Wat Kok Khpuos

Monastery (Wat Kork Kphos – វត្តគោកខ្ពស់) built where lintel, sculptures, and a stele with inscriptions (K. 754) were found. Note: other references indicate the stele may have come from Kok Svay Chek. The inscription is notable for being partly written in Pali (the first of such?) and referencing Theravada Buddhism around the 13th c.

Inside the pagoda, sema stones from an earlier iteration of the pagoda can be seen.

The site also houses a grand funerary chedi on its western side and a collection of temple remnants on its eastern side. It’s not clear whether the temple remains are from this site or one of the many temple mounds in the nearby area.

Jan 2024

Jan 2025

The temple remains have grown. A fragment of a small statue is now seen, quite reminiscent of early 7th-century statues found. It may well be a modern production.

Historical Photos

via EFEO Fonds and BEFEO/Persee

Historical Notes

During these various researches I stopped at several Khmer pagodas and remains, among others, at Kük Ampĭl (504), Kük Kraběi Riel (505), Prasat Prapis (506), Vắt Pamà (508), Vắt Pràsàt (591) and at Vắt Kuk Khpos, a pagoda located approximately 800 meters south of Vắt Pràsàt.

To the east of this pagoda, on a mound, there are Khmer remains whose sculptures were deposited in the room of the bonze school. On site, there remains only a lintel, barely sketched, in red sandstone, and some blocks of molded sandstone which seem to come from ancient pedestals. In the room of the school, apart from the sculptures found to the east of the pagoda, several Khmer statues, quite interesting, found in the region were collected. The head of the bonzes having asked me for permission to keep them, I have done what is necessary to have them classified.

On the other hand, at the southwest corner of this pagoda is a superb inscribed stele. It was found half buried, on a low prominence, about three kilometers west of Vắt Kük Khpos and 200 meters from Phum Svay Ček, a village located in the immense plain north of Phnom Krom, 9 kilometers, as the crow flies, from the hill. This inscribed marker is a block of sandstone, quadrangular, 1.70m high by .49 square section, having, as a base, a slightly protruding platform. The crowning is broken. This block has two of its sides covered with inscriptions, one has two vertical columns of 20 lines each, about .17m long; the other side has 31 lines of .41m long. At the place where it was found, there are bricks and fragments of tiles. I have the impression that these remains are not very old and must have belonged to a Nak Tà housing the stele

BEFEO, Chronique, 1933