Kok Po Temple

Prasat Kok Po features two (of four originally) partially standing brick temples and dates back to the 9th century, pre-dating the Angkor era. At the site, you’ll find the remains of two prasats built of brick with various sandstone, laterite, and brick remnants scattered around the site, but as we will come to later, historical records report a very ornate and elaborate site with a rich and interesting history even during ancient times.

The site was surrounded by a large moat with, unusually, a north-facing entrance which some suggest may indicate a dedication to Kubera (Hindu deity). It also appears to have had some restoration work done, by early French archaeologists perhaps, which has now also become ruinous. Below is the north entrance causeway and moat on either side (dry or planted with rice during the wet season).

360

Gallery

Update: In 2024, restoration works began at the site

Historical Notes

Prasat A featured a notable lintel with an art style related to the early 9th century. It was removed from the site in the early 1900s and sent to the Guimet Museum in France. This same tower features an inscription on its doorframe registered under K.255. The inscription is 26 lines of Khmer containing a date of 978 AD and describing donations made by a woman, with the title Ten Tvan, to the god Svetadvipa and also mentioning the works Hemasrngagiri and at the holy palace of Sri Jayendranagari (Cœdès 1937).

Prasat B only partially standing tower featured an inscription registered under K.256. It also featured a long antechamber/hall extending east that also featured two Dvarapala statues, one holding a vajra and the other holding a trident. The hall had sandstone framed doorways with lintels and continued with a porch and steps that was once flanked by two raised lions and preceded by a further two Dvarapala. The lion’s feet can still be seen at the site today sitting beside a tree.

The K 256 inscription at Prasat B has sixteen Sanskrit and twelve Khmer lines which Cœdès noted as being the oldest at the site and stylistic similar to that of the second half of the 9th century containing an invocation to Visnu and the genealogy of a priestly family. The Khmer text outlining lands offered by King Jayavarman III. It continues with the changing of divinities at the temple by a local elite and the attribution of villages to those divinities, a further script follows with an edict from Jayavarman V overriding the previous edict.

K814 inscription denotes a donation made in 1096 AD by Jayavarman VI.

If you are interested in the inscriptions, there is a lot more within the references listed further below.

Prasat C where only the base can be seen today. It was a small rectangular brick building that opened to the west (the other constructions open to the north). Henri Marchal noted the pedestals found in this prasat its lintel comparing it to the time period of Ak Yom temple (7th century) and inferring this may have been the first structure at the site.

Prasat D only the outline remains of a small brick building where a lintel was found noted to have an art style similar to that of the Preah Ko (Roluos) and similar to that of Prasat A.

B/W Images property of EFEO, taken between 1936 and 1962

Reference

• Marchal Henri. Notes sur le dégagement du Pràsàt Kôk Pô. In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 37, 1937.
  pp. 361-378; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1937.5357 https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1937_num_37_1_5357
• Fonds Cambodge – https://collection.efeo.fr/ws/web/app/collection?vc=ePkH4LF7w1I94aqfMGvAnMzUUuf8nJzU5JJUtDrTyMjQxACjDsYf7ADlTC6r
• Cœdès Georges, Dupont Pierre. Les inscriptions du Pràsàt Kôk Pô. In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient.
  Tome 37, 1937. pp. 379-413; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1937.5358 https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1937_num_37_1_5358