Heritage site

Sambor Prei Kuk

Sambor Prei Kuk (សំបូរព្រៃគុហ៍) is a pre-Angkorian temple site in Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia, identified as Ishanapura, capital of the Chenla Empire.[1][2] In Khmer the name means "the temple in the richness of the forest."[1][3]

History

In the late sixth century, Cambodia was made up of many small states. Mahendravarman ruled a kingdom on the Mekong and extended it north to Khon Kaen in present-day Thailand.[4] Chenla, once a vassal of the Funan kingdom, flourished in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. At its height it ruled much of present-day Cambodia, southern Laos and parts of Thailand.[1][5] Ishanapura, also written Isanapura, became the most important capital of the Chenla principalities.[4][2]

King Isanavarman I made Isanapura his capital and royal sanctuary. Wikipedia dates his reign to 616 to 637 CE, and the Cambodia Tourism Association to 616 to 635 CE.[2][6] He is believed to have overseen the building of the first temple.[7] An inscription from his reign, at temple N14.1 in the northern group, is written in ancient Khmer script and Sanskrit. Wikipedia dates it September 13, 627 CE, and Focus Cambodia November 13, 627.[2][7]

Jayavarman I was the last important king at Isanapura, in the second half of the seventh century.[2][5][7] A Chinese account records that in the eighth century Chenla was divided into land and water areas.[5] Later kings added to the site. The central group dates from the ninth century, and some inscriptions at Prasat Sambor date from the tenth century, in the reign of Rajendravarman II.[2][4][6] Four brick sanctuaries behind the Kroul Romeas group, one of them unfinished, were built under Suryavarman I in the 11th century.[5] The temples were repaired and changed from the seventh to the 11th century, yet the major temples keep their original form and materials.[1]

The complex lay in deep forest when it was found at the end of the 19th century. Scholars of the École Française d'Extrême-Orient then surveyed it.[5] During the war years, from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, Cambodia became a war zone, and the temple zone suffered heavy damage.[1] In the 1970s, during its war with Vietnam, the United States bombed positions inside the site. Whole temples were destroyed, and bomb craters can still be seen.[2][7] Under the Pol Pot regime, from 1975 to 1979, the monuments went without upkeep.[5] In the Cambodia Tourism Association's account, the complex was abandoned in 1971 and renovated in 1980.[6]

The World Heritage Committee inscribed the Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk, Archaeological Site of Ancient Ishanapura, on the World Heritage List on July 8, 2017, at its 41st session in Kraków, Poland.[2][6] It was Cambodia's third World Heritage site.[7]

Architecture and layout

The site lies mainly on the eastern bank of the Stung Sen River, a tributary of the Tonle Sap.[4] The remains of the city cover 25 square kilometers (9.7 square miles), with a walled city center and many temples.[8] The Temple Zone covers 840 hectares (2,076 acres) east of the moated city. Three earthen causeways, each 600 to 700 meters (1,970 to 2,300 feet) long, join it to the Stung Sen River and what may have been the harbor of Ishanapura.[1]

The Temple Zone holds 186 fired-brick temples with sandstone detailing, together with waterworks, causeways and other structures.[1] Its three principal complexes are Prasat Yeai in the south, Prasat Tao in the center and Prasat Sambor in the north.[9] Each centers on a main tower on a raised platform, with smaller towers and other buildings, inside square walls of brick or laterite, a red iron-rich stone. The central and southern groups have two enclosing walls, and Prasat Sambor has three, each outer wall 389 meters (1,276 feet) long.[9] The three main groups hold 125 temples, and 46 more temples and structures stand around them.[9] A northern satellite zone of 16 temples, in the Prasat Srei Krup Leak and Prasat Robang Romeas groups, shows the change from earlier Chenla building to the Sambor Prei Kuk style.[9]

Counts of the temples vary with the survey. Waseda University identified 290 temples at 115 sites. Focus Cambodia gives 293 temples once standing and 42 remaining, and Wikipedia gives 150 Hindu temples inside a double wall enclosing 1,000 acres (405 hectares).[5][7][2] Samborpreikuk.com counts 52 temples and structures in fairly good condition, with about as many fallen and buried.[5]

Prasat Sambor, the northern group, is the principal temple area. The northern and southern groups date from the seventh century.[7][4] The southern group, Prasat Yeai Poeun, has 22 sanctuaries, five of them octagonal, built between 600 and 635 during the reign of Isanavarman I and dedicated to Shiva. It covers 304 by 274 meters (997 by 899 feet).[5][2] The central group, Prasat Tao, the Lions' Temple, is named for the seated lions with raised front legs at the top of the stairs on all four sides. Its outer laterite wall measures 328 by 310 meters (1,076 by 1,017 feet).[5] Prasat Tao once had eight lions, two on each side. Two remain, and the others went to museums or were taken.[7] At Prasat Bos Ram, a channel shaped as a lion's head carried holy water. It now sits at ground level but once stood more than a meter (3.3 feet) up the tower wall.[4]

Eleven octagonal temples follow the general rules of ancient Indian building manuals, though no Indian model for them is known. They are read as Vimana Trivishtapa, the flying octagonal palace of Indra, in the heaven of Indra and the 33 gods.[9] UNESCO's summary counts ten octagonal temples and calls them unique in Southeast Asia.[8] The National Museum of Asian Art notes their close likeness to temples of Dakshina-Kosala, in present-day Chhattisgarh and western Odisha, India.[10] The temple sanctums are mainly brick with some sandstone decoration, and the foundations and auxiliary buildings use local laterite.[10] Gateways, lintels, false doors, columns and sculptures are mostly of sandstone.[5] Sambor Prei Kuk was the first major site in Cambodia with temples of lasting materials.[10]

