Supheap Tbong Temple

Located in Preah Vihear province along the ancient route from Beng Mealea to Preah Khan of Kampong Svay (PKKS), Prasat Supheap Tbong is a unique temple type that was only found along the Angkor-PKKS section of the ancient Royal Road network. Early French researchers would label these sites “Temple d’etape” with the belief that they were a stopping place or place of rest along the route. A little over 300m to the northwest of this site is Supheap Cheung Temple. The site is believed to date to around the 12th century although no inscription has been discovered at the site itself.

Prasat Supheap Tbong, or South Sopheap temple, features a very similar layout to the other temples of this type, featuring an outer enclosure wall with a large gopura on the east and a central shrine with a long forebody flanked by two library buildings. In this case, there is also a lesser gopura to the north and west and a large annex building/false gopura built into the south wall.

This annex building in the south wall is quite interesting; this one appears to have a second chamber extending southward and two deposit wells; moreover, what was its function? It’s only this temple type that has this special room bar another site which is not too far away, Boeng Sasar Viech Temple (and some others). I think future archeological work surely has a lot to tell us about those things and further the knowledge of the Angkor Wat era (or even the preceding era) when these sites were believed to have been founded.

The site has truly returned to the jungle. It is heavily overgrown, limiting the areas that can be seen, but here’s a selection of shots from the south library, east gopura, the central shrine, and south gopura/annex building.

East Gopura

Inside and around the central shrine

South library

South false gopura

West Gopura (2025 visit)

Terrace

The site actually has a long terrace that seems to lead from the north side of the site (unreachable) and terminates 100m away near the existing road. We only noticed this by chance; on stopping to eat lunch and sitting by the creek (dry), we spotted a whole heap of laterite blocks in the river bed. Following the terrace back to the site was impossible due to fallen trees and heavy growth.

Update – we revised this site in Feb 2025, and this time, we followed a foot trail from the present-day road that led to the western side of the temple, where we came across a substantial structure located around 130 m to the west of the temple enclosure. It appears to have been a gopura, cruciform in shape, with an eastern and western entrance. Only the basement structure remains. It also appears to have been queried by excavation of its interior. The area is heavily overgrown and it’s difficult to find a path between this point and the temple proper, but on weaving a way there, across dry canals, several other laterite and sandstone blocks were seen.

Historical Notes

The Prasat Sup Tiep Pi. The small group of monuments that bears this name consists of a temple and a dharmaçälä, located around 17 km from Prát Khăn (173).

The dharmaçälä, a sandstone building, is located to the north of the old causeway which linked Ankor Thom to Práh Khân. It is oriented East-West on its long axis. This monument has completely collapsed, and the interior is inaccessible.

As for the temple, it is located 140 m away approximately, south of the same road. It is connected to it by a lower causeway which is accessed by laterite steps. The retaining walls of this roadway are topped with small sandstone parapets. It was decorated with terminals, many fragments of which still exist. The causeway leads to a crucial terrace which precedes the temple. The latter is made of laterite and seems to have had steps to the east and west which descended towards pools.

The temple, oriented East-West on its large dimension, measures approximately 35 m. over 40 m. and includes a main sanctuary preceded by a room to the east, and two libraries. The whole thing is enclosed in a surrounding wall pierced by two gates, to the North and the South, and interrupted by a gopura to the East and a false gopura to the West. The buildings inside the enclosure rest on fairly high sandstone bases. The main sanctuary and the room which serves as a vestibule are built with blocks cut from the same stone. Their sculptures are fine and fairly well preserved despite the collapse of the vaults and part of the room. The South-East library is well preserved, and its sculpted decoration is almost intact. Its counterpart in the North-East differs by certain particularities of execution: the base and the lower part of the walls are in sandstone, while the upper part is in laterite, the moldings and the sculpted decoration being the same as those of the South-East library. The Pràsàt Sup Tiep Pi form a group reminiscent of the Prasat Tà Ein (234) and the Pràsàt Pràm (235), monuments located in an identical manner in relation to the ancient Khmer road to Prah Khần. The dharmaçălă completes the very characteristic series of these monuments which once marked this roadway and seem to have been intended for the use of pilgrims.

BEFEO Chronique, 1933

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..