Ta Keo Temple

Prasat Ta Keo is another grand example of the ancient Khmer concept of the “temple mountain” featuring a monumental stepped-pyramid base topped with five massive towers. Located east of Angkor Thom, north of Angkor Wat, and on the west side of the East Baray, it is dated to the 11th century.

Visiting Ta Keo Temple

The site is open from 7.30 to 5.30 and you may like to visit here in the morning or late afternoon as it can get quite hot at the top, especially after the walk up the steps. On the southern side of the site, there are some drink stalls and you can spend 30 minutes to an hour (or more) here depending on your interest.

In 2022, APSARA cleared the traditional eastern access which offers the best experience to enter the site, lined with trees and featuring remnants of its original bollarded causeway. Interestingly, if you head around 450m east from Ta Keo, you can see the remains of a laterite structure at the edge of the now-dry baray and around 150m north of that is a larger and ornate sandstone terrace. Around 150m to the northwest is the small “hospital chapel” known as Leak Neang.

Layout

As mentioned earlier, Ta Keo Temple is another example of the temple-mountain concept featuring in this case, a five-tiered pyramid base topped with a quincunx of towers. This temple-mountain, a representation of Mount Meru from Hindu mythology, featuring a quincunx of towers is also seen at Phnom Bakheng, Pre Rup, Eastern Mebon, and of course, Angkor Wat.

Ta Keo features an outer enclosure offering an entrance gopura at each cardinal point whilst the main entrance was to the east, the direction the entire site is orientated in. Inside this enclosure are two long halls in the courtyard of the east side whilst the other sides offer limited space between the next level.

Up the stairs to the next level which features a galleried wall with a gopura at each cardinal point. On the doorjambs of the eastern gopura, you’ll find several inscriptions. Inside the enclosure in the courtyard of the east side are two libraries, open to the west, and two more halls orientated on a north-south axis. What follows is the grand three-tiered platform with stairs on each side rising up to the five massive towers.

The towers are cruciform in shape with entrances on all four sides. They never received their final decoration for reasons that are only speculated upon. In some, you can see some decoration around the internal eaves though. Also, some retain fragments of their original pedestals whilst a collection of Buddhas from a later period have been added to the central sanctuary.

Art and Decoration

The art style of the site is attributed to the Khleang style. The eastern gopura retains a lot of detail, especially in one of its frontons, and on the way up the stairs, take note of the molding of the tiers which retain some superb decoration in places. A statue of Nandin can be seen on the second level.

History

Also known as Prasat Keo, the site is dated based on inscriptions noting donations made to the temple at the beginning of the 11th century whilst some researchers speculate that its foundation may have been as early as the 10th century. The site is attributed as being dedicated to Shiva, based on the discovery of a statue of Nandi, the mount of Shiva, who still resides at the site in the eastern courtyard.

The site features numerous inscriptions but those most interesting to the history of the site itself are K. 275 noting Yogigvarapandita, guru of Suryavarman I, and mentions, among other things, donations made to the temple, and also the inscription K. 276. The latter reaffirms the original name of the temple which George Coedes recorded as Hemacrnga (Hema-sringagiri/Hemagiri/Hemasringagiri), and most curiously notes that the temple was struck by lightning, following which, a ceremony was held to ward off what was believed to be a fatal omen.

The temple was never fully completed, as noted by the lack of decoration on the quincunx of towers, for reasons that have only ever been speculated upon, with theories ranging from the sandstone type used for those towers being too hard to carve through to disinterest.

Further inscriptions are noted below and in the next iteration of this article a deeper dive into that and the contemporary history of the site.

Historical Images – property of EFEO more at Fonds Cambodge

There was a rather fascinating collection of pieces discovered here

Inscriptions

• K. 275 – doorjamb east entrance gopura – 38 lines of Sankrit – ISC, n° XVa, p. 97
• K. 276 – doorjamb east entrance gopura – 1 line of Sanskrit + 24 lines of Khmer – ISC, n° XVa, p. 97 ; IC IV, p. 153
• K. 277 – doorjamb east entrance gopura – 4 + 4 + 8 lines of Sanskrit and 17 + 20 + 6 lines of Khmer – ISC, n° XVb-c, p. 97 ; IC IV, p. 155
• K. 278 – doorjamb east entrance gopura – 34 lines of Sanskrit – ISC, n° XVB, p. 97
• K. 534 – stele (ka 1769 from south library) – 14 + 28 lines of Sanskrit – Finot 1925, p. 297
• K. 535 – east gopura, pilaster, west side – 2 lines of Sanskrit – Finot 1925, p. 297
• K. 536 – doorjamb – one line of Khmer – IC IV, p. 160