West Mebon Temple

The West Mebon is located in the center of the West Baray, the largest reservoir of the Angkor area. While the temple’s date of construction is not known exactly, its decorative art is attributed to the Baphoun style placing it around the 11th Century and possibly during the reign of King Suryavarman I and Udayadityavarman II. Today the site has been undergoing a major restoration for some time and is expected to be completed sometime around 2030.

The temple is situated on a man-made island in the middle of the West Baray and was built to a square design, with sides measuring about 100 meters. It featured an outer enclosure wall, with columned windows, made of sandstone and intersected with three tall decorated towers on each side, all of which enclosed a pond. At the center of the pond, and accessed by a causeway from the eastern tower, was a platform with two wells or shafts.

It was in one of these shafts where the incredible fragments of a bronze statue of a reclining Vishnu (a position often referred to as Vishnu Anantasayin/Anantashayana) were discovered in 1936 by Maurice Glaize and Henri Marchal. The fragment includes the god’s head, upper torso, and two right arms. It was this statue that would have once resided on the platform.

The Bronze Vishnu

The bronze statue known as the “West Mebon Vishnu” is a fragmentary statue of Vishnu Anantasayin that was unearthed at the West Mebon temple in Angkor. While the exact date of its creation is unknown, it is generally dated to the second half of the 11th century. The statue was found in several pieces, with the “official” discovery of the main fragments taking place between December 14th, 1936 and January 8th, 1937.

The initial discovery of the statue was preceded by the uncovering of several other bronze pieces, including hands were all kept at the Angkor Conservation depot until 1950 when they were moved to the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Further fragmentation of the statue has occurred over the years, and only 26 fragments from the 1936 excavation, along with one additional piece unearthed in 2016, have been definitively linked to the West Mebon Vishnu. Since 2005, Marnie Feneley has been documenting the statue fragments and working towards a digital reconstruction of the statue, which is estimated to have been over 6 meters in length. Cambodia and France are currently collaborating to transport the statue to France for repair and exhibition. The project will also see archaeologists analyzing the statue’s metal composition to learn more about ancient Khmer metalwork. Following its restoration, the West Mebon Vishnu will be part of a bronze sculpture exhibition at the National Museum of Asian Art in France until mid-2025.

Restoration Works – May 2023

Getting There

As mentioned, the site is under restoration and you cannot see that much, although you can still wander around the eastern where there is a contemporary pagoda and the northern edge of the island where there are some information boards providing some background on the restoration works. A boat can be hired from the pier located on the south bank of the baray (map), just west of the Baray Spillway. You can hire a whole boat to yourself for around $20 or join in with others to split the cost.

Around the West Baray

Around the perimeter of the baray, there are several other sites to explore including Wat Svay Romiet, Prasat Ko Ho, Prasat Ak Yum, Spean Memay, Phnom Rong, and to the north, Prasat Kok Po.

On the western side, there is/was a lookout overlooking the baray but it has become blocked by trees. On the eastern side, towards the northeast corner there is another gazebo where you can rest, do some bird watching and enjoy views over the baray.

As mentioned, at the center of the southern side there is a spillway where you can hire boats, and a little further towards the southeast corner there is another spillway with huts by the water’s edge where you can eat, relax, swim and again, hire boats. Keep in mind this will be super busy on a weekend, especially in the warmer months.

Inscriptions

• K. 922 – on a pillar – 1 line Sanskrit & 6 lines of Khmer – Coedes IV p. 71

Of the inscription, George Coedes wrote in the sixth volume of Inscriptions du Cambodge:

REGISTRATION OF WESTERN MEBON (K. 922)

In 1944, Mr. GLAIZE, Curator of Ankor, found at the Western Mébồn an inscription engraved on the free face of the upper crosspiece of a molded bay frame forming part of the enclosure wall. It is an old jamb reused. Its upper part has been hollowed out in the middle to form the mortise of a tenon joint.

The 7-line inscription, the first of which is in Sanskrit and the other 6 in Khmer, is too ruined and too incomplete to be able to draw anything from it. Its only interest is that the characters are pre-Angkorian. Perhaps the stone was taken from this pre-Angkorian agglomeration that is sometimes called “the city of the Western Baray”.

Historical Notes

The first European visitors to the site were Jean Moura and Lucien Fournereau in the late 1800s. The first comprehensive documentation of the site comes from the 1904 publication by Etienne Aymonier, Le Cambodge III, who wrote

The Western Baray Méboune. – From the western gate of Angkor Thom and the boulevard which ran along the southern face of this capital, two parallel causeways started which headed straight towards the West. At the end of a loop, they reached the height of a small monument situated in the middle of their interval, which began there to hollow out into a basin to make an island of this small temple called Méboune. These causeways were then transformed into earthworks, increasingly high and strong to border the vast excavation which gradually became deeper, and formed a rectangular lake measuring more than three thousand meters in length and fifteen hundred in width. A last and high rise of land closes this lake to the West, running straight from North to South, between the small bridge called Spéan Ta Nói and the old temple of Khnat, two constructions of which we spoke in the previous volume.

