KOH KER

According to the inscriptions engraved on the pedestals of the Bakseï Chamkrong tower in Angkor, the usurper Jayavarman IV, uncle of the young king Içanavarman, didn't appreciate his nephew's overly epicurean behavior. So, proclaiming himself king in his turn, he set off 80 km from Angkor, with brahmins and servants, to found a new capital called Chok Gargyar, today's Koh Ker. Koh Ker must therefore be understood as a reactionary city, a city of good morals as opposed to the Sodom and Gomorrah that Angkor had apparently become at the time.

The good king Jayavarman IV was in fact crowned twice, the first by his own hand (one is never so well served as by oneself...), the second, quite legitimately, on the death of his merry nephew in 928... He remained faithful to Chok Gargyar, where he died in 942.

His son Hashavarman succeeded him for two years before dying in his turn and being replaced by a brother-in-law, Rajendravarman, who abandoned Koh Ker to return to Angkor, where he transcended his father-in-law's style with monumental new constructions such as Pré Rup (the last mountain temple) and the Eastern Mebon. Koh Ker continued to be inhabited, year in, year out, until the ^11th century.

With stewardship assured, all that remained for the usurper to do was start building! Tribhuvaneçvara, the deity to whom Koh Ker was finally dedicated, was to guide his arm. Jayavarman IV's improvised capital features no fewer than 18 sanctuaries spread from the Rahal along the Khmer causeway linking it to Beng Mealea. The first sanctuaries to emerge from the latter temple are Prasat Pram, Prasat Damrei and Prasat Chen, all along the road. Prasat Thom, formerly known as Lingapura, is Koh Ker's main temple, located not far from the north-west corner of Rahal, and comprises three distinct entities: the sanctuary, the prang (pyramid) and the outer buildings. The sanctuary and prang are enclosed within the same enclosure, but separated by an inner wall pierced by a small gopura for circulation.

The temple is entered through a beautiful shrine-like entrance adorned with large sandstone-framed windows and sculpted lintels, which leads into the third enclosure onto a paved roadway framed by two galleries whose pillars once supported a wooden roof. On either side are sandstone basins with naga-shaped coping stones.

The second enclosure is pierced at both ends by beautiful gopuras illuminated by balustraded windows, and is quickly followed by the last enclosure giving access to the sanctuary through two other gopuras situated in the same way, each at one end of the enclosure.

At the center of the sanctuary is a terrace where, in parallel lines, twelve remains of the small square brick monuments that formed the heart of the temple, face the terrace, the remains of libraries.

We then enter the courtyard of the Prang, a gigantic seven-storey sandstone-faced pyramid measuring 55 m square and over 40 m high. A staircase in the middle of each face served the various floors. At the very top of the pyramid rested "a linga of 9 Carva, placed at a height of 9 times 9 cubits, with images of Brahma and other gods". The view from here is superb, embracing the entire horizon.