Monument 64

Uncleared and overgrown site (05/2021) that features the remains of the base of a prasat. It was first excavated in 1937.

The site is heavily overgrown but the remains can be seen including colonettes of differing style, a sprawl of sandstone plinths, a base structure of laterite, with molded but undecorated sandstone and molded bricks.

The site appears to be around 60 m x 60 m while the overgrowth is too dense to get a clear view of the site layout but what can be seen is the entry gopura, which has a gallery, leading to another enclosure with an entrance gopura that has holes and bases for large columns/colonettes which then leads to the base of a square structure in sandstone.

The site is surrounded by basins.

Gallery

Historical Photos (1936 © EFEO see more)

Update 26/07/21

French Notes from a site clearance in 1937 have been located, roughly translated into English below.

South-East Aňkor Thom sector, prasat n ° 64. – The remains of a pràsàt base having been reported in the south-eastern sector of Ankor Thom, the excavations undertaken have brought to light a whole group of constructions of a difficult identification, but all the more interesting since they are included in the limits of the various successive capitals, from Yaçodharapura to the city of Bàyon.

This small ensemble remains enigmatic, differing essentially from the usual compositions, both by the oddities of the layout of its buildings and by the small size of these, their robust and relatively neat but always sober and unadorned structure, the distribution bays without any orientation unit, finally the small number of remains of sacred sculptures found in the rubble compared to the abundance of debris of objects of current domestic use. It consists essentially, on either side of a courtyard and joined by a paved passage, of two two-room pavilions facing North-South, with a central vestibule oriented East-West on the neighboring prasat, located at the end Where is. Open to the south, the courtyard is closed to the north by a main building bordering a strong depression of the land which was to be a basin, and annexed aids of various shapes, perhaps added afterwards, are attached both to the first pavilion, between this one and the pràsàt, that in the second on the south side.

The most likely hypothesis seems to be that of a grouping of buildings that are part secular and religious rather than specifically consecrated: a sort of hermitage that may have served some high person as both an oratory and a place of retreat. or rest.

Following the general East-West axis, the western part dedicated to worship – Brahmanic at the origin as attested in particular by the linga and the fragments of a very fine statuette of Visnu found in the excavations – would then have included the pràsàt, Pavilion I East with its entrance porch overlooking the courtyard, its decking lions and the single lintel carved on small columns facing the sanctuary, and the two annex buildings of more relaxed construction.

Separated from the first by a sandstone roadway lined with pillars or balustrades, the eastern part, giving access to the whole by its square flanked by lions, its entry with columns and its vestibule freely open to the West without communication with the side rooms, on the contrary would have housed the living quarters: to the south, an isolated cell of fairly large dimensions, pierced with a door with columns and undoubtedly a bay with balusters larger than those of the other pavilions – adjoining service building, where many pieces of pottery were found – north and south rooms of pavilion 2 East, one of which with a drainage channel serving as ablutions room – to the north, finally, a connecting pavilion with a large central bay, a vestibule serving the two bedrooms, facing a masonry courtyard, and rear and side facades – probably in wood since they have disappeared – corbelled to the basin.

With the exception of the prasat and the cell, which could be entirely in sandstone or in sandstone and laterite, all the constructions, of which only the lower part remains in situ. About .8m in height, were made of brick walls nearly a meter thick, with molded plinths, window frames and sandstone cornice stones. Related by their architectural details – type III lintel, columns and lions – to the art of Rajendravarman, they must have belonged to the first Ankor Thom, and the presence of sculptures ranging from the tenth to the thirteenth century, sometimes Brahmanic and sometimes Buddhist, allows us to think that they were the object of a long-term occupation.

Among the objects or sculptures removed from the excavations, the following are to be noted: a molded stone tank of very small dimensions (.69m x .41m x 2.95m externally), which must have included a cover, and the torso, the feet and the four hands with the attributes of a very delicately crafted statuette of Visnu.

Source: Chronique de l’année 1937. In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 37, 1937. pp. 553-693; https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1937_num_37_1_5396

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..