Phnom Bakheng

Phnom Bakheng (889-910)

Phnom Bakheng temple was built at the end of 9^th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910) and dedicated to Shiva.

Located atop a hill, Phnom Bakheng is one of 3 hilltop temples. The other two are Phnom Krom to the south near the Tonle Sap Lake, and Phnom Bok to the northeast of the East Baray reservoir. It is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views and the West Baray reservoir to the west  and also the view of Angkor Wat temple, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast. The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng temple one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor.

Phnom Bakheng temple was constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat temple, It was the architectural centrepiece of a new capital, Yasodharapura that Yasovarman built when he moved the court from the capital Hariharalaya in the Roluos area located to the southeast.

An inscription dated 1052 AD and found at the Sdok Kak Thom temple in present-day Thailand states in Sanskrit: "When Sri Yasovardhana became king under the name of Yasovarman, the able Vamasiva continued as his guru. By the king's order, he set up a linga on Sri Yasodharagiri, a mountain equal in beauty to the king of mountains."

Phnom Bakheng​temple is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, the temple's location atop a steep hill 65 meter above the surrounding plain. The temple is built in a pyramid form of five levels and it is 13 metre height. Originally, 109 small towers, but nowadays many towers are missing which the 44 brick towers were made around the base and 12 small towers were place on the each tier, in total there are 60 towers.  At the top level there are 5 sandstone sanctuaries, stand in a quincunx pattern, one in the centre and one at each corner of the level's square.  One in the middle used to contain Shiva Linga named Yasodharesvara and the other four towers also stored Shiva Linga on a pedestal.

Footprint of the Buddha

The footprint of the Buddha, or Buddhapada, is a recurring symbolin Asia, with over 3,000 recorded throughout the region. Although the precise origins of this sandstone example are lost to time, it most likely dates to the fifteenth or sixteen century, a period of intense Buddhist construction at Angkor. It was also at this time that the central sanctuary and portions of the four satellite shrines at the top level of Phnom Bakheng-built more than 600 years earlier were enclosed in a gigantic seated Buddha made of sandstone. French conservation teams in the 1920s found the Buddha in ruins, and removed all traces of it in order to return the temple to its original state. Photographs from the period show that a small brick temple probably once enclosed the footprint, but no structural evidence remains. Nonetheless, this site remains a place of reverence and worship today.

 

Yasovarman I - The first founder of Angkor (889-900)

Yasovarman I was the son of Indravarman I. After succeeding his father, he relocated the capital from Hariharalaya to establish a new city, Angkor, which he named Yasodharapura. On the top of a small mountain called Phnom Bakheng, he commissioned the construction of Phnom Bakheng temple to celebrate the Devaraja ceremony. Below is a city that stretches across the foothills and is surrounded by water. He diverted this water from the Siem Reap River. A road was built connecting Yasodharapura to Hariharalaya, the former capital. For the benefit of agriculture, he built a large Baray with a length of 7 km and a width of 1.8 km: that is the eastern Baray (original name is Yasothratdak). He greatly improved the field of religion and intellectual life. Many monasteries were built for the followers of Shiva, Vishnu and Buddhism. When he died in 900 AD, his two sons succeeded to the throne until 928. In 921, his uncle, Jayavarman IV, intervened and established a new capital on Koh Ker, approximately 70 km northeast of Angkor Zone. At Koh Ker, the king built a huge mountain temple (with seven floors and a height of 35 m) to store Shiva Linga, as well as many other temples and a Baray called the Rahal Baray to keep the water for benefits.