Wat Vihear Thom

Also known as Wat Monisalvan Vihear Thom, what we see today is a contemporary pagoda, monastery and school in a lovely peaceful setting, all quite typical, but the site actually houses a great mystery and wonder of the ancient Khmer Empire.

That story began in the early 1900s when the abbot, needing water for his monastery, began clearing a nearby natural spring some 1.5 km to the east of the monastery (at Phnom Andong Svay) and soon discovered ancient masonry. The French were alerted to the discovery and George Groslier arrived to investigate. Through excavations, they’d discover unusual subterranean vestibules taking advantage of natural caves. Grosliers’ original sketch in 1919 and Parmentiers’ sketch and photos from 1920 of those excavations reveal the extent of the unusual development. The site today is filled over.

In one of the chambers, they’d also uncover a beautifully carved and inscribed stone that depicted a tricula emanating from a vase with the nature of the inscription giving a date to the site of the 7th century. That tricula is now on display at the Phnom Penh National Museum. Note the holes (mortises) at the base in each photo and see the notes on the inscription further below.

There has been some later research on the site and I’ll add that here when I come across it.

Nearby the pagoda there is a shelter housing an ancient fronton depicting a male head flanked by lotus within a kudu which is flanked by two smaller kudu also featuring faces albeit quite decayed. These kudu (a Tamil-Indian term I believe) are seen as decorative features across several very early sites such as the cellas at Hanchey, N17 at Sambor Prei Kuk, Ashram Moha Russei at Phnom Da that some link to Gandhara art. The shape also resembles that of a Chaitya hall/Chaitya Arch (or gavaksha) used widely in Hindu and Buddhist art of western India and based on the style of the very ancient Buddhist caves there.

In 1935, Parmentier provided an illustration of the piece, but little information on its origins, he commented on it as huate antiquite (a wide time period from 3300 BC to the 476 AD), also noting

It is a pediment rendered with an enormous kudu: it measures 2 m. 15 wide at base, 1 m. 65 high, and it has a thickness of 45 cm. Unfortunately, it has been cemented and it is possible that it will be repaired and therefore slightly transformed…. This set rests on a huge 2.8 m long shale slab,, 1.20 m wide, and at least 14 cm thick. In addition, two buddha under naga which may be partly old, there is also a small stone cetdei with four faces in a niche decorated with a buddha.

Complément à L’Art khmèr primitif, 1935 p 91

It’s also intersting that this “design” can still be seen in use today at several pagodas, I’ll remember to take some photos of that and post them here at a later date.

Inside the pagoda, up high atop the balan, I guess is what Parmentier was referring to in noting a cetdei. It’s what some will note as a Chaitya. On the north side of the pagoda, there is a pedestal-like object but I am unsure whether old or ancient.

Inscription

The inscription on the tricula is recorded under K. 520. As noted by Finot in his report from 1920, the inscription is engraved from bottom to top, on the middle branch of the triçula in characters one centimeter high. It is a Sanskrit shloka (or çloka = poetic verse). He notes The two mortises seen in the tricula that were apparently intended to receive the offering noted in the inscription were found empty. He notes the writing as from the primitive period of Cambodian epigraphy (6th to 7th century saka (saka = Hindu Calendar = + 78 year for Gregorian)). Here is the text:

iha lingapratisthatur Bhojasyaçltivarsinah tricalamale nikita damsträs tá ya mukhacyutah

From the octogenarian Bhoja, who here erected the linga, the teeth fallen of his mouth were deposited at the base of the tricula.

Nearby

There are several more interesting pagodas nearby and one to the south houses another Buddhist “chaitya” see the wider map of Kampong Siem District.

References

• Finot Louis. Le Triçula inscrit de Práh Vihâr Thom. In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 20, 1920. pp. 6-7; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1920.5555 https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1920_num_20_1_5555
• Parmentier Henri. Vestiges de Vihâr Thom. In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 20, 1920. pp. 2-6; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1920.5554 https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1920_num_20_1_5554
• Une exposition d’inscriptions préangkoriennes au musée national du Cambodge de Phnom Penh (Corpus des inscriptions khmères). In: Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. Tome 95-96, 2008. pp. 431-433; doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.2008.6117 https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_2008_num_95_1_6117

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..