Prasats Suor Prat
"The towers of the tight-rope dancers"
Date: late 12th century
King: Jayavarman VII
Cult : Brahmanic (Vishnou)
Clearing: by Mr Commaille in 1908 and Mr H. Marchal 1919-20.
Restoration of prasat no.4 1955 - 6
The Prasats Suor Prat are the twelve rugged looking towers in laterite and sandstone which line the eastern side of the royal square in Angkor Thom and the start of the road leading to the Victory Gate, on either side of which they are symmetrically arranged. Their function remains unknown, since their romantic name, which corresponds to the local belief that they were used to support a high wire stretched between them for acrobatics during certain festivals, is probably irrelevant. The explanation of their use given by Tcheou Ta-Kouan, though picturesque, is also hardly adequate:- "In front of the palace there are twelve small stone towers. When two men dispute over some unknown matter, each of the contestants is forced to sit in one of them while the relatives stand watch at the base. After three or four days, he who is wrong shows it by suffering some illness - ulcers, or catarrh, or malignant fever - while the other remains in perfect health. Thus right or wrong is determined by what is called 'divine judgement'..."
The character of these towers is all the more puzzling since, with balustered windows on three of their sides, they do not correspond to the usual form of sanctuary, even though several statues were found there during clearing works. Their exact use remains therefore a mystery.
Square in plan, they were built in laterite, crudely finished inside and have two upper tiers, the higher of which is covered in a barrel-formed vault and has two gable ends. Only the frames of the openings, the lintels and the frontons are in sandstone, though they remain in rough form with only some of the frontons having the sketched outlines of nagas' curves mounted on flaming leaves and foliated scrolls decorated with the small lions which are typical of the 12th century. There is no trace of any plaster, and the collection gives the impression of being unfinished, which is only typical of later buildings. Antefixes sculpted with ascetics or nagas - which are not so typical - have been found in several places. The entrance doors, opening towards the royal terrace and the road to the Victory Gate and situated at a lower level than the interior of the towers, have been adjusted during the forming of a kind of raised terrace which partially blocked them for the length of the square. This embankment must have been formed at a later date.
On either side of the road leading to the Victory Gate, in a corner defined by the Prasats Suor Prat, is a large pool of 80 metres by 60 bordered with steps. Behind the southern is a well-preserved Buddhist terrace, modified to take the large statue of the "Buddha-King", discovered by Mr Trouvé in 1933 down the central well of the Bayon.
Rumour also had it that the towers of Suor Proat were used for public trial. In the event of an arbitration deadlock, each party would be made to sit atop one of the twelve towers for a number of days. When released, the guilty party would be afflicted with illness: a fever or an ulcer...
Two legends are associated with these towers today. One, which has given the name "Suor Proat" or "Tightrope Walking," recounts that tightrope artists performed on a cord tied between the towers during public celebrations.
The second, derived from the Buddhist jataka tale of Rithisen, tells that the Ogress Santhimear imprisoned "twelve young women", wives of the king, in Suor Proat's twelve towers.
This is the origin of the alternative name "Prasat Neang Pi Dandap" or the "Towers of the twelve young women".
Baksei Chamkrong Temple
"The bird that shelters under its wing"
Date 947
King Rajendravarman
Cult Brahmanic
Clearing by H. Marchal in 1919
Baksei Chamkrong locates on the foot of Bakeng Mountain. The word Basei Chamkrong means” a bird used its wings to cover a baby”. Today this name has become a popular fable in Cambodia.
Style
Baksei Chamkrong measures 27m by 27m and its tower is 23m high. Its base was designed with four levels built of laterite, but its tower was built of brick. There’re four staircases but today the south staircase is the easiest to climb up and down. Its central tower has a reclining Buddha statue built in the 16th century. This Buddha was replaced a golden Linga which had gone away.The tower has a real door facing east while other three doors at other sides are blinds. The carvings on blind doors and lintels are still in good condition. Baksei Chamkrong has one entrance to the east but it only remains the foundation, sandstone pedestal and one lion statue. The enclosing wall was built of brick and it only remains some trace.
Situated 150 metres north of the main axial stairway to Phnom Bakheng, this small temple appears in a frame of beautiful trees to the left of the road as a stepped pyramid, fine in proportion and warm in hue - since it is built in laterite and brick as the construction materials typical of the 10th century. The surrounding brick enclosure wall has almost entirely disappeared, though to the east, the remains of an axial gopura with sandstone steps are still visible.
