Ta Toat Temple

Also known as Tatuot Temple (ប្រាសាទតាទួត), or Prasat Ta Tort (ប្រាសាទ តាទ័ត្), it’s located north of Kulen Mountain and southeast of the village of Kantout. The temple site has a general location easily recognisable by the large basin that normally sits to the eastern side of a temple while in this case, the temple is actually south of the basin’s eastern end.

The site appears to have a moat and sits atop a slight rise with an outer laterite enclosure wall containing the staggeringly epic remnants of a brick temple whose destroyer, the roots of a tree growing out of the structure, is actually now its saviour. The tree and its roots are perhaps now the only thing that’s holding what remains of the ancient temple together.

A gopura is seen on the eastern side but is impassable, as it has a giant tree growing out of it also. A false gopura is seen on the western side. An overgrown but partially standing brick and sandstone temple with an outer wall and entrance gopuras. There is apparently a library and another structure but only spotted what may have been one of those through the heavy overgrowth.

The earliest (and only?) site report comes from Boulbet and Dagens, published in 1973.

This very ruined monument and mostly buried under thick vegetation, is about 3.5 km south-west of Kantuot. It is surrounded by a moat and bordered to the north by a large reservoir surrounded by high dykes. We have seen that the temple is located at the crossroads of two roads leading one to sites Dambang and Kok Balang to the south, and the other to site Ta Prohm (of Kantout) to the west; this last causeway extends towards the east, passes between two small bassins and ends in a mound covered with debris molds and potsherds.

The laterite enclosure (20 m x 25 m), interrupted by an entrance pavilion in the east and by a false pavilion of entry in the west, encloses a tower sanctuary, a library and a long room that backs onto its south side. The brick tower-sanctuary opens to the east via a forepart lit by two side windows, false sandstone doors close its other faces. Three lintels have been preserved: the northern one which is not sculpted, the southern one which is completely peeled off and the western one whose upper part is ruined.

The library which rises in the southeast corner of the courtyard is of the normal type with an entrance to the west and windows on the north face. Its lintels have disappeared, like those of the long room leaning against the south face of the enclosure, this room opens to the north by a projection, while its south wall, merged with the enclosure wall, is pierced by two false windows.

The east entrance pavilion has a triple passageway with a small forebody to the east and west. The interior lintel of the central-eastern passage depicts Indra brandishing his thunderbolt and mounted on Airavata, himself standing on a pillar with a lotiform capital, the upper frieze (figures under arcades) is ruined. Only the left part of the lintel of the western forebody is preserved, the branch of the foliage is interrupted a quarter by the motif, well known in Banteay Srei and dating the lintel, of the monster biting the skull of an elephant; a garuda stands on the end of the branch while a frieze of ascetics in yogasana surmounts the composition.

The false west entrance pavilion is symmetrical to the east pavilion but its west entrances are closed by false sandstone doors. All its lintels have disappeared.

Note: whilst the road running from Svay Leu to Khna and past this site is a quite good dirt road, from there the site is difficult to access, uncleared and we were assisted by a young local resident to whom we are very thankful.

References

• Les Sites Archeologiques de la region Bhnam Gulen, Boulbert and Dagens 1973

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..