Heritage site
Neak Poan
ប្រាសាទនាគព័ន្ធ
Neak Poan (ប្រាសាទនាគព័ន្ធ), also spelled Neak Pean, is a small Buddhist temple on an island in the Jayatataka, the reservoir of Preah Khan at Angkor. It was built in the reign of King Jayavarman VII, in the second half of the 12th century.[1][2] Its name means "the entwined serpents", after the two nagas whose tails wrap around the base of its central island.[1] The temple of Ta Som lies to its east.[3]
History
The foundation stele of Preah Khan, dated to 1191, describes the Jayatataka reservoir and its temple, which it calls Rajyasri.[2] In the stele, the reservoir shines like a mirror, and the island at its center washes away the sins of everyone who touches it and carries them across the ocean of existence.[1]
Zhou Daguan, a Chinese envoy who went to Angkor in 1296 and was back in China by 1297, described a "Northern Lake" north of the city. In it stood a square golden tower and dozens of small stone houses, with figures of a lion and a Buddha in gold and of an elephant, an ox and a horse in bronze. In a note to Paul Pelliot's 1902 French translation of his account, Étienne Aymonier identified this lake as the now dry reservoir in front of Preah Khan that surrounded Neak Poan.[4]
The French archaeologist Henri Marchal cleared the site from 1922 to 1924. Until a storm in 1935, a huge fig tree grew on top of the central shrine; its roots held the carvings together but broke up much of the upper structure. Maurice Glaize took the shrine apart and rebuilt it in 1938 and 1939.[1] That work showed that the temple was built in at least two stages. The scholar George Cœdès suggested that it was first dedicated to the Buddha and given over to the bodhisattva Lokeshvara only near the end of Jayavarman VII's reign, when the pools were arranged for healing baths.[1]
The temple
The Jayatataka measured 3,500 by 900 meters and lay on the same axis as Preah Khan. Neak Poan stands on a square island 350 meters on each side, edged with laterite steps; one of the small stone elephants that once stood at its corners is still in place, at the northeast.[1]
At the center of the island is a square pool, 70 meters on each side. In its middle, a round island 14 meters across holds a small shrine. Four smaller pools, each 25 meters on a side, lie on the four axes, each with a small chapel set into the bank between each one and the central pool.[1] The scholars George Cœdès, Louis Finot and Victor Goloubew saw the central pool as a copy of Lake Anavatapta. That sacred lake of Indian tradition, high in the Himalaya, was revered for the healing power of its water and was said to feed the four great rivers of the world.[1]
The two nagas around the round island are taken to be the serpent kings Nanda and Upananda, often linked with Lake Anavatapta in Indian writing. The shrine's pediments show scenes from the life of the Buddha, among them the Cutting of the Hair and the Great Departure. It has a door on the east only; the other three were walled up and carved with large images of Lokeshvara.[1]
Each chapel has a spout carved as a head: an elephant on the north, a horse on the west, a lion on the south and a human head on the east. Water ran through the spout onto pilgrims crouching below on a lotus base, who came hoping to be cured of illness.[1] On the east side of the central pool is a statue of the flying horse Balaha, a form of Lokeshvara, carrying the merchant Simhala and his companions to safety from an island of ogresses.[1]
Visiting by boat
A community boat service on the reservoir began in 2017, with help from the APSARA National Authority, the government body that manages the Angkor park, the Australian government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In 2026 it had seven boats and more than 20 members from Plong and Leang Dai villages, and offered a 30-minute trip on the reservoir and longer trips of 90 minutes to two hours out to the temple.[5] Yi Yuok, vice-president of the boat association, says that in ancient times the temple was a place of healing that the sick could reach only by boat. He recommends going at sunrise or sunset.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation), "Neak Pean"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Angkor National Museum, Inscription of Preah Khan (K.908) (July 5, 2025)
- ↑ The Cambodia Daily, Jody McPhillips, Cambodian Team Working to Restore Temple (March 5, 2002)
- ↑ Paul Pelliot, "Mémoires sur les coutumes du Cambodge", Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient 2 (1902) (in French)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kampuchea Thmey, Dy Bunnara, A boat ride to Neak Poan temple (July 26, 2026; in Khmer)