The depth of the excavation which gradually reaches up to seven or eight meters, or the slope of the land which inclines towards the marshes of the West, and, even more, the width and height of the enormous dikes of the surrounding area have maintained in a permanent state this vast blue sheet whose surface is half a square league. This is the Western Baray, the large basin which was dug as an exception to the West of the capital, whose inhabitants doubtless used it for their nautical races. This body of water therefore far exceeded in importance the two other large lakes, very superficial, which were arranged, one to the East of the capital, the Eastern Baray Méboune, and the other to the North-East, the Preah Réach Dak of the Prakhan monument. We have seen, in fact, that these last two basins are today nothing more than dried-up plains.

The high dikes of the Western Baray, called Thnål Baray “causeways of the lake”, are covered with tall trees with green foliage which nicely frame its vast blue sheet whose waves agitated by the wind gently lap on the edges. From its western bank, the view, very clear, embraces at a glance, beyond its shimmering surface. The clump of trees of its Méboune or small temple which seems to emerge from the waters, Mount Bakheng, this mound of greenery crowned by an ancient monument. then the regular cone of the “mont de la bosse”, this Phnom Baûk dominated by other ruins, and finally the dark line of Mount Koulen which closes the horizon.

We have said that a small temple, called Meboune, was located on the main axis of this western lake of Angkor Thom. The ruins of this temple are located 400 meters at the most inside the lake starting from its eastern end. On this side the lake has no depth; it is invaded by rice fields and even by wild rice. From the edge, a causeway led straight to the West to reach a rounded island, 150 to 160 meters in diameter, which emerges slightly from the water and is covered by a clump of trees. At its center, the temple essentially comprises an enclosure wall. decorated with porticos and turrets, which surrounds a square basin of áo to 50 meters on each side, then a small causeway which starts from the main entrance on the western face and advances into the basin where it flourishes to form a Latin cross. The whole was built or covered in stone and richly decorated with sculptures.

The following details are taken from the descriptions of Moura and M. Fournereau who must also have visited this small monument where we found no inscriptions.

The surrounding wall, relatively better preserved on the three faces of the East, North and South, rested on a molded and decorated base, and rose to a height of approximately 2.50. Its crowning, slightly arched, bore a crest composed of numerous small ogival niches where floral motifs framed figures in various attitudes: some with long beards, in prayer, others on horseback; others seated on a peacock. This wall was pierced by several charming porticoes, all topped with turrets, flanked by bays decorated with cloisters, but of simple architecture, without peristyles or side galleries. The eastern face, the richest of all, has three porticoes, the two side ones of which have triple openings. The middle one has only one passage leading directly onto the causeway which advances into the interior basin. As for the wall on the western face, it is so ruined that its arrangements cannot be studied. Probably, it rose only very little above the ground in order to allow the view to embrace the whole extent of the lake without obstacle.

Inside the enclosure wall there was a berm no more than two metres wide, stopping at the lining of the basin which is divided into stone steps descending into the water; seven of these steps are still visible above the current level of the basin.

From the central gate of the eastern face there started a causeway, also provided on its sides with stone steps, and which advanced beyond the center of the basin. Moura does not indicate its dimensions. M. Fournereau, whose figures seem exaggerated to us, gives it 51 meters in length and 8.80 in width. In our visit, rapid it is true, of this monument, we had estimated the width of this causeway at 4 meters and its length at less than two thirds of that of the basin which did not have, we thought, more than 50 meters on each side.

Towards the middle of the basin, this causeway spread out in the shape of a Latin cross to undoubtedly form a terrace, a sort of sanctuary, open to the sky, original as are all the arrangements of this Méboune. The end of this belvedere carries, in fact, a base on Moura a reported a piece of bas-relief sculpture depicting three images of Vishnu placed side by side.

Mr. Fournereau notes that, in this small temple, the turrets, so marvellously decorated, faithfully recall, but in miniature, those of the reported a piece of bas-relief sculpture depicting three images of Vishnu placed side by side.

Mr. Fournereau notes that, in this small temple, the turrets, so marvellously decorated, faithfully recall, but in miniature, those of the all around the Boray Mé Boune of the West, many hamlets all bear this name of Baray which is followed by other terms serving to distinguish them from each other; such as Baray Kouk Tenot, Baray Ta Kao, ete. Their inhabitants retell at the wakes the legend of the ferocious crocodile that the beautiful princess called Néang Kèo “Lady Jewell with two shades” fed in the sacred basin of Méboune. One day, he devoured his benefactress and took refuge in the great Baray when he was hunted there by the orders of the exasperated king, he escaped by piercing through the southern dike a gap, still visible today near the hamlet of Baray Svay Romiet. He was caught at the place called Kampong Keo pir pear and the princess was found in his belly still breathing. But she soon breathed her last breath, at the towers of Préi Danghoem “the rule of breathing’.

Historical Images

These images come via the EFEO Fonds Cambodge archive, taken during the excavation and restoration works that took place between 1936 and 1942.

Further Reading & Contemporary Research

• Claiming the hydraulic network of Angkor with Viṣṇu: A multidisciplinary approach including the analysis of archaeological remains, digital modeling and radiocarbon dating: With evidence for a 12th-century renovation of the West Mebon, 2016, Feneley et al
• Hydrological History of the West Baray, Angkor, revealed through Palynological Analysis of Sediments from the West Mebon, 2005, Penny et al
• Reconstructing God: Style, Hydraulics, Political Power and Angkor’s West Mebon Viṣṇu, 2023, Marnie Feneley