Heritage site
Wat Phu
វត្តភូ
Wat Phu (វត្តភូ), also written Vat Phou or Vat Phu, is a Khmer temple complex in Champasak province in southern Laos.[1][2] It lies on the right bank of the Mekong, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the Khone falls on the border with Cambodia.[2] Its shrine stands below a mountain known in Sanskrit as Lingaparvata.[2][3]
Site
The peak of the mountain has a shape that was read in ancient times as a linga, the emblem of the god Shiva, which gave it the name Lingaparvata, "Linga Mountain".[2] A spring flows all year from one of its cliffs. Santoni, Hawixbrock and Souksavatdy write that the spring most likely led the first rulers there to build a shrine to Shiva.[2] The earliest buildings were replaced over time by a large complex on the hillside in the classic Khmer style of the 11th to 13th centuries.[2]
The sanctuary has an 11th-century sandstone front hall and a brick inner chamber that may be older. It stands on the top level of seven great terraces, reached by seven stairways on the east side. On its west side a sandstone portico 62 meters (203 feet) long separates it from the area of the spring, at the foot of the cliff.[2] The French team found a channel that carried water from the spring through the brick wall of the inner chamber. They read this as proof that the sacred water was brought into the sanctuary from the start.[2]
Ancient city
An older city lies on the plain 5 kilometers (3 miles) east of the temple, on the bank of the Mekong, and most of its remains show only on aerial photographs.[2] The French team dates it from the 5th to the 7th century. They measured its outer walls at 2,300 by 1,800 meters (about 1.4 by 1.1 miles) and recorded about thirty monuments.[2]
A Sanskrit inscription from the 5th century found at Wat Phu, near where the Mun River meets the Mekong, describes a king named Devanika who ruled there as king of kings.[4] Santoni, Hawixbrock and Souksavatdy date this stele to the middle of the 5th century. They write that the city was known as Kurukshetra when Devanika founded it, and that he may have been its founder.[2] Two inscribed sandstone pedestals found in the city were set up in about 590 by King Mahendravarman, for statues dedicated to his father and his uncle (K. 1173 and K. 1174).[2] The authors suggest that Chenla had its earliest capital here and that Mahendravarman's dynasty began in this city.[2]
Under Angkor
Santoni, Hawixbrock and Souksavatdy write that the region of Wat Phu belonged to the Khmer Empire and was ruled from Angkor between the 9th and 14th centuries.[2] A raised road 10 meters (33 feet) wide leaves Wat Phu and runs about 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the Angkor region, 100 kilometers (62 miles) of it in Laos. Temples were built along it as way stations, but the authors write that these were never finished.[2] In their reading, Angkor's kings built the road to tie their new state to its place of origin at Wat Phu.[2]
Dominic Goodall calls the shrine of Shiva Bhadresha at Wat Phu a key site of Khmer religion through the whole ancient period.[3] He lists inscriptions there from the 5th century on, among them K. 367, usually assigned to King Jayavarman I in the 7th century, and a four-sided stela of the 10th century, K. 1320.[3] Higher on the mountain stands a ruined temple known as Vat Oup Mong. Goodall dates a doorjamb inscription there (K. 1060) probably to the reign of Jayavarman II, and calls it the only known record naming that king that seems to date from his reign.[3] An inscription of Wat Phu, K. 366, dates the coronation of Suryavarman II to 1113. The Thai prince Damrong recovered it at Ubon in 1930 and took it to the National Museum in Bangkok.[5] Chun Chanboth writes that Jayavarman VI continued building at Phnom Sandak, Preah Vihear, Wat Phu and Phimai.[1]
Research and listing
From 1990 to 1999 a French archaeological mission worked at the site with the archaeology division of the Lao Ministry of Information and Culture.[2] The authors write that this work helped lead to the listing of Wat Phu as a World Heritage Site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2001.[2] A museum of Wat Phu stands at the foot of the mountain.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, Two kings reigning at the same time in the mid-11th century, part 13 of a history series (May 14, 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 Marielle Santoni, Christine Hawixbrock and Viengkeo Souksavatdy, The French archaeological mission and Vat Phou: Research on an exceptional historic site in Laos, English version of a chapter in Recherches nouvelles sur le Laos (École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2008)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Udaya, Journal of Khmer Studies, Dominic Goodall, Two inscriptions from Lingaparvata (Vat Phu), one dating to Jayavarman I's reign (K. 1059) and the other to Jayavarman II's (K. 1060), along with a re-edition of K. 762 (No. 15, 2020)
- ↑ Proceedings of the British Academy, Charles F. W. Higham, The Origins of the Civilisation of Angkor (2003)
- ↑ Institute of Asian Culture, Sophia University, Nhim Sotheavin, Factors that Led to the Change of the Khmer Capitals from the 15th to 17th century (undated)