During my weekend trip away from Bangkok, one of the places I visited was a temple called Prasat Phonom Rung. This temple, located not far from the Cambodian border, has often been called the mini Angkor Wat. I visited that temple, along with others in Cambodia, back in December 2011. There is a partly broken entry of that visit here.
Prasat Phonom Rung, while smallish, is still absolutely stunning. I was lucky to have visited when there was hardly anyone around. I was able to explore the site and take in the incredible architecture. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia article that explains more about this amazing complex. For now, here are the highlights from the article:
In addition to the main tower, other buildings in the compound are:
- Two brick sanctuaries built around the 10th century, northeast of the tower.
- The minor sanctuary southwest of the tower with a sandstone altar for a sacred image. It was built with sandstone in the 11th century. Prang Noi has only one entrance facing east. The sanctuary is square with indented corners, giving it a round feel.
- Two Bannalai southeast and northeast of the principal tower. The buildings are rectangular and have only one entrance. They were built in the last period, around the 13th century, and used as a library for holy scriptures.
The complex was built by the people who built all of the major Hindu temples in Cambodia during the same time period. This was a time when the Khmer dynasty spread across Cambodia into what is today Thailand.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this temple is its astronomical brilliance. Four times during every year the sun shines through all fifteen stone doorways of the Temple. This happens during sunrise from 3 to 5 April and 8 to 10 September and sunset from 5 to 7 March and 5 to 7 October. To have precisely calculated the arc of the sun to ensure that this could happened took great skill. However that skill is also evident in the ability to build such incredible temples so long ago. Slide 16 shows the sun coming through the doorways. I borrowed this photo from an article that describes this solar phenomenon.
I found a fairly decent YouTube video of this site, which is shown below. It will give you a better idea of what this temple feels like. (To see the video, you’ll need to press the watch on YouTube button, as it will not allow you to watch it within the blog entry.)
Seeing this place was a huge delight. While not as big as the temples in Cambodia, it’s equally wonderful and, in many ways, more approachable. In a couple of hours, I was able to explore almost every nook and cranny. And without crowds, the experience was magical.
Totally awesome! It makes me want to go back to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise at precisely the right time. Something we didn’T get to do.
It is an awesome building complex, for sure. Apparently during the times when the sun comes through all of the doorways, there are hundreds of people who turn up to watch.