Prasat Chen, or Chen Temple of Koh Ker is a group of three laterite temples on a common terrace that was fronted and flanked by two brick “library” buildings, an enclosure wall of laterite with brick entrance gopura to the east and west followed by another laterite enclosure wall that featured a long laterite terrace. The site is quite ruinous but especially interesting when taking into account the discovery of the statuary that originally resided at the site, more on that further below. Of the three grand laterite towers, the southernmost retains a beautiful lintel with a Garuda separating two entwined naga serpents.
Note and image from 2021 tour: There have been some recent excavations here around the eastern brick gopura and around the base of the northern laterite tower. Around the base of the tower we can now see the amazing decoration of its sandstone base.
Contemporary Research
A pivotal discovery was made in 2007 when Simon Warrack (GACP) and Eric Bourdonneau (EFEO) in 2009 matching a fragment of two stone feet uncovered at Prasat Chen with an image in a published catalog of Khmer sculptures. Long story short, after several years of work by authorities, that discovery led to the recovery of several statues from museum and private collections which can now be seen at the Phnom Penh National Museum. Under the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, research in the area continues.
The Statuary of Prasat Chen
According to the work of Eric Bourdonneau, the western gopura of the first entrance enclosure housed what would be a spectacular life-sized scene in stone of the battle between Bhima and Duryodhana. These two life-size statues were surrounded by seven seated figures, Krishna, Balarama, Dhṛstadyumna, and the four Pandava brothers.
The east entrance gopura of the first enclosure housed another scene recreated in stone, this time, the battle between the two monkeys, Valin and Sugriva, as told in the Ramayana epic. The two were surrounded by further statues including a kneeling Hanuman, and a standing Rama at least.
Via Fonds Cambodge – Valin and Sugriva (recorded as located in the west gopura, Parmentiers’ 1939 record states the east gopura as does later research)
19641964undated – west gopura
Historical Notes
Pr. Čen or “Chinese prását” is so called because of a misinterpretation of a sculpture that can be seen at the entrance; it is 2 km away. straight south of the S.-W. from the Rahal, 150 m. west of the track.
The temple, oriented to the east, consists (fg. 18) of a front of three high laterite towers, accompanied by two brick libraries and enclosed in two concentric enclosures, the interior of which alone had gopuras, also in brick.
In front, blocks of molded laterite, lying on the ground, suggest the idea of a pathway leading from gopura 1 E to gopura II between walls I and II. moreover, a series of lines of blocks of laterite seem to indicate foundations of light constructions corresponding to the buildings of light construction of courtyards I-II of Prasat Thom. 100m away, forward to the east, on the N side of the axis, is a laterite terrace running across N.-S.
The towers are of unequal dimensions and conservation; that of the center has nearly 7 m. next to; the others 5, and they are separated from axis to axis by about 9 m. 50. Their bays are large and that of the central tower is 1 m. 05 over 2m. 20. This building has its principal face E. ruined; it only kept its S. column in place.
The S. tower only has its E., N. walls and half of the O. wall; the N. tower has lost its south face.
The interior of these buildings, square, has a cove cornice and its laterite vault rises quite regularly to the top. In the S tower, the true lintel with trunnions stops a little before reaching the wall: a lintel is placed above and ends on the interior surface.
Outside, the composition is nothing special: square plan, notched, with false doors and door. The tower has a common cove base with five profiles that can be seen in the central tower at its SE corner. ; it rests here on a sideboard of laterite and is further raised by another of sandstone provided with a stoop to the West; others must have existed in front of the various true or false bays. The laterite sideboard is small; the second, in sandstone, is more important. The whole is supported by a very finely executed sandstone base. It seems to have had stoops only to the east, one in front of each tower with garuda garnished with outstretched wings.
The walls of the towers are bare. The cornice is difficult to see; it seems to repeat the base. The entrance doors have a molded frame, miter joint, wide in the E.-O direction. and carefully chiselled. The octagonal columns show the ordinary five-element combination, plus the lower cubic die; the central rings are almost the same and the nudes, cut by a beaded band between two fillets, have four unequal friezes. The composition and execution are equally fortunate. They carry beautiful lintels of type III with upper frieze and triple movement in plan; they have a winged garuda as a central motif: this one dominates naga entwined in the S tower, four facing parrots in the other towers and all form the start of garlands finished with volutes of foliage. The whole is enclosed between laterite pilasters which carry a fairly wide and low inverted U-shaped pediment, with the usual interior upholstered butt.
The floors were decorated with false bays, damping in prását and antefixed at least from the front, both in laterite.
The libraries, very ruined, had no false doors to the east; only the western door of the northern one is recognizable; it is in the ordinary mind.
The I O. gopura is completely ruined; we only recognize its door O. and it is indicated only by its uprights and by a small column of the usual shape here. The eastern one appears to have been treated as a prását with two opposite doors without a portico on the E.-W. axis; the doors with inscribed abutments are formidable and the uprights reach 4 m. height. The composition appears to be of the usual type; the lintels, which must have been enormous, are buried. Lateral passages are reduced to simple doors in the E wall with decorative composition on the exterior face.
Enclosure II measures 90 m. E.-W. over 50m. N.-S.; this wall is interrupted to the east and west by a wide breach which must correspond to an external gopura in light construction.
In the rubble of the gopura I E. can be seen the sculpture which gave its name to the monument. It is a sandstone block of 1 m. 60 which represents in the round the duel of two monkeys, probably Valin and Sugriva. The two antagonists fight with their fists. They wear the mukuta and are dressed in the vertically striped sampot with folded back and free falling side in double anchor; they have ear pendants, arm bracelets, belt under the breasts and on the sampot, which, behind, offers a bow tie; their tail comes out above and goes up to the pyramid of the mukuta. Their hair forms a neck covering below this tail; it was she who was taken for a Chinese style braid.
The gopura I E. had the jambs of its doors inscribed. The North one in the E. doorway is reduced to a tab that has remained in place; but the main piece, which had fallen forward, bore a whole inscription on the face; it is unfortunately less well preserved than one would have expected from this buried position.
L’Art khmèr classique , monuments du quadrant Nord-Est, Henri Parmentier, 1939
Inscription
K 182 – East gopura I – five inscriptions, four of which are 60-80 lines long – Chhom 2011, Jacques 2014
Aslo See
Map
*Important: mapped location may only be approximated to the district level/village only. To visit sites outside the tourist zones you should seek a local guide from the area read more.
Site Info
Site Name: Chen (Pr.) Khmer Name: បា្រសាទចិន
Reference ID: HA11554 | Posted: January 18, 2021 | Last Update: July 29th, 2023
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..
