Ta Prohn 2007-1-12
Our driver had told us last night that we had to go early this morning to avoid the massive tourists coming into this popular temple. Unlike Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat which were large and could easily accommodate large number of visitors; this one was much smaller, and it could be very crowd especially if one wanted to take photos. When we were about to leave, a large group of Japanese tourists pouring in, and they formed a long queue to take turn to take photo in front of the giant octopus roots. We felt that we were lucky we came early.
It was the only temple that had been chosen to be left in its natural state. However, many works were still continued on to prevent it from further damages and collapsed. I liked this temple because it gave me the feeling of adventure. And it showed how the nature can easily take over any human buildings. I felt that I was being choked by the tree roots too.
The city was built around the late 12th to 13th centuries. Like many other temple city in Angkor, it featured a set of concentric square enclosures. The outer wall was 1000x650 m in dimension and according to the inscription found in the temple, there were 3140 villages and 79,365 people living in this city. The area was now mainly forest. Followed the road through the woods, we arrived at a ruin which was referred to as the House of Fire in the book. We missed looking for the bras-relief of Bodhsattva Lokesvara on the pediment. There was a raised terrace at the end of the road, and its root grabbed the surface stones of the terrace like an octopus. There was a big tree at the end the crooked Gopura IV, which was the entrance to an enclosure surrounded by a wall of 250x220 m. The main gate was closed and was supported by a wooden structure recently install to prevent it from further collapsed. We were shocked to see the distorted form of the building.
On both sides of the walls at the other gate were beautiful bras-reliefs depicting the life of Buddha. Once we entered the enclosure, we saw the spectacular view of this temple which had made it very famous, giant roots of silk cotton tree hanging at the corner wall of a gallery. It looked like an octopus climbed in from the roof of the gallery. This scene was repeated many times inside the temple. We followed the wooded walkway, and ahead was a large building of 20x30 m with no roof. It contained four courts and each was formed by 24 pillars. This was referred to as the Hall of Dancers probably because of the finding of bras-reliefs depicting a row of dancing apsuras on its lintels. We passed the high wall of this building, and found two beautiful blind doors. Turning from the corner of the Hall of Dancers, we saw Gopura III, the entrance to the third enclosure containing many ruined buildings.
It was like entering a labyrinth. Ruined buildings were everywhere. I tried to follow the description in the book to re-trace what we had seen without any success. The most strucking scene was the many giant roots strangulating the walls, the galleries, the shrines and the towers. Fortunately, there were still some buildings in good shape and we could see the beautiful bras-reliefs on them. We found only one face-tower and it was in good condition.
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