The pyramid measures 27 metres across at the base and 15 at the summit for an overall height of 13 metres. In laterite with four tiers it follows the usual laws of proportional reduction - the first three are simply treated with a plain cladding while the last forms a moulded plinth for the sanctuary tower. Four steep stairs rising in a single flight mark the axes, framed at each change in height with side walls that restrict access to the various levels - which remain quite narrow. The visitor wishing to ascend to the upper platform should climb these stairs with extreme caution, since some of their treads are badly eroded.
The sanctuary tower is in brick - as usual with no use of mortar in the joints, which remain filiform. Measuring 8 metres each side, it stands on a moulded sandstone base leaving a narrow surround. Its mass is considerable with respect to the proportion of the pyramid and continues the ascending lines - though it is rounded at the summit since the upper tiers have lost their sharp profiles to the action of the vegetation.
The sanctuary opens to the east. False doors on the other sides are, with the colonnettes and lintels, the only sandstone elements, which are carefully ornate with an intricate decoration. On the false doors one should note the vertical bands of foliated scrolls, while on the branch end of the eastern lintel, a Ganesha sits astride his trunk in a motif one also finds at the Mebon Oriental. Its centre is marked by the image of Indra on a three headed elephant, while above the whole composition is a frieze of small figures.
The external decoration in lime based mortar has virtually disappeared - though one can still see on the facing brick of the corner piers the outline of the devatas, destined for a coating of plaster and given form to avoid an excess of its thickness. The interior of the tower has its floor level set a metre lower, is well preserved and shows the regular brick corbelling of the vault and the diminishing bands corresponding to the reducing sections of the upper tiers. A more recent reclining Buddha lies against the back wall.
Door jamb inscriptions date from the reign of Rajendravarman and mention the setting in the temple, in the year 947, of a golden statue of Shiva, implying that the building dates from this time.
History
Between the entrance and the temple structure, there’s a deep hole which was dug by the Khmer Rouge soldiers to look for treasure in the 1980s.
In 943 AD, king Rajendravarman II who returned from Koh Ker to Angkor city put a golden Linga sculpture in the central tower of this temple and he also remained a very important inscription in its door piers.
The inscription tells us the legend of the word Kambujadesa which was this country’s original name. Depending on the legend, there was a hermit called Kambu married to Mera who was a very beautiful princess from the heaven. Both of them give birth as the people who called themselves as Khmer. The word Khmer or Khemara is from the combination of Kambu with Mera. The Khmer people called their country as Kambujadesa which meant who people of Kambu. Today Kambujadesa has become Kambuchea and Cambodia is the English word of Kambuchea.
"The towers of the tight-rope dancers"
Date: late 12th century
King: Jayavarman VII
Cult : Brahmanic (Vishnou)
Clearing: by Mr Commaille in 1908 and Mr H. Marchal 1919-20.
Restoration of prasat no.4 1955 - 6
The character of these towers is all the more puzzling since, with balustered windows on three of their sides, they do not correspond to the usual form of sanctuary, even though several statues were found there during clearing works. Their exact use remains therefore a mystery.
Square in plan, they were built in laterite, crudely finished inside and have two upper tiers, the higher of which is covered in a barrel-formed vault and has two gable ends. Only the frames of the openings, the lintels and the frontons are in sandstone, though they remain in rough form with only some of the frontons having the sketched outlines of nagas' curves mounted on flaming leaves and foliated scrolls decorated with the small lions which are typical of the 12th century. There is no trace of any plaster, and the collection gives the impression of being unfinished, which is only typical of later buildings. Antefixes sculpted with ascetics or nagas - which are not so typical - have been found in several places. The entrance doors, opening towards the royal terrace and the road to the Victory Gate and situated at a lower level than the interior of the towers, have been adjusted during the forming of a kind of raised terrace which partially blocked them for the length of the square. This embankment must have been formed at a later date.
On either side of the road leading to the Victory Gate, in a corner defined by the Prasats Suor Prat, is a large pool of 80 metres by 60 bordered with steps. Behind the southern is a well-preserved Buddhist terrace, modified to take the large statue of the "Buddha-King", discovered by Mr Trouvé in 1933 down the central well of the Bayon.
