Prasat Preah Vihear - Shiva dancing in the Sky
Home Access to Angkor Monuments & Photos Key Knowledge Features Practicalities Hotels & Guesthouses
Approach - Gopura V - Kala - Gopura IV - Gopura III - Enclosure II - Enclosure I - Shiva - Border conflict - Access - Photo album

Preah Vihear, located central to Angkor

The temple is dedicated to Shikareshvara, "Shiva the Lord of the Summit".
Founded in the 9th cenutury, the main buildings are from the 11th and early 12th centuries.

The Dangrek Range made the backbone of the ancient Angkor Empire. Preah Vihear is located at an outstanding cliff in this range. The Mun valley, north of the Dangrek, is also inhabited by Khmer, and shelters important pre-Angkorian and Angkorian sites. In 1904 Thailand, then: Siam, and France, then the rulers of Cambodia, marked the border along the Dangrek. Preah Vihear got in a 'peripheral location' (Sahai).

Linear layout

The temple is arranged along its north-south axis, with Shiva residing at the highest and final point of the cliff.
From this point the temple stretches 800 m to the north. The pilgrim approaches at a gently sloped way. It is divided in five levels; every level is marked by stairways and a gopura. The gopuras are linked by the holy path .
The core of the temple is enclosed by galleries to the east and west, by a gopura to the north, and a blind door to the south. Preceding to the north is a rectangular court.
Approaching to Shiva, the main temple is at first hidden, the pilgrim on the holy path can only see the next gopura at a time. And the pilgrim will see the reliefs at the north faces off the gopura; the reliefs at the south faces turn to Shiva, paying homage to the Lord.

Building material

Sandstone was the general material, it was quarried at the same site; the end of the cliff was 'virtually truncated' (Sahai).
The vaults of enclosure I are of sandstone.
Brick was used for other vaults.
Most buildings were covered with wooden structures supporting terracotta tiles.

Approach

From the north: 200 m north of the stairway is Srah Trao , a trapeang. A monumental stairway leads to the temple, guided by lion staues.
The stairway is continued by a 31.8 m long avenue. Two powerful sprawling naga flank it.
Another stairway goes up to Gopura V.

From the east: "This stairway led pilgrims, devotees, high officials, and kings from the southern part of the Angkor Empire to … Gopura V. … A paved path which is no longer intact and visible led eastward to a ceremonial path bordered by a naga on the either side. … Where to naga path ends … a cascade of alternating stairs and paths take us some four hundred meters down …" (Sahai 2009, p. 26.) The stairway is now accessible again. (Verbal information, courtesy of Prof. Sahai.)

From the west: Here a steep, paved road links the temple with the Cambodian plain. There are no traces of an ancient access.

 On top: Aerial view from southwest.
Photo courtesy of Dave Taylor


Panoramic view from northeast. Lajonquière, 1907.*

Preah Vihear, southern part.*
Preah Vihear, northern part*. Maps by CAC, modified.
*Click the graphs to enlarge!


Gopura V

Gopura IV from north...
... and frrom south.

The Churning of the Sea of Milk, & Reclining Vishnu.
Isolated Tower Y
Gopura III
Tail end of a naga
The mandapa & collapsed tower Shiva dancing in the Sky, on the head of an elephant, over Kala.

Gopura V

The most photographed building is a cruciform pavilion on an elevated platform which is made from the bedrock. Originally it was roofed with tiles. It opened (like many doors of the temple) to the cardinal points with portals, croned by gables with upturning ands...

Kala

The pediment and lintel at the east and south doors have the Kala, who looks like the face of a lion.
"Kala is Absolute Time, an emanation of Shiva." (Sahai 2009, p. 90.)
There are many more Kala reliefs all over the temple.

Holy Path

275 m long, it is lined with posts at each side.
Near Gopura IV, at the east, is a rectangular water basin, framed by stone steps. A lion is watching near the staircase

Gopura IV

... is another cruciform pavilion, "It works as a curtain to the higher sanctuaries … with a single entrance at its center." This could be closed by wooden doors.
(Sahai 2009, p. 29.)

Reliefs at Ggopura IV

East face:
Krishna subduing the naga Kalya.
North face:
Churning of the Sea of Milk. Link.
Lintel: Reclining Vishnu.

Holy Path

It is 150 m long and flanked by earthen embankments.
The 'Lion Head' basin, a few metres after Gopura Iv, is square. and again framed by stone steps.

Gopura III

The gate pavilion is flanked by two 'palaces', rectangular courtyards, framed by halls.

