Prei Danghaeum Temple

Located some 13km west of Siem Reap city, Prasat Prei Danghaeum (or Dangherm) features remains of what was a group of seven temples with two “library” buildings surrounded by an enclosure with a gopura on the east. Further to the east is a large basin and historical reports also note there being a moat. Two statues are recorded as being discovered here which are pictured below.

The sculptures (of differing eras) of Brahma and what may be Lakshmi were discovered at the site in the 1930s and deposited at the Angkor Conservation Depot. Lakshmi or Mahalakshmi (loosely assumed by her holding the club and conch, her tri-crown also significant) now appears to be in the collection at the Angkor National Museum (Inventory No : C.A.ក 379.Ν. 2773 Ν. 41) and marked as unknown provenance and dated to the 12th-13th century while Brahma, circa the tenth century, is whereabouts unknown to me at least. Was the Lakshmi sculpture from this site? If it was that means the site was still an active domain several centuries after its inception.

Immediately to the southeast of the site, on the south side of the basin, is Wat Prey Dangherm (Khmer: វត្តព្រៃដង្ហើម) which retains a collection of remnants likely from this site including a large sandstone pedestal.

There is some fascinating folklore, as recorded by Etienne Aymonier in the early 1900s, about the princess who was taken by a crocodile at the West Mebon, and later found, still breathing, inside that crocodile some 7km to the south at this very temple! It’s noted in the historical notes below and Aymonier’s original report can be seen on the West Mebon page. Adding to the fascination of that story is that fronting the site today is a cubicle with live crocodiles!

In a small shelter at the site today sits a fragment of a female bust about 30 cm high. Brick rubble abounds and the basement structure of shrines can be seen in places along with numerous sandstone door jambs. Also, a decorative lintel is preserved, partially buried along with a colonette fragment that suggests a date for the 10th century based on the Pre Rup Art Style unless I’m mistaken.

Historical Notes

The site was first documented in 1901 by Etienne Aymonier and shorty after by Lunet de Lajonquiere in 1911 whose description follows

Prasat Prei Donghöm (The Sanctuary of the Breathing Forest). – It is located 9 kilometers to the west, a little south, of Prasat Prei Phadau (nº 503); it is said that it was there that the princess abducted by the crocodile in the Western Mebon (nº 516) was found still breathing in the entrails of her captor, hence the name of the temple.

This one, moreover, no longer exists; its five brick sanctuaries (M. Aymonier says seven, doubtless including the annexed buildings) were razed to serve for the development of the pagoda installed since on their site. We have found there only fragments of columns and Brahmanic statues in a small shelter.

Beautiful moat basins and a sras to the east are still very distinct.

Inventaire descriptif Monuments du Cambodge, 1902-1911, Lajonquiere

The site was later excavated by Georges Trouve in the 1930’s

Prasat Prei Danhởm (IK. 590). – I cleared the doors of the sanctuaries to look for inscriptions that might have existed on the jambs; I found nothing there. This work and the clearing allowed me to recognize what this group comprised. It is a group of seven sanctuaries accompanied by two annex buildings or libraries and a gopura, to the East. The group of sanctuaries is composed of three rows, two East and West, each comprising two small towers, and a third, median, formed by the three other pràsàt. Most of the towers can be identified by their decorative elements that were buried under the scree. The few visible lintels, either collapsed, or broken, or in place, are all of the usual type III, with median garlands in the shape of an inverted W. The north-eastern annex building was apparently destroyed by the monks of the pagoda, built next to the ruins, in order to extract the bricks. Two fragments of a door frame were found there. Of the eastern gopura, only a pile of bricks remains.

Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 33, 1933. p. 1133

Historical Images

Left: The statues discovered at the site, Brahma and Lakshmi. Photo dated June 1933 via EFEO Fonds Cambodge. Right: Lakshmi at the Angkor National Museum Siem Reap, photo: author, 2022.

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..