Daun Troung Temple (Plang Temple)

A square sandstone temple with a short hall opening to the east with a “library” in the southeast built from laterite, a laterite wall, and an entrance gopura along with a large basin in the east. The site has a format similar to many of the hospital chapels built under Jayavarman VII yet no “hospital stele” typically seen at other sites has been found. Under what remains of a decorated lintel there is an inscription registered under K. 452 number.

Inscription

K. 452 – in situ on the lintel. The icon of ancient Khmer inscriptions, George Coedes notes

The lintel of the sanctuary forebody is probably an old pillar that has been reused. It bears a Sanskrit inscription whose upper part is missing and whose remaining 12 lines, well preserved, form 6 stanzas (5 çloka and 1 malini). This is the end of a Buddhist inscription of 910 c. (988 A.D.). On this date, a character whose name is not preserved erected an image of Lokeçvara, to which he dedicated a monastery abundantly endowed with goods. This text is a new testimony to the favor enjoyed by Buddhism at the time of Jayavarman V.

IC V, p. 156

The site can be accessed off a dirt road, slightly rough in parts, that leads south off the RN6 before the river.

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..