Rumour also had it that the towers of Suor Proat were used for public trial. In the event of an arbitration deadlock, each party would be made to sit atop one of the twelve towers for a number of days. When released, the guilty party would be afflicted with illness: a fever or an ulcer...
Two legends are associated with these towers today. One, which has given the name "Suor Proat" or "Tightrope Walking," recounts that tightrope artists performed on a cord tied between the towers during public celebrations.
The second, derived from the Buddhist jataka tale of Rithisen, tells that the Ogress Santhimear imprisoned "twelve young women", wives of the king, in Suor Proat's twelve towers.
This is the origin of the alternative name "Prasat Neang Pi Dandap" or the "Towers of the twelve young women".
Baksei Chamkrong Temple
"The bird that shelters under its wing"
Date 947
King Rajendravarman
Cult Brahmanic
Clearing by H. Marchal in 1919
Baksei Chamkrong locates on the foot of Bakeng Mountain. The word Basei Chamkrong means” a bird used its wings to cover a baby”. Today this name has become a popular fable in Cambodia.
Style
Baksei Chamkrong measures 27m by 27m and its tower is 23m high. Its base was designed with four levels built of laterite, but its tower was built of brick. There’re four staircases but today the south staircase is the easiest to climb up and down. Its central tower has a reclining Buddha statue built in the 16th century. This Buddha was replaced a golden Linga which had gone away.The tower has a real door facing east while other three doors at other sides are blinds. The carvings on blind doors and lintels are still in good condition. Baksei Chamkrong has one entrance to the east but it only remains the foundation, sandstone pedestal and one lion statue. The enclosing wall was built of brick and it only remains some trace.
The pyramid measures 27 metres across at the base and 15 at the summit for an overall height of 13 metres. In laterite with four tiers it follows the usual laws of proportional reduction - the first three are simply treated with a plain cladding while the last forms a moulded plinth for the sanctuary tower. Four steep stairs rising in a single flight mark the axes, framed at each change in height with side walls that restrict access to the various levels - which remain quite narrow. The visitor wishing to ascend to the upper platform should climb these stairs with extreme caution, since some of their treads are badly eroded.
The sanctuary tower is in brick - as usual with no use of mortar in the joints, which remain filiform. Measuring 8 metres each side, it stands on a moulded sandstone base leaving a narrow surround. Its mass is considerable with respect to the proportion of the pyramid and continues the ascending lines - though it is rounded at the summit since the upper tiers have lost their sharp profiles to the action of the vegetation.
The sanctuary opens to the east. False doors on the other sides are, with the colonnettes and lintels, the only sandstone elements, which are carefully ornate with an intricate decoration. On the false doors one should note the vertical bands of foliated scrolls, while on the branch end of the eastern lintel, a Ganesha sits astride his trunk in a motif one also finds at the Mebon Oriental. Its centre is marked by the image of Indra on a three headed elephant, while above the whole composition is a frieze of small figures.
The external decoration in lime based mortar has virtually disappeared - though one can still see on the facing brick of the corner piers the outline of the devatas, destined for a coating of plaster and given form to avoid an excess of its thickness. The interior of the tower has its floor level set a metre lower, is well preserved and shows the regular brick corbelling of the vault and the diminishing bands corresponding to the reducing sections of the upper tiers. A more recent reclining Buddha lies against the back wall.
Door jamb inscriptions date from the reign of Rajendravarman and mention the setting in the temple, in the year 947, of a golden statue of Shiva, implying that the building dates from this time.
History
Between the entrance and the temple structure, there’s a deep hole which was dug by the Khmer Rouge soldiers to look for treasure in the 1980s.
In 943 AD, king Rajendravarman II who returned from Koh Ker to Angkor city put a golden Linga sculpture in the central tower of this temple and he also remained a very important inscription in its door piers.
The inscription tells us the legend of the word Kambujadesa which was this country’s original name. Depending on the legend, there was a hermit called Kambu married to Mera who was a very beautiful princess from the heaven. Both of them give birth as the people who called themselves as Khmer. The word Khmer or Khemara is from the combination of Kambu with Mera. The Khmer people called their country as Kambujadesa which meant who people of Kambu. Today Kambujadesa has become Kambuchea and Cambodia is the English word of Kambuchea.
No Comment to " Suor Prat Temple "