The temples stand among 102 dykes, canals and other water features, many of them still in use, showing large-scale planning and management of resources.[9][1] The ancient city had moats, canals, ponds and irrigation for farming.[5]

Art and inscriptions

The temples brought together Hindu ideas from India and Persia, those of Harihara and the Sakabrahmana, with animist and Buddhist elements. From this meeting came the Sambor Prei Kuk artistic style.[1] Its decorated sandstone lintels, pediments and colonnades are typical of pre-Angkorian ornament, and UNESCO counts some of them as masterpieces.[9][8] The style takes its name from the site's monuments of the first half of the seventh century.[5]

The temple reliefs are among the earliest to tell stories in pictures, beyond the older displays of gods and mythical animals.[9] Hindu images decorate the outer walls, and six temples have carvings of flying palaces.[9] At Kda Ouk in the southern group, carved faces show men with moustaches, strong noses, large eyes and curly hair. Who they portray is not settled. Some scholars and local people see them as foreigners, and a Greek king, Indians, and Roman or Persian traders have all been proposed.[7]

Inscriptions in Sanskrit and Old Khmer record temple activities, kings and other people, and religious and political life. They also suggest the boundaries of the Chenla Empire.[9] They reflect the idea of the God-King in a centralized state, an idea that legend links with Vat Phou. It later shaped the four-pillared administration of Ayutthaya in Thailand, and it stayed central to government in Cambodia and Thailand until the early 20th century.[1] A stone inscription of 17 lines from Prasat Yeai Poeun, 2.4 by 0.9 by 0.15 meters (7.9 by 3 by 0.5 feet), is now in the Kampong Thom museum.[5]

Most of the major sculptures are now kept or shown in museums, though some decoration, statues and inscriptions remain in place.[1] Many statues and relics were stolen or moved to museums in Kampong Thom and Phnom Penh for safekeeping.[7]

Significance and conservation

The art and architecture of Sambor Prei Kuk became models elsewhere in the region and laid the foundations of the Khmer style of the Angkor period.[1] The site was inscribed under criteria (ii), (iii) and (vi).[9][2]

The monuments were damaged by bombing in the war, lack of upkeep under Pol Pot, forest growth and tree roots, digging without permission in the 1980s, and looting.[5] Looters took an ancient offering buried beneath a tower foundation, and some used dynamite to reach treasure in the temple walls.[5][7] The Angkor Conservation Office has carried out conservation work. The United Nations World Food Programme supported upkeep from 1996 to 2001 by giving food in exchange for work on the monuments.[5] Since 1998, Waseda University has carried out studies for research, preservation, documentation and future restoration.[5] In 2005 and 2006, looting holes in temple towers were cleared, foundations restored, pedestals put back together and replica statues installed. Japanese funds supported restoration at temple N1 from November 2009.[5] As of August 2010, seven villages around the monuments took part in protecting and developing the site, and the conservation program counts nearby communities and farmers as partners in long-term repair.[5]

The Temple Zone and its buffer zone are protected by a Royal Decree of December 24, 2014, and by the Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage of January 25, 1996.[1] The National Authority for Sambor Prei Kuk (NASPK) manages the property and buffer zone, including conservation, protection, restoration, development and interpretation. Its work follows a Management Plan, a 15-year Conservation Plan based on a risk study of the temples, and a Conservation Manual.[1] The local NGO The Conservation and Development Community for Sambor Prei Kuk, founded in 2004 with the agreement of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, supports the NASPK.[1] Damaged brickwork is restored with traditional methods and old bricks, and there has been no guessed-at reconstruction.[1] In July 2021, the National Authority began conservation of the towers of Prasat Tao, Prasat Robang Romeas and Prasat Srei Krup Leak, and of Prasat Srang Preah, the Middle Western Gate and the Lion temple group.[3] Phan Nady was then its Director General.[3]

Visiting

Sambor Prei Kuk is in Sambor village, Sambor commune, Sambor District.[6] Sources place it about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Kampong Thom (Wikipedia and Indochina Voyages), 37 kilometers (23 miles) north (samborpreikuk.com) and 28 kilometers (17 miles) northeast of the provincial capital (Cambodia Tourism Association).[2][4][5][6] By road it is about halfway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.[5] The road to Sambor District floods in the rainy season.[6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Sambor Prei Kuk - Wikipedia (2009-02-20)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 UNESCO, Sambor Prei Kuk celebrates the fourth-year anniversary of inscription on the World Heritage List
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Indochina Voyages, Sambor Prei Kuk, Cambodia (2018-08-29)
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 samborpreikuk.com, sambor prei kuk
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Cambodia Tourism Association, Sambor Prei Kuk Temple Area (2017-07-08)
  7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 Focus Cambodia, The temple in the richness of the forest (2023-04-06)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Sites in Cambodia, China and India added to UNESCO's World Heritage List
  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 whc.unesco.org, Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk, Archaeological Site of Ancient Ishanapura (2017-07-08)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 National Museum of Asian Art, Sambor Prei Kuk - National Museum of Asian Art (2024-02-01)
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This page was last edited on 2 October 2026, at 01:35.