Love stoned

Last Wednesday I went to Kampong Thom, a province 165 km northeast of Phnom Penh, for the second leg of the field work that began in Steung Treng a week ago. This time I joined the other survey team. The eight of us took the bus that travelled to Siem Reap and got off at Kampong Thom, which is sort of the mid-point between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

The work was to begin officially the next day so after the necessary preparations and arrangements were made, the group decided to do some sight-seeing. Aside from being a stop en route to Siem Reap, Kampong Thom is also home to a Hindu temple complex called Sambor Prei Kuk. This was established by King Isanavaram in 618, as the capital of what was then the Chenla Kingdom, which rose to power in the 6th Century. The kingdom was subsequently divided during the 8th Century into Upper Chenla (present-day Laos and Eastern Thailand) and Lower Chenla (present-day Cambodia and Southern Vietnam). A century later, the divided kingdom was reunited under the rule of King Jayavarman VII.

Sambor Prei Kuk has about 150 temples and towers that predate the Angkor Wat by several centuries. It is made up of 4 major groups of temples. It is about an hour away from the town proper, through a circuitous dirt road whose seemingly endless bumps caused us to christen the drive as the ‘kampong thom massage’. We were only able to see one group of temples because we were only there for about an hour and a half.

Although most of the temples have fallen into disrepair due to looting and pillaging, the US bombing in the 70s, and the Khmer Rogue, the site was still impressive and magnificent. As our tuktuk snaked its way through the trails in the dense forest, the sight of the temples seen between the ancient trees took my breath away.

When we walked around the complex, the temples seemed to literally emerge from the forest as shadows and light concealed and revealed the brick structures in each step that we took. Like Ta Prohm (made famous in the Tomb Raider movie) in Siem Reap, the jungle has made its way into many of the temples, tangling bricks and rocks with roots and tree branches. Insects bit me but I didn’t mind. One scary moment, though, was when I crossed the enormous web of a spider that was almost the size of my hand.

The exterior of the octagonal towers were adorned with sculpted brick panels about 6 feet high. The carvings, though badly damaged, were impressive as well. The temples reminded me of my favorite temple in the Angkor complex, called Kravan. To me it stood out among the other temples because it was made of bricks. Here, I got my fill of brick temples.

The trees were as enormous as the temples. To show the scale, look at the photo below. That’s me (encircled in red) on the lower right hand corner. 

The team posed for a few group photos at the foot of one of the temples and one of the trees. As we left the complex, rain started to pour heavily. It made the road trip back to the town proper more difficult but the journey was worth it. The site also inspired to write a couple of poems that I posted in my poetry blog.

The work went uneventfully and this morning I left the team and headed back home. By noon today I was back in Phnom Penh, preparing for the last leg of the field work.