Heritage site
East Baray
បារាយណ៍ខាងកើត
East Baray (បារាយណ៍ខាងកើត) is the great reservoir that King Yasovarman I (យសោវរ្ម័នទី១) built at Angkor in the late 9th century.[1][2][3][4] Inscriptions call it the Yasodharatataka (យសោធរៈតដាក).[3][5][4] Maurice Glaize wrote that Zhou Daguan called it the "Eastern Lake".[3]
History
Yasovarman came to the throne in 889.[1][4] He moved the royal center from Hariharalaya (ហរិហរាល័យ) to a new capital, Yasodharapura (យសោធបុរៈ), built around Phnom Bakheng (ភ្នំបាខែង).[1][2][4] He had the reservoir dug east[6] or north-east[4] of that capital, on the east side of the Siem Reap River.[2] It joined the water network of Angkor in the late 9th century, to the north of the older network around Roluos.[5] Charles Higham wrote that, once finished, it covered twice the area of the Indratataka (ឥន្ទ្រតដាក),[4] the reservoir of Yasovarman's father, Indravarman I (ឥន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី១).[1][4]
On its south bank, Yasovarman founded retreats for ascetics, or asrama (អាស្រម), for followers of Shiva and of Vishnu,[6][4] and, in Radio Free Asia's account, for Buddhists.[4]
It measures two kilometers from north to south by seven kilometers from east to west (1.2 by 4.3 miles)[3] or seven kilometers by 1,800 meters (4.3 by 1.1 miles).[4] An earth bank enclosed it, and at each of its four corners stood a stele in a shelter.[3] Glaize judged its first depth at three meters (10 feet) from the laterite steps around its central island, and its volume at 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet).[3] He also wrote that the West Baray (បារាយណ៍ខាងលិច),[7] dug west of Angkor Thom, probably in the 11th century, copied the East Baray at a similar size.[6] As of 2011, the West Baray was the largest of Angkor's four barays and the only one that held water.[8]
Water
In a 2008 paper in Antiquity, Roland Fletcher and his co-authors, citing Christophe Pottier, wrote that water first reached the reservoir at its north-east corner, from the upper Roluos river. Later, probably in the 10th century, a channel cut from the Puok river fed it. The Puok is the Siem Reap River.[9] That channel left the Puok at Bam Penh Reach, ran south in a zigzag, turned east and then south again to the inlet at the north-east corner.[9][5] Glaize named the Siem Reap River as the reservoir's source,[3] and Lawrence Palmer Briggs wrote that Yasovarman straightened the river's course.[2] Glaize thought the reservoir served to control the river's flow and to water the plain around it.[3]
In a second 2008 paper, Fletcher, Pottier and their co-authors treated its first source as not settled. If the channel north of Phnom Bok (ភ្នំបូក)[4] fed the old Roluos river, the East Baray took a large share of the Indratataka's water. If it drew on a separate river, the two reservoirs worked together.[5]
Water left through a large outlet in the middle of the east bank, called Krol Romeas. It controlled the flow through the bank toward the east and south-east.[5][9] The site was cleared of vegetation in January and February 2007. As of 2008, the Greater Angkor Project was excavating it. Two parallel laterite walls, each 100 meters (330 feet) long, about 3.5 meters (11 feet) high and more than 1.2 meters (4 feet) thick, stand more than 30 meters (98 feet) apart.[9]
Temples
King Rajendravarman II (រាជេន្ទ្រវរ្ម័នទី២) brought the court back to Angkor from Koh Ker (កោះកេរ្តិ៍) and made his capital south of the reservoir.[1][2][10] In 952 he built the East Mebon (ប្រាសាទមេបុណ្យខាងកើត) on an island at its center.[1][3][10] The island is 120 meters (390 feet) across.[3] His temple of Pre Rup (ប្រាសាទប្រែរូប), dated 961, stands 500 meters (1,640 feet) south of the southern bank.[6][3][10]
Ta Keo (ប្រាសាទតាកែវ), begun in the late 10th century, lies west of the reservoir.[11] Ta Prohm, a 12th-century temple, lies south of its south-west corner.[9]
The reservoir bed
In 1944, Glaize found much of the bed silted up and farmed as rice fields. He thought a disaster or a break in a bank must have filled it quickly, rather than slow silting over time.[3] In 2011, Mary Beth Day and her co-authors, citing earlier measurements, put the silt at about 43 centimeters (17 inches) in the middle of the East Baray.[8] They wrote that in both the West and East Barays the silt is mostly shallow, under half a meter (20 inches).[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Proceedings of the British Academy, Charles F. W. Higham, The Origins of the Civilisation of Angkor (2003)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Far Eastern Quarterly, Lawrence Palmer Briggs, A Sketch of Cambodian History (August 1947)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 The Angkor Guide, Maurice Glaize, Eastern Mebon (1944 guide, English translation; undated)
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Kings of the Angkor period, part 10 of a history series (April 2, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, Roland Fletcher, Christophe Pottier, Damian Evans and Matti Kummu, The Development of the Water Management System of Angkor: A Provisional Model (2008)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ APSARA National Authority, APSARA National Authority has been releasing water from the West Baray to irrigate villagers' rice fields (January 19, 2024; in Khmer and English)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Mary Beth Day, David A. Hodell, Mark Brenner and others, Paleoenvironmental history of the West Baray, Angkor (Cambodia) (2011)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Antiquity, Roland Fletcher, Dan Penny, Damian Evans and others, The water management network of Angkor, Cambodia (2008)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Wars over the throne among kings of the Angkor period, part 11 of a history series (April 9, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ APSARA National Authority, Discover the History and Unique Features of Takeo Temple (July 15, 2026)