Sema Temple

Located southwest of Choam Khsant nearby a large and scenic water reservoir, Prasat Sema is the remains of a brick temple. What remains at the site today is a doorframe flanked by two ornately decorated door columns topped by an equally ornate lintel. The left doorframe carries an inscription in Khmer text. Around the site are several other remnants of the ancient temple.

It’s quite interesting to note a large Buddha statue was discovered here, making it even more interesting to know what the inscription may reveal.

Historical Notes

Prasat Sema. Located 6 kilometers southwest of Cheam Khsan, not far from the right bank of the Stung Chok.

It is a brick sanctuary, square, open to the E., with undecorated false doors on the other sides. Its door is preceded by a long forebody which, widening at the other end, forms a sort of small nave, which one enters through three doors: one, the main one, in the general axis of the monument, the others on the north and south faces. The vaults which covered the sanctuary and this forebody has completely collapsed, obstructing the interior and the surroundings. Beneath their debris are buried the decorative pieces of the sanctuary and of the main door of the nave, where only an octagonal banded small column remains.

A fairly large statue of the Buddha seated on the någa and shaded by its outstretched heads, lies outside, near the debris. It is made of red sandstone, of rather coarse workmanship, and has not undergone any mutilation.

Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge, E. Lunet de Lajonquière, 1907

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap. Rodney Charles L'Huillier has spent over seven years in Cambodia and is the author of Ancient Cambodia (2024) and Essential Siem Reap (2017, 2019). Contact via [email protected] - more..