Don Chroam Temple

Also recorded as Prasat Daun Cheam, it is located in the forest/farmlands of Preah Vihear some 17km southeast of Choam Khsant. Excluding Prasat Neak Buos, it’s a large and elaborate site compared to the other brick temples of the general area.

The site features an outer wall constructed of laterite with peak capping that encloses a moat and then an inner enclosure wall constructed of brick which contains a long hall along its inner west side, three tall brick towers that open to the east, remains of library building on the southeastern side of the towers. The central tower had a long chambered forebody extending east with two consecutive door frames and parts of the side walls still seen standing.

The inner brick enclosure wall had an entrance gopura on the eastern side that’s been completely overtaken by two trees and appears that it would have been chambered and led out to a causeway that crossed the moat and I think there is more to know about the eastern entranceway here but, it’s heavily overgrown and that’s surely a great task for the relevant authorities.

Fragments of various carved sandstone features can still be seen in the undergrowth and one wonders about the presence of a stele or an inscribed door frame underneath that rubble given the grandeur of the site.

Getting there – there’s a farm trail that leads off the Cha’eh <> Krala Peas track in an east-southeast direction. Passable by moto in the dry season (of 02/23), it’s a winding trail with deep sand sections that would appear to go through many changes each season. Nearer to the temple there is farmland under cultivation and a couple of huts with friendly locals.

Historical Notes

Prasat Daûn Chèàm, “the towers of Grandmother Jam” on a natural mound in the clearing forests, a few leagues south of the central part of the road which leads from Rolom Thmâ to Trepeang Kol, was a temple without of sculptures. A first perimeter wall, interrupted at the eastern entrance, built of limonite blocks, two meters high, measured 88 meters E.-W. and 78 N.-S. Beyond was dug a ditch, the sides of which were lined with limonite. Then the second wall, in brick this one, measuring 28 meters N.-S. on 24 E.-W., decorated with its brick gopura in the middle of the east face, surrounded the central courtyard where a brick building and three adjoining towers had been built.

Le Cambodge II, Etienne Aymonier, 1901

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..