Wat Amporvanoram (Srei Santhor)

Located near the east bank of the Mekong River in lower Kampong Cham Province, it’s also recorded as Wat Svay Sach Phnom. It is one of the older pagodas in Cambodia and features some wonderful traditional art and decorative features. The pagoda was recently restored and usually is never open, luck would be with us on our journey.

The pagoda dates to the early 1900s and received restoration works on two occasions, one recently. It features wooden pillars (except for one, which is concrete) that are lacquered and painted with gold stencil art. It features beautiful murals on the inner walls, and above is an eave panel, also decorated with murals. The main lateral roof beams are also finely decorated.

It’s quite a special feeling to stand inside, something modern pagodas cannot recreate: the earthiness of wood, the craftsmanship, the heritage, and the Buddha.

it features sema stones at each cardinal point, inside the pagoda, they are the small leaf-style with a lotus bud and supported in pedestals. The balan, or throne of the Buddha, is quite ornate and monumental, also featuring a beautiful depiction of Preah Neang Kong Hing on its rear side.

Inscription

K. 114 – stele

Aymonier pointed out at Vat Rosei Srok, in Srěi Santhor, province of Kompon Càm, a stele bearing on one of its faces a Khmer inscription of 28 lines in 6th century çaka script, which began with an illegible date and which mentioned donations of goods , of numerous slave women and their children, made to deities, whose names are erased, by characters qualified Poñ eta named, it seems, Ramapāla, Sarvadanta, etc. There is also talk of a son of Mratâñ or Lord. Aymonier had a stamping made of this inscription which is kept in Paris at the National Library.

L. De Lajonquiere says he did not find this stele, but he points out in the same region, at Svày Såt Phnom, another stele – (1 m. 70 x 0 m. 55) one side of which presents the image at the bottom – relief of a reclining Buddha, and the other of which bears a Khmer inscription. This Buddhist stele is also mentioned by Aymonier who neither saw it personally nor stamped it.

It would therefore seem that there were two stelae, in two neighboring localities, one sculpted and inscribed, the other simply inscribed.

However, the inscription stamped at Våt Rosči Srok and analyzed by Aymonier, is identical to that which was stamped at Svày Såt Phnom by L. De Lajonquiere, and more recently by the Directorate of Cambodian Arts. It is therefore possible that there was only ever one stele, sculpted and inscribed, and that the duplication originated from inaccurate or misinterpreted information.

The Khmer inscription of Svày Phnom has 28 very poorly preserved lines. It begins with a date of which the name of the hundreds digit, six, is the only one guaranteed. The date was perhaps 620 c=698 A.D.

On this date, a Mratan, whose name is not certain, gave slaves to a divinity, whose name seems to be Vacasviçvara, in concert with his son, the Pon Sarvadatta (and not Sarvadanta as Aymonier says), and another Poñ whose name read by Aymonier Ramapāla, must in reality begin with Civarã. The inscription then gives the list of these slaves which, at the end of 1. 26, are totaled to 123.

Inscriptions Du Cambodge, George Coedes

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..