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Banteay Samre, Cambodia

Cambodia: Banteay Samre, Pre Rup
November 2015

Banteay Samre Pre Rup
Cambodia, Banteay Samre

 

Steep Pre Rup contrasts with the flat layout of Banteay Samre; two different styles but both peaceful with few visitors enjoying Pre Rup's warm red glow and Banteay Samre's many fine carvings.

Banteay Samre

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Platform and processional way to the east entrance.

 

Built some time within the first half of the twelfth century Banteay Samre1,2 is of similar age, and style, to Angkor Wat. It is remarkably complete and has some of the best-preserved carvings.

The temple is about six kilometres east of Ta Prohm and much less visited than those nearer the centre of the Angkor temple complex.

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
The platform was once decorated with fine carving.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
None of the lions now have heads.

From the east it is approached by a very fine processional way with naga balustrades and an impressive platform edged with Khmer lions. This leads to the east entrance or gopura.

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
East facade, outer enclosure.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Outer enclosure, west gopura, east side, half fronton carving.
Battle of Lanka, from the left : Vishnu with four arms on a lion,Skanda, god of war, with ten arms and multiple heads, on a peacock, and Yama, god of the Dead, on a buffalo.1

Scenes from the Battle of Lanka, where the monkeys play an important role, are carved into frontons on the outer enclosure.

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Outer enclosure, west gopura, east side.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Outer enclosure, west gopura, east side.
Vishnu/Krishna fighting two assuras, holding them by their topknots.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia

 

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Outer enclosure, east gopura.


Banteay Samre, Cambodia
The central tower, very like those at Angkor Wat.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
View from south east corner of the outer enclosure.
The remains of square pillars can be seen.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Inner enclosure, south gopura, south side.
Detail below: Vishnu on a chariot, possibly pulled by Garuda.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia

The east gopura of the outer enclosure leads into what is now a grassy space around the inner enclosure. Both enclosures have four gopuras, one on each side.

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
The south gopura of the inner enclosure.

We walked around to the south side and crossed to the inner enclosure. The temple is renowned for its beautiful carving and this is evident in the figurative carving on lintels and decorative carving on the edges of the platforms.

Banteay Samre, Cambodia

Inside the inner enclosure. The building on the right is the southern "library"; centre and left is the crossing corridor room called a mandapa leading from the east gopura to the central tower.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia

From the east gopura of the inner enclosure a rectangular building called a mandapa leads to the central tower. North and south of the mandapa are two buildings which are called "libraries".

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
The central tower.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Inside the mandapa.
It looks like a sarcophagus but is actually a stone basin.
Note the well-preserved carving on the lintel.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Inner enclosure, north gopura, south side.
Shiva on the bull Nandin?
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Inner enclosure, north gopura.
Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Inner enclosure, west gopura.

 

 

 

It was very peaceful, at Banteay Samre, though hot.

 

We were the only people here until a few monks turned up in their orange and saffron robes, as keen to photograph the temple as we were.

Banteay Samre, Cambodia
Inner enclosure, west gopura.
Conjunction of the sun and moon.


Banteay Samre, Cambodia

 

Pre Rup

Pre Rup, Cambodia
South front of Pre Rup.

Dating from around 960 A.D. in the reign of Rajendravarman, Pre Rup was one of the earliest temples that we visited in the Angkor region, predating Ta Prohm by almost 200 years. It is the last in the area to be of the temple-mountain style without continuous surrounding galleries.1,3

It consists of a pyramid of three tiers with a central tower and four corner towers. The central pyramid is surrounded by rectangular rooms separated by gaps - all later temples would have continuous galleries, as at Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and many others.

Pre Rup translates as "turn the body" and may have had something to do with the cremation ritual being performed here, though any such links are speculation.

Pre Rup, Cambodia
East entrance.

Lying two or three kilometres east of Ta Prohm it presents much reddish laterite and brick where the covering plaster has mostly fallen away. It is a very warm-looking temple, probably very photogenic at sunrise or sunset.

We were visiting late morning on a beautiful sunny day but there were still very few visitors here - it is one of the less-visited temples of the many in the region.

The main entrance was the east gopura, through a laterite wall. Inside there were three towers on each side of the entrance.

 

Pre Rup, Cambodia


Pre Rup, Cambodia
The east staircase.
Pre Rup, Cambodia
Pre Rup, Cambodia

 

 

References

  1. A Guide to the Angkor Monuments Maurice Glaize
  2. Asian Historical Architecture: Banteay Samre
  3. Asian Historical Architecture: Pre Rup Temple