Heritage site
Phnom Bok
ភ្នំបូក
Phnom Bok (ភ្នំបូក) is a hill northeast of Angkor (អង្គរ) and the temple on its summit, attributed to the reign of King Yasovarman I (យសោវរ្ម័នទី១).[1][2][3] It is one of three hilltop temples from his reign, with Phnom Bakheng (ភ្នំបាខែង) and Phnom Krom (ភ្នំក្រោម).[1][4][5] Maurice Glaize, in his 1944 guide to the Angkor monuments, gave the name's meaning as "the ox-hump mountain".[3]
The hill is 235 meters (771 feet) high[3] or about 220 meters (722 feet).[6] It rises among rice fields about 14 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Phnom Bakheng,[7] beyond the East Baray (បារាយណ៍ខាងកើត) reservoir.[4][1] It lies about 22 kilometers (14 miles) northeast of the city of Siem Reap.[2] Its distance from Angkor Wat is given as 17.5 kilometers (10.9 miles)[6] or about 19 kilometers (12 miles).[2] Glaize described the plain spreading out on every side below the summit, closed to the north by the long ridge of Phnom Kulen.[3] Hello Angkor noted in June 2020 that trees had grown over much of the summit, leaving clear views only from the top of the stairs and through a few gaps.[2]
History
Yasovarman I came to the throne in 889.[1][4] He founded a new capital, Yasodharapura (យសោធបុរៈ), around the temple on Phnom Bakheng.[1] Temples on the two hills that flank it are also attributed to his reign: Phnom Krom to the south, near the Tonle Sap (ទន្លេសាប),[7][1] and Phnom Bok to the northeast.[1][2][7] Giulio Magli wrote that the two outer temples marked the limits of the sacred space of the future Angkor.[6]
No inscription has been found at Phnom Bok or at Phnom Krom, so neither temple carries a date of its own.[3][2] Their style and their close ties to Phnom Bakheng place them in Yasovarman's reign.[2] The temple is dated to the late 9th or early 10th century[3] or to the 10th century.[2] Glaize found the two temples so alike that he held them to be the work of one architect, built on one plan and carved by one team of sculptors. In his view they date within a few years of Phnom Bakheng, whose motifs they share.[3]
Like Phnom Krom, the temple was dedicated to the Trimurti, the three Hindu gods Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, with a tower for each.[1][2] Glaize saw the three hilltop temples as a way for the king to place all his subjects, in the city and the countryside, under the protection of these gods.[3]
The temple appears in the inventories of Aymonier, of 1901, and Lunet de Lajonquière, of 1911, and on the list of historic monuments (Liste des Monuments Historiques) of 1926.[2] Glaize partly cleared it in 1939.[3]
Architecture
Three sandstone sanctuary towers stand on a shared platform and open to the east.[2] Unlike those at Phnom Krom, the three towers are equal in size.[3] Hello Angkor names four sandstone buildings in front of them, which open to the west, as libraries.[2] Glaize counted four annexes: the two outer ones of brick and the two others of sandstone.[3] Long halls of laterite, a porous reddish-brown stone, once surrounded the group.[7][3] A laterite wall encloses the whole.[2][3]
The pediments are nearly square. Each is framed by large makaras, sea monsters with trunks, at the ends of the arch, and holds a central figure among large flame-like scrolls and small heads of gods.[3][7] The carved devatas, celestial nymphs, face straight ahead,[3][7] and the eight-sided small columns have four bands.[3] The carving repeats the motifs of Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Krom with small differences of detail, and the decoration of the north and south towers was never finished.[3]
East of the temple lies a deep rectangular pit lined with brick, about 12 by 8 meters (39 by 26 feet), with steps on its east side; Glaize took it to be a former water tank.[3] A great sandstone linga, toppled and broken, lies on a high laterite platform 150 meters (490 feet) west of the temple[3] or a short walk to the east, beside a deep well.[2] Glaize gave the linga's size as 4 meters (13 feet) tall and 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) across, carved from a single block of about 10 tons.[3]
State of the temple at its clearing
When Glaize cleared the site, the towers had lost their upper tiers. He finished removing the fallen stone on the east side and only began on the west. The carved walls proved finely made and far better kept than those at Phnom Krom, because the stone had been sheltered from the weather.[3] The two brick annexes had collapsed, while the two of sandstone stood in better condition than their counterparts at Phnom Krom. Only the bases of the laterite halls remained, but the enclosure wall stood whole.[3]
The clearing uncovered, in the north tower, a broken pedestal with a linga of a kind usually classed as pre-Angkorian. Large pieces of a fine statue of Vishnu, in an assertive pose, lay at the foot of the central tower; Glaize judged that the statue appears to be later than the temple. The south tower held the large round pedestal that once carried the statue of Brahma.[3][2]
The heads in Paris
In 1873 the French explorer Louis Delaporte found three sandstone heads of the Trimurti gods lying damaged in the rubble of the temple, and he took them to France.[8][3] Le Journal des Arts wrote that Delaporte removed sculptures and architectural pieces from Cambodian sites with the official consent of the Cambodian royal authorities.[8] As of 2026, the heads are in the Musée Guimet in Paris.[3][2] They were shown there in the exhibition Angkor, Naissance d'un mythe, Louis Delaporte et le Cambodge, from October 10, 2013, to January 13, 2014.[8]
The solstice alignment
Seen from the west entrance of Angkor Wat, the sun rises over the temple on Phnom Bok at the summer solstice. Magli confirmed the alignment in 2016 but judged it unlikely to be deliberate, because accepting it would mean that the placing of Angkor Wat as a whole was governed by this alignment, for which he found no cultural basis. The temple on Phnom Bok was already old when Angkor Wat was planned.[6]
Visiting
A Wat stands on the summit just before the temple, with colorful paintings of Buddhist stories;[2] Glaize called it a modern addition.[3] As of 2026, the site is covered by the Angkor Pass.[2] It is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.[2] Steep stairs and a winding dirt path both climb the hill. The climb by the stairs takes about 25 minutes.[2] The ruined brick temple of Trapeang Chambak stands at the eastern foot of the hill, and Prasat Leak Neang on the plain to the north.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Kings of the Angkor period, part 10 of a history series (April 2, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 Hello Angkor, Rodney Charles L'Huillier, Phnom Bok: Highlights and History (updated January 1, 2026)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 The Angkor Guide, Maurice Glaize, Phnom Bok, from The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Phnom Kulen: Archeological Site/Ancient Site of Mahendraparvata, tentative list entry (March 27, 2020)
- ↑ Hello Angkor, Rodney Charles L'Huillier, Phnom Bakheng: The Mountain Top Pyramid, History and Highlights (updated January 1, 2026)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Giulio Magli, Archaeoastronomy in the Khmer Heartland (arXiv, 2016)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Angkor Database, Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group (1944; English translation of the fourth French edition)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Le Journal des Arts, Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter, Un Angkor plus vrai que nature (October 29, 2013; in French)