Kok Dong Temple (Pouk)

Located to the southwest of Pouk, it’s the site of a ruined brick temple with a laterite base. At the site today, there is a small shelter surrounded by laterite blocks. Inside the shelter sits the sandstone pedestal of an ancient temple.

The site is surrounded by development, including houses, a road, and farmlands, making it hard to determine how big the mound may have originally been. Twenty metres per side is a suggestion. To the east, there appears to be a trace of a basin and perhaps another on its southern side.

There are some extraordinary discoveries recorded as originating at this site, but there is some confusion as to whether they are photos of this site or one to the north, or perhaps two sets of photos are mixed together.

Historical Images

On Fonds Cambodge, these images are recorded as originating from Prasat Kuk Don (IK 602), albeit one image appears very similar to a lintel seen on the other site (last in the set below) that is recorded today as Prasat Kak Prasat. There are excavation notes for Prasat Kak Duang in Journax de. Fouilles XI Annee 1934-1935 although they don’t help to clarify things that much. Just to add to the confusion, there is a third site recorded in those notes, Prasat Neak Ta. A deeper dive into archives might unwind that mess at a future date, for the moment, I’ll list as is.

The statue of Varuna atop a pedestal with beautiful Hamsa on each side, pictured below, is on display at the Phnom Penh National Museum of Cambodia.

Images via EFEO Fonds Cambodge – more here

Historical Notes

Also see: Journax de. Fouilles XI Annee 1934-1935.

A little to the north-west of the latter, a laterite base common to three brick pràsàt, now demolished, revealed during the excavation a very beautiful piece of sculpture representing a king seated in the Javanese style on a pedestal flanked on each side by a hamsa. Other sculptures and lintels from the pràsàt were also found in the excavations: this place is designated by the natives under the name of Kük Dón which is that of a neighbouring village.

BEFEO, Chronique, 1934

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