Phnom Preah Lean Temple

Preah Lean Temple features the remains of a square brick temple that opens to the east and is fronted on its eastern side by a cruciform-shaped sandstone structure whose purpose is unknown.

The site is located atop a small rise right beside road 62 in Tbaeng Meanchey District and accessed by an easy flight of wooden stairs and short walk. It is quite ruinous with remains sprawling out from around both of the structures. Ruinous, but interesting as I cannot recall another temple that has sandstone doorframes that have been bricked closed to create the false doors. Also, the purpose of the sandstone cruciform building is difficult to know other than thinking it was possibly a gopura, added later, but never completed nor received its outer wall, etc. Remains of sandstone embellishments abound including the remains of lion, a naga piece, door columns, and several finials with inset characters.

Historical Notes

Prah Lean. This monument is located on a rocky hill with an outcrop of sandstone, to the east from the eastern spur of Tbeng from which it is separated by a valley covered with thick forests. At the foot, extend the rice fields of a small hamlet called Sré Ta Chu. The small plateau that crowns the hill was flattened to raise two buildings, a sanctuary and a gallery placed at east of this sanctuary.

The sanctuary was brick, square, open to the east. It stood on a sandstone base, 1 meter high, which must perhaps have been may have received ornamentation, but which remained crude: the building itself, which was perhaps never completed, is completely in ruins.

The second construction is a sandstone gallery whose large base is oriented N.-S. It is divided into three rectangular rooms, the side rooms being smaller than the central room. This opens with two doors facing each other, placed on the extension of the E.-W axis. of the sanctuary. This building, also on a sandstone base, is not finished. It seems, from its location and its interior arrangements, that it is a gopura with a single passage, with lateral monitoring chambers: this gopura was to interrupt the surrounding wall which we however do not find anywhere else, or only an enclosure, made only of wooden barriers, has disappeared, or because a limonite or sandstone wall was never built, which seems more probable to us. The incompleteness of the monument is indeed evident, with the usual termination of sandstone buildings being here only outlined.

As for sculptures, there is little more than a stone ass and a fairly large bust half buried in the ground, under the dense grass.

The natives were unable to point out Prasat Sre Ta Chu to us, reported by Mr. Aymonier in the vicinity of the village of Pal Hal. They told us that they only knew by this name the hamlet located at the foot of the hill of Prah Lean, on whose territory we did not find any monuments. Could there be some confusion?

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

Inscription

• K. 657 – there is a stele carrying 6 lines of Khmer text – IC VI, p. 46