Prasat Kouk Pongro (Angkor Thom District)

Prasat Kok Pongro (Khmer: ប្រាសាទគោកពង្), or Kouk Pongro temple, is located north of Angkor Thom in Siem Reap. It is believed to date to the 9-10th century during the reign of King Yasovarman who reigned in 889–910 AD.

It is a small site with three prasats, two mostly fallen and one completely. It is a brick temple with stone doorways and some stone stairs that can still be seen.

The site is reached only by a dirt trail through farmland that leads off the northwest corner of the Korean Ring Road. The site is surrounded by trees and not distinguishable from the outside, and you’ll also likely need to forge through a little shrub to get into the site.

Two beautiful lintels were found at this site (and placed in a museum, but at the time of writing, I am unsure where), one with the depiction of the Churning of the Sea of Milk  (755 EFEO 11204), another featuring Indra atop of Kala (755 EFEO 11202 a), and there was also an inscription on the doorway (given the reference K. 781).

Historical Images

Via EFEO Fonds Cambodge. Images dated to 1931.

Historical Notes

North of Ankor Thom, a little over a kilometer north of IK 520, a group of three brick sanctuaries aligned north-south, known to the natives as Pràsàt Kük Banro, was found; the central pràsàt has an inscription on the south jamb of its door.

Chronique BEFEO, 1934

Inscription

• K. 781 – 16 lines of Sanskrit

The three towers of Prasat Kük Ponro, discovered by H. MARCHAL in 1934, are located in the region north of Ankor Thom. The southern jamb of the central sanctuary bears, 0 m. 55 high and 0 m. 32 wide, a Sanskrit inscription in large, fairly neat round writing, the beginning of which has survived: 12 almost complete lines forming 6 çloka, and traces of the following 4 lines.

After an invocation to the Trimurti (I-III), the text names King Yasovarman, who obtained the kingship in 811 as a çaka. The next two stanzas (V-VI) praise him, and the ruined stanza VII mentioned something, probably a foundation, which had taken place “under his reign.”

Coedes, 1937

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