The Phnom Bakheng, located between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, is a striking hillock dominating the plain of Angkor, is a temple location par excellence. Here are the remains of the first state temple in central Angkor, built about 900 AD.
Layout: The total hill was a sanctuary
The term temple means a well defined consecrated place. (Sahai 2009, p. 74.)
A moat, ca. 900 m by 560 m, enclosed the whole hill. Inside of the moat was a chain of small temples: Prasat Bei (PB), Thma Bay Kaek (TBK), and Rong Lmong (RL) have remained. A 2-km-avenue, flanked symmetrically by water basins, linked the temple to the river, from here a raised road leaded to the Baray of Lolei, 11 km. A terrace is on the foot of a large stairway which climbs up the hill. Map.
The pyramid
The top of the phnom was graded, here is a five-stepped pyramid, cut from natural rock and covered with sandstone.
The measures: 76 by 76 m at the base, 47 by 47 m on the top, 13 m high.
The pyramid is a developed copy of the Bakong. Map.
- On the top platform there were five towers in a quincunx.
- At the tiers of the pyramid there were 5x12 = 60 small sandstone towers.
- Around the foot of the pyramid there were 44 brick towers.
- 108 towers surrounded the central tower.
(At the Bakong: 16 towers.)
The towers
All towers open to the east; some of them open to the east & west. The central tower opens to the four directions. In each tower was a lingam. The best preserved is in the north-west of the top platform. The central tower shows reliefs: sensual devata, and small flying dancers.
The first quincunx
The pyramid of the temple was crowned by five sandstone towers in a quincunx – four towers in the corners of the square, and one biggertower in the centre.
Here, for the first time, this ingenious creation of Khmer architecture was realized We will find this quincunx again at the East Mebon, Pre Rup, Ta Keo, and Angkor Wat.
Phnom Bakheng and Angkor Wat
The temple complexes of Phnom Bakheng and Angkor Wat stand diagonally to each other, like love chairs. They have made a unique ensemble: Phnom Bakheng, the mountain which is a temple, and Angkor Wat, the temple which is a mountain, both of similar height and size. Each crowned by a majestic quincunx of towers facing each other while giving space for impressive avenues.
Panorama
From this central point in Angkor you have a view to the West Baray, to Angkor Thom in north, where you can make out the moat and the wall, and, to the south-east, Angkor Wat and its moat.
Far away you can see Phnom Dei and Phnom Kulen in the north. You can see Phnom Bok in the east, and Phnom Krom, near the Tonlé Sap lake, in the south.
Phnom Dei, Phnom Bok, and Phnom Krom were also topped with temples built about 900.
Fire shrines
The elegant fire shrines are made of sandstone. Normally they open to the West, towards the central tower. Later on the east faces were opened.
The prettiestl lions in Angkor
Stairways run down the hill in the cardinal directions, still visible at the East, the West, and at the North, where at the foot are two beautiful and well preserved lions. The south stairway was never constructed.
History
King Yasovarman I founded a new capital at the end of the 9th century. He called it Yasodharapura ( 'The City of [King] Yasovarman '). Yasodharapura was the capital of the Cambodian empire for five hundred years.
Yasovarman I also constructed the East Baray. The river (today called Stoeng Siem Reap) was diverted to run 2 km east of the phnom and was declared to be the Holy River Ganges.
When His Majesty Paramashivaloka [posthumous name of Yasovarman I] founded the royal city of Yasodharapura, he brought the Sovereign High Lord of the World from Hariharalaya and installed it in the new royal city. When His majesty raised the Central Mountain, [the Brahmin priest] set up a holy linga in its centre. (Inscription of Sdok Kok Thom, by Burgess, p. 83.)
In other words: At the end of the 9th century, King Yasovarman I moved the capital to central Angkor and built a pyramid templeat the Phnom Bakheng, its central mountain.
Destruction of the outer enclosure
"[Phnom Bakheng] was abandoned in after 928, but briefly rehabilitated in about 968 by Jayavarman V." (Freeman/Jacques, p. 69.)
King Jayavarman VII constructed Angkor Thom about 1200 (ATS). The south avenue cuts ca. 300 m of the eastern part of the outer enclosure, and ca. 100 m of the northern part, destroying the moat in the East and in the North.
Altogether the temple loosed 40 percent of its space and its main face to the East.
The frontal part, about one third of the whole complex, is destroyed by the road to Angkor Thom and a car park.
The foundation of the temple mountain is like taken away. The temple is now reduced to the pyramid on top of the hill. In figures: the whole temple mountain covered 61 hectares; the temple on the mountain covers 2.25 hectares.
Zhou Daguan, a Chinese envoy, living in the capital in 1296/97, was not so much impressed by the Phnom Bakheng.
(Zhou Daguan, p. 48.)
A Statue of the sitting Buddha
In the 16th century Buddhist monks started the construction of a huge sitting Buddha. For this they dismantled the five towers. The sculpture collapsed under construction and was never finished. When the temple was restored the debris were removed.
"Before clearing the upper terrace [1919-1930], it was covered with a considerable pile of stones, which were found to be the base of an enormous Buddha statue, probably dating from the end of the fifteenth century... ... two of [the towers] were entirely destroyed when the statue was built, and only parts of the other three allow for the reconstitution of the core of the central building but its upper part cannot be reconstituted." Drawing. (Dumarcay/Royère 2001, from here the drawing.)
Recent visitors
Henri Mouhot, the first to describe the Phnom Bakheng in his report, published 1864:
This building belongs to a period much anterior to that of many of the other monuments. Art, like science, was in its infancy. Taste was of a grand description, but genius was not in proportion. The centre of the terrace formed by the last story is only a confused mass of ruins from the fallen towers.
(Mouhot I, p. 301-302 )
And John Burgess:
... the temple is one of the few in Angkor that, dare it to say, is not particularly beautiful. (Burgess, p. 85. )
Where is the 'Central Mountain'?
Though the inscription of Sdok Kok Thom seems to be clear, scholars were at issue about the location of the central temple. The question was solved in the 1930s, after a quarter century of systematic research,
(Briggs, p. 108-110, Burgess, p. 80-89.)
The Phnom Bakheng is the foundation monument of Angkor, the first state temple in Angkor, the centre of the Khmer capital.
This fact is not so well known.
Recognition
Glaize and Jacques mention the devastation of the quincunx. Glaize ignores the foundation; Jacques ignores its destruction of the foundation and gives shortened measures of the moat. Tourism routine ignores the importance of the Phnom Bakheng; the ruin is just good for viewing sunset.
Link: All Points East
Visit
- (Map) Start at the northern stairway, where you find two lion statues.
- Climb up to the way.
- Follow the way to the west.
- Enter the inner enclosure in the south-east.
- Downhill you follow the Elephants Path; when the weather is rainy you should take this route also uphill.
Other temples of this era:
Phnom Bok, Phnom Krom, Phnom Dei (near Banteay Srei), Huei Thamo (Laos).
|
Click the pics to enlarge.
 At the top of the pyramid
Map from JICA, modified.
The pyramid (Stierlin)
A reconstruction (Bruno Lévy)
North-east fire shrine
Interior of the south-east fire shrine
Lions at the north stairway (1)
View from the carpark in the east: where has been the avenue of Phom Bakheng is now the road to Angkor Thom. (Photo courtesy of Sao Sophanna.)
Plan of the statue. (Dumarcay)
 Panoramic view of the top platform from east.
Remains of the north-east tower, it was cut to make the left knee of the statue.
|