Isolated tower

At the east of the north facing terrace is a small unfinished tower (Y) , opening east and west. By Jacques it is older than the terrace. (Jacques/Lafond, p. 154, 157.)

Reliefs at Gopura III

North face:
Krishna killing the bull Arishta.
Krishna lifting Mount Govardhana, at the inner door.
Krishna killing the horse Kesin.
Shiva and Arjuna fighting on a Kala.
Krishna killing an elephant and a lion.
South face:
Shiva and Uma on Nandi, under a tree.
Yama on the buffalo.
Lintel: Rama's return to Ayodhya.

Holy Path

The short avenue is flanked by boundary stones and sprawling nagas.

Gopura II and outer enclosure

Gopura II is lengthened by lateral colonnades framing the courtyard.
A huge structure dominates the enclosure. Two lines of pillars supported a tiled roof. At the south face makes the central entrance to the inner enclosure.
Two fire shrines open towards the mandapa. The eastern shrine is tinted red by lichens.

Inner enclosure

The North Gopura I is a veritable shrine with mandapa, reaching into the second enclosure.
Framed by a gallery with a gopura to the north and a blind gopura to the south, the inner enclosure comprises a tower with mandapa.
The tower, now collapsed, sheltered a lingam.
The pedestal in the mandapa supported a Nandi .

Located at the vertex of the mountain the sanctuary is isolated from the world around. It was a hermetic place of meditation, dedicated to Shiva, as the Lord of the Summit .
Shiva in his sanctuary is the end of the journey.

"The dance of Shiva in the Sky"

The top of the entrance of the main sanctuary is the most prominent place; here Shiva is dancing on the head of an elephant, the Elephant-Demon, collapsed over Kala.
In Preah Vihear, Shiva is residing in his terrific aspect, as the destroyer of the World.
At Preah Vihear Shiva dances on the head of a demon "to destroy the evil forces threatening the Angkor Empire"
His devotees watched the dance from around the temple, in an open air theatre.
Facing his image and under his control, Vishnu is creating the World, at Gopura IV (lintel and pediment at the south face).

"While Shiva dances after killing the elephant demon in the glow of the setting sun, the whole world dances with him. For a millennium the sun has been setting with that primordial glow under which Shiva danced for the first time in a hoary mystic past. His devotees watched his dance of emancipation day after day in he crepuscule of the setting sun."
(Sahai 2009, p. 91, 94-96.)

Small dancers

At the upturning ends of the gables of the gopuras are small reliefs. "These tiny figures ... effectively transforming the unaending space of the blue sky into an unfinite stage for Shiva's osmic dance." (Sahai 2009, p. 96.)

Hermits

Meditating hermits are depicted at the base of colonnettes at several gopuras.

Lateral buildings

West and east of the first enclosure are two roughly symmetrical buildings; the eastern building is slimmer as the edge of the cliff is nearby.
Rooms with many windows are erranged in rectangles, connected by axial cruciform colonnades, which make four courts with water basins.
The function of these buildings is unknown, though it must have been essential.

The promontory

To gain the summit of the cliff visitors leave the enclosure by the small door in the west face of the gallery.
At the summit are traces of ancient quarries.
The view can take your breath away: In front of
us the plains of north Cambodia; in clear air you can see Phnom Kulen, 100 km to the Southwest, and Phnom Tbaeng, 90 km to the Southeast. Thailand is to the North, in the back of the mountain.
When the mountain is shrouded in clouds or fog, the temple is in heaven.

Locals call the promontory and the caves in the steep slope Peuy Ta Di (and tell the legend of a Khmer hero or hermit).

Thai-Cambodian Border conflict

Preah Vihear, founded and built by Khmer kings in the core of Khmer territory is a part of Cambodia. Though it has become a target of nationalistic greed in Thailand, it has never become regular Siamese or Thai territory. International settlements have repeatedly confirmed this. Actually the temple is de facto controlled by Cambodia. Preah Vihear is now not accessible from Thailand. (Burgess, p. 135-141.)

Access

Preah Vihear can be reached from Siem Reap on good roads. There are no regular busses.

Achnowledgements

The page in hand is mostly an abridgement of Sachchidand Sahai, Preah Vihear An Introduction to the World Heritage Monument, Phnom Penh 2009.
I am grateful to Prof. Sahai for this inspiring and illuminating reading.
Special thanks to Capt. Dave Taylor who generously placed photographs taken from his helicopter to my disposal.
References: Aymonnier, Lajoquière, Parmentier 1939, Freeman, Roveda 2005, Jacques/Lafond, CAC, Kun Samén, Sahai 2009, Burgess ....... Top