01Kailasa on a volcano
Phanom Rung means big mountain in Khmer, and the builders treated the extinct cone as Kailasa. Brick shrines stood here in the 10th century; the great sandstone sanctuary was raised in the early 12th century under Narendraditya, a local lord related to the Angkor kings, whose son Hiranya recorded his deeds in an inscription. A 160-metre avenue lined with lotus-bud posts leads to three naga bridges and up five flights of stairs to the gate. Over the inner doorway dances Shiva Nataraja; on other lintels are Rama and Lakshmana bound by the naga-arrow, Krishna lifting Govardhan, and rishis at their fires.
02The lintel that came home
The lintel over the eastern porch shows Vishnu reclining on Ananta with Brahma rising from his navel. It disappeared from the site in the 1960s and turned up in the Art Institute of Chicago. A long public campaign in Thailand followed, and in 1988 the lintel was returned and set back in its place, the same year the Fine Arts Department finished seventeen years of restoration and the park was opened on 21 May. Four times a year the rising or setting sun shines straight through all fifteen doorways of the sanctuary, and in April thousands gather to see it.
The life of this place
- 10th centuryThe first brick shrines are built on the hill.
- Early 12th centuryThe main sandstone sanctuary is raised under Narendraditya.
- 1971–1988The Fine Arts Department restores the temple.
- 1988The reclining Vishnu lintel is returned from Chicago; the park opens on 21 May.
About 65 km south of Buriram town. Go early; the sun-through-the-doors days in April and September draw large crowds.
