Pros Temple

Located right on the bank of the confluence of the Mekong and Sekong rivers, Prasat Pros, also known as Theat Ba Chong, is mostly lost to time although remnants of its construction can still be seen from the top of the river bank and from below at a low tide. The site is also the provenance of some fascinating remnants including a Shivapada (noting the other at Phnom Sambok a little further downstream.) that featured a short inscription registered under K. 474.

Historical Notes

Ba Chong. At the very point of this Sting Treng river, on its bank, a little league below the Masuong, one finds, in the solitude of a small wood, the ruins called Prasat Ba Chonge the towers of the dica of the end, of the end, a small temple entirely built of bricks. , except the doors, and oriented to the South, thus turning its back to the river. A rectangular para of 46 meters N.-S. at 4o E.-W. was surrounded by a wall decorated to the south by a monumental sandstone door. Inside, beyond four aedicules placed symmetrically on each side of the main axis and completely ruined today, the sanctuary, very close to the surrounding wall and the bank, has partly collapsed. But we can recognize that it was a rectangular vaulted building divided into two compartments by a partition perpendicular to the orientation. 6 meters wide, about ten high, it could be 10 to 12 meters long. The bricks here are very beautiful, but the sandstone, coarser than in the great monuments, is badly joined; the ornamentation is of a heavier taste.

These ruins were reported by the Doudart de la Grée mission. As early as the seventeenth century, Van Wusthof had spoken of it under the name of Bretzong. And F. Garnier who did not know their Cambodian name of Ba Chong (pronounced Ba Tiong) was induced to state a slight error by saying that this name of Balzong has disappeared. The Dutch clerk speaks of it in these terms: “On the 17th (August), we spent the night at Batzong, near a stone church dilapidated ruin where the Louwen (Laotians) burned candles and performed their ceremonies in front of two idols. Fifty years ago, the kings of Cambodia resided in this place (meaning: the possessed still dwelt); but they were dismissed by the Louwens and had to abandon this church to the solitude of the forest to move to the place where they now reside”.

Le Cambodge II, Aymonier 1902

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..