During the rediscovery of the temple there was much debate surrounding the origin. There are many attributes that may lead to theories that Bayon is a Hindu temple.

It is widely concluded that the temple was built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII (Khmer: ព្រះបាទជ័យវរ្ម័នទី ៧). Some believe that the king had three phases of belief systems with the first given primacy to Buddha, then to Lokeshvara and finally to a Trantic form of Buddhism. Throughout the temple and bas-reliefs there are a multitude of of scenes related to Hinduism.

The Bayon stands at the heart of Angkor Thom. Its 54 Gothic towers are decorated with 216 gargantuan smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara. Some speculate that the Khmer empire was divided into 54 provinces at the time of Bayon’s construction, hence the 54 pairs of all-seeing eyes keeping watch on the kingdom’s outlying subjects.