Wat Chas (Khvav, Chikreng)

Also recorded as Chass Pagoda, it’s a contemporary monastery and pagoda featuring remnants of an ancient temple. Remnants include a large collection of laterite, some shaped, gathered by a tree. Also, ancient or contemporary, what appears to be a laterite causeway leading east from the contemporary vihara and an overgrown mound of pieces. In a shrine by the east side of the pagoda, a collection of pieces, including a bollard, sema, and the arm/s of a statue. Inside the vihara, a collection of Buddhist boundary markers.

It would appear that its an ancient site that has been redeveloped in the post-Angkor era (post14/15th century) as a Thervadin Buddhist site with similarities to sites of the same era in Angkor. In the last decade, the old wooden vihara that topped the site was replaced with the pagoda we see today.

Google Maps features a Streetview image taken in 2014 showing the original pagoda where you can see the laterite terrace topped by a wooden vihara and demarcated at its corners by bollards and sema.

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap - Contact via [email protected] - more..