Version 1.0 7 Jan 2012. Jerry Tse. London. All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners. Available free for non-commercial and personal use.

Ta ProhmThe most romantic Angkor temple Siem Reap, Cambodia

The temple was built in 1186, by the Buddhist king Jayavarman VII. Eastern gopura (East Gate)

Archaeologists had left the temple in a state mostly as it was they have found it.

A popular motif of the Khmer architecture is the bas-relief of the celestial dancing maiden, the apsaras.

The temple buildings remain smothered by the roots of giant trees preserving the appearance as they were found.

According to stele records, the temple was home to more than 12,500 people (including high priests and over 600 dancers). In addition a further 80,000 of the surrounding area worked to service and to supply the temple.

The multiple headed serpent, the Naga in Hindu and Buddhist mythology was a popular motif in Khmer Architecture.

Unlike Angkor Wat which was built on a ‘Temple Mountain’ style, Ta Prohm was a built on a ‘flat’ Khmer style.

Blind windows and door s frequently open to the east only, Khmer architecture, to maintain the appearance blind doors and blind windows (or false window) were used.

The Tomb Raider tree or the Silk Cotton tree.

The Tomb Raider tree or the Silk Cotton tree.

This the interior of the Sanctuary Tower, the most important building in a temple. The holes were used to hold coloured stones or semi-precious stones for decoration.

The exterior of the Sanctuary Tower.

The temple was dedicated to the goddess of ‘The Perfection of Wisdom’ and in honour to the king’s mother, his mother was used to personify the goddess.

The Waterfall tree

Most temple had gallery, which was used as passageway and importantly to enclose a series of concentric spaces.

Temples built in the later period often used the technique of sandstone for the outside and laterite for the inside.

The End

All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners. Available free for non-commercial and personal use.

Music – Secret Gardens, Poeme

Several reasons for the disappearance of the Khmer Empire was suggested.

The Khmer Empire was defeated and subjugated by the Siamese army of Ayutthays.

The “Black Death” from China around 1330.

A recent evidence suggests the deterioration of the waterworks, on which the prosperity of the empire depended on. Starting in the 1300s, it appears SE Asia experienced climatic upheaval, called the Little Ice Age, as in Europe.

Here is the reason given by the Bernard-Philippe Groslier, the last French curator of Angkor. ‘The country was milked dry for the sole benefit of the king.’ … Khmer was doomed because they were incapable of evolving a philosophy of man and his destiny.’ …. ‘In Khmer there was no society, nothing but an undefined juxtaposition of elementary and undifferentiated cells’.

The disappearance of a brilliant civilisation.