Things to See and Do - Kampong Thom, Cambodia

Wat Prasat (Prasat Pagoda) - Kampong Thom

Located in Prasat Village, Prasat Commune, Santuk District, Kampong Thom Province. This temple located in a 31 kilometers district from Provincial Town of Kampong Thom, and there is road from the southern direction of 500-meter length. This temple was built of brick, masonry and sandstone in 8th century (706) with Kampong Preah style to dedicate to Siva. It was a sanctuary built temple on the flat terrace without the false door and faced to the east. In the ancient period, the door were made by two wooden boards-one carved with sculptures of male divinities at another one carved with female divinities.

The southern framed door was inscribed with five lines of inscription, and its back was mostly erode. The lintel was ornamented by the garlands; the diamond column we carved with carousing motifs; and the upper corner of the temple contained the segments of Linga and Yoni. South east of the temple, there were other two more temples (at present, they became the small hills). South of the large temple, were was a hill called Toul Samrong or Toul Nak Ta Samrong; and east of this hill, there was a Pou tree in which the local people call Toul Nak Ta Deum Pou (the hill of the body tree spirit). In ancient time, this place was the former royal palace where the royal valuable were kept.

Then it was excavated and the valuables were taken away during the French colony. This sanctuary was in seriously ruined condition, in 1996 the brick of the southern and western towers dropped down due to the trees growing and the strong wind blowing on them. Besides, there was lack of conservation and protection leading to the serious damages caused by nature and aged existence at the sanctuary especially by the ignorant people.

Closed against the sanctuary, where the Buddhism monks constructed the new temple. This could caused the damages to the ancient sanctuary. Beside the Prasat Phum Prasat, there was an inscription buried into the ground which its upper part was inscribed with six lines of Sanskrit scripts. This inscription was found at six kilometers near the Police Post on National Road 6.