Date: Late 12th century (1191)
Style: Bayon
Reign: Jayavarman VII, alterations by Jayavarman VIII
Visit: At least 1hr
Highlights
One of Jayavarman VII’s largest projects, Preah Khan was much more than a temple: with over 1,000 teachers it appears also to have been a Buddhist university, as well as a considerable city. As at Ta Prohm, the foundation stele was discovered in situ, and it gives a considerable amount of information about the temple, its foundation and its maintenance.
It was probably the site of the previous palace of Yasovarman II and Tribhuvanadityavarman, while references to a ‘lake of blood’ indicate that Preah Khan was built on the site of a major battle in the recapture of Angkor from the Chams, and the Cham king died here. Just as Ta Prohm was dedicated to the king’s mother as Prajñaparamita, so Preah Khan, five years later in 1191, was dedicated to the king’s father, Dharanindravarman. In his likeness, a statue of the bodhisattva Lokesvara, Jayavarmesvara, was consecrated in this year. In other shrines in the city there were 430 secondary deities.
Plan
Preah Khan is located on the western edge of its own long baray, the Jayatataka, and a terraced landing-stage at the end of the temple’s W-E axis gave access to the lake. A moat encloses the city, which covers 800m x 700m – 56 hectares. Within the outer wall, most of the space was occupied by the city dwellings.
The third enclosure, 200m x 175m, is bounded by another laterite wall, with four gopuras, of which the eastern one is the grandest. Inside, much of the space between the wall and the second enclosure is taken up with additional structures and ponds, including a Hall of Dancers on the E side, subsidiary galleried enclosures on the N, W and S, and ponds of different sizes in each of the four corners.
There is little space between the wall of the second enclosure, 85m x 76m, and the gallery of the inner enclosure, 62m x 55m, and on the east side it is filled with later small buildings. This is nothing, however, compared with the confusion that reigns in the inner enclosure, with small shrines and other structures crowding the four corners that are separated by the axial galleries leading from the central sanctuary.