01A guru’s temple
The foundation inscription names the builder: Yajnavaraha, a learned Brahmin of royal descent and guru to the young king Jayavarman V, with his brother Vishnukumara. The temple was consecrated in 967 to Shiva as Tribhuvanamaheshvara, Lord of the Three Worlds, about 25 kilometres north-east of the main Angkor group. Everything is small. The doorways of the inner shrines are barely a metre and a half high, and the scale makes the carving feel close, as if meant for the hand.
02Kathas in red stone
The pediments are some of the finest storytelling in Khmer stone. Ravana, many-headed and many-armed, shakes Kailash while Shiva and Parvati sit calmly above. Shiva burns Kama with the fire of his third eye. Durga rides her lion against Mahishasura, Narasimha tears Hiranyakashipu, and Krishna kills Kamsa. The doorways are guarded by devatas in close-fitting dress, the figures that tempted the young André Malraux, who cut four of them from the walls in 1923. He was arrested in Phnom Penh and the figures were returned.
The life of this place
- 967 CEYajnavaraha consecrates the temple to Shiva Tribhuvanamaheshvara.
- 1914The temple, overgrown by forest, is reported by French surveyors.
- 1923André Malraux removes four devata figures; he is arrested and they are restored.
- 1931–1936Henri Marchal rebuilds the temple by anastylosis, the first Khmer temple restored this way.
About 45 minutes by road from Siem Reap, on the Angkor pass. Go early before the tour buses; the sandstone glows red in low sun.
