the "Tomb Raider" franchise as the character Lara Croft, which sealed her worldwide fame as a stunningly beautiful and eccentric celebrity.

 
But what's the real story of Angkor, Angkor Wat, and the ancient Khmer Buddhist and Hindu empire of modern Cambodia?
 
Some power took Buddhism and Hinduism from Afghanistan deep into the jungles of Southeast Asia and across the sea to Indonesia in the south, leaving some of the largest and most magnificent Buddhist temple complexes in the world. The largest is at Borobudur, Indonesia, but the extent of Angkor, Siem Reap, and other lost temples in Cambodia are massive beyond belief using more stone than was used for the pyramids of Egypt.

Angkor Wat (National Geographic)

Jolie's Cambodian tats

(National Geographic) Where Lara Croft raided tombs in fantasy, there really are magnificent Buddhist and Hindu temples sunk in jungle thickets once hidden to the world. Now some are exposed, as others remain lost in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the former Khmer empire that extended east of India to Vietnam.