Phnom Mrech Temple

Located in Preah Vihear province, north of Phnom Tnoat and south of Kdak village, Prasat Phnom Mrech features a pair of ancient brick shrines situated on the mountain slope overlooking the beautiful plains below.

The entrance to the site is flanked by two boundary markers depicting Buddha on Naga and a guardian devata on the other side along with a pair of stone lions whilst at the base of the mountain is small vihara, several wooden huts and a shelter containing remnants. Remnants include a corner accent with a female deity and several decorated door columns.

On the eastern slope, there is an ancient laterite staircase (in ruins) leading up the east side of the mountain meeting the entrance to the southern shrine. This southern shrine is much larger than its northern counterpart whilst both being of the same basic style, elongated, opening to the east, and rising up with three false levels reducing in size as they go. Looking inside, the south tower appears to have a sandstone water spout exiting its north wall. Above the entrance, a decayed lintel still retains an upper frieze of devotees, that was supported by diamond-patterned octagonal door columns. Inside the north shrine, a square sandstone piece can be seen and near the entrance, an uninscribed stele.

This style of brick temple, elongated rather than square, and using a corbelled roof, is not so common but can be seen in a few sites belonging to earlier times, perhaps its style is related to its use as an ashrama/hermitage. The temple itself can be dated by its inscription to the tenth century while some elements (assuming they originate from this site), such as the boundary markers, could indicate the site was still in use/reused in the 12-13th century.

Entrance and remnants

Inscription

• K. 178 – doorjamb south tower – 2 lines of Sanskrit + 14 lines of Khmer – IC VI, p. 192

The southern tower of the monument built on the Phnom Mréč, between Koh Ker and Práḥ Khan of Kompon Svày, bears on its northern abutment a 16-line inscription in sloppy characters.

The first two, in incorrect Sanskrit, form a vasantatilaka stanza. The following 14, quite faded towards the end, are in Khmer.

The object of this document which is dated 916 ç. (994 A.D.), is the gift to Civa of a hermitage located in Gamryan by a person named Soma. The Khmer text enumerates the lands constituting this domain, gives the limits and the purchase price, and grants certain exemptions to the personnel responsible for the maintenance of the foundation.

Inscriptions Cambodge, VI, George Coedes

Historical Notes

Prasat Merech. The temple of Merech is located on the eastern slope of Phnom Merech, on a small natural platform, about 50 meters below the summit.

You reach this platform by a gently sloping hilltop, then, when the natural slope becomes too difficult, by a limonite staircase. This begins on a T-shaped terrace which is accessed by steps arranged in the interior corners Two red sandstone lions, of which one is still standing, guard this terrace: two others are at the end of the staircase, on the platform.

The group consists of two sanctuaries aligned north-south., open to the east. They are two square aedicules, in bricks, without foreparts, the sanctuary of the south rises at the outlet of the staircase, which leads one to believe that it must have been the central sanctuary of a group of three, including one (the left side) would not have been built or would have disappeared. It measures 5 meters aside externally; the upper constructions form four floors of terraces which are the repetition of the main body, but without any other ornamentation than moldings. The face to the east is pierced by a door framed in sandstone with doorframe mouldings, ringed polygonal columns and a decorative lintel too degraded to be deciphered. This sanctuary is connected to the opening of the access staircase by a large forebody whose roof made of light materials rested on two limonite walls 1.8 m high, now collapsed. This construction was later than the erection of the sanctuary, because the housings for the purlins and the footage of the roof are dug in the facade without taking into account the details of ornementation. The vault is corbelled, interrupted by straight sections.

The north sanctuary measures only 3.5 m on the outside: the corbelled vault, interrupted by straight parts, is complete, but the entablatures of the exterior terraces are ruined. This aedicule has no ornamentation other than that of the open door in the east face with elements: sandstone framing, jamb mouldings, polygonal columns and type III decorative lintel with foliage and horizontal generatrix while the central figurine is missing.

These two buildings are of a heavy style, collected, without art. Three large statues measuring approximately 1.80 m high are supported on the east face of the great sanctuary. Two of the statutes represent temple guardians with conical mukuta shells leaning with both hands on the handle of their maces. The other represents a character with a cylindrical hairstyle holding in his right hand an attribute that has disappeared. Inside are various fragments of statuettes and a fairly well-preserved Ganesha.

Inside the north sanctuary are also preserved an unfinished stele, an ablution bowl and some remains of statues: AYMONIER, Cambodge, I. 414.

Inscription of the Phnom Merech – An inscription of sixteen lines is engraved on the right post of the door of the sanctuary south. The characteristics, slender, irregular, not very deeply dug, are difficult to decipher. It is a Sanskrit and Khmer inscription, from the tenth century Çaka. AYMONIER, Cambodge, I. 414.

Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge, E. Lunet de Lajonquière, 1902

On April 12, I was at Phum Mréč and saw the monument of the same name on the slope of the hill. The group, despite the affirmation of Lajonquière, only ever comprised two sanctuaries, the main one, that of the South, preceded by a room added later. The whole is in laterite and treated in the system of long buildings with two gables without false doors. The lintels, with frieze, rest on columns with 8 rings. We find on this point an inscription of the tenth century (K. 178), some interesting statues and a small Vishnouite trinity, like the Buddhist ternary groups, and which I brought back to the deposit under n° 2320.

Chronique. In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. H Parmentier, Tome 30, 1930

Getting there – there is a good dirt road (02/23) that leads from the village of Thnoat/Ta Bos, heading past the turn off to BeTreed and west for about 17km before turning south, then west again, and following this as it leads past a small village, with one store selling drinks and gas, then to the eastern entrance to the site. I assume you could also reach the site from Kdak and even from Koh Ker.

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap. Rodney Charles L'Huillier has spent over seven years in Cambodia and is the author of Ancient Cambodia (2024) and Essential Siem Reap (2017, 2019). Contact via [email protected] - more..