Ta Phrom is the first temple we visited in Siem Reap, and it certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the most atmospheric of the temples here.
Next to Angkor Wat, the temple of Ta Phrom may be the most famous – mostly because it was the setting for the movie “Tomb Raider”, but also because it