Thmom Peang Temple

Located in Romdoh Srae commune of Choam Khsant district in Preah Vihear and just south of an army barracks, Prasat Thmom Peang is the ruins of an ancient walled temple site.

The single central shrine is a square sandstone temple that had a brick superstructure, open only to the east. There appears to have been a library building to one side and the whole is surrounded quite closely by an outer enclosure made of laterite with remnants of a gopura on the eastern side. A fragment of a lintel remains on site, depicting a standing Indra atop a tri-headed Airvata.

Surrounded by farming activity, the site is much loved by a local we met tending to her fields who expressed some sadness noting how beautiful it was in her childhood.

Historical Notes

Prasat Thmöm Peang. This monument is located about ten kilometers to the west a little north from the administrative center, from Cheam Khsan, in the clearing forests which cover the stony undulation serving as a dividing line between the Stung Chok and the Stung Cho Teal. It is a temple comprising the following elements:

1. A brick sanctuary, square, measuring 3 m. 5o aside. It is covered up to the height of the vault feet with a sandstone veneer. The upper part, which was to be only brick, has collapsed and its debris fills the interior. It is open to the east, the three other faces being adorned with false doors, each of which presented the usual complete decoration; the ornamental work remained, it is true, barely sketched. A corner of the decorative door lintel, which has fallen off and appears emerging from among the debris, allows this room to be classified as Type III; it is of mediocre work.

2. A rectangular enclosure, measuring 23 meters in the N.-S. on 26 E.-W. It is made up of a limonite wall with a cap, about 2 meters high, which is well preserved.

This wall is interrupted on the east face by a sandstone and limonite gopura containing a single rectangular room which measures, inside, 8 meters long by 1 m. 30 wide, with sandstone projections inside and out. The whole remained unfinished and the remains of the vault fill the rooms.

The enclosure wall was also interrupted on the middle of the south face by a gallery measuring internally 5 meters long by 3 meters wide, which opened onto the inner courtyard by a door preceded by a forebody and decorated according to the ordinary rules. This gallery, which was not vaulted, but simply covered with a roof made of light materials, measuring one meter wide by .3m height, framed in sandstone and arranged in the upper part of the exterior facade.

3. A rectangular basin-ditch, now dry, lined the enclosure.

Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge. Tome 2, Lunet de La Jonquière, 1907

Rodney Charles LHuillier

Living in Asia for over a decade and now residing in beautiful Siem Reap - Contact via [email protected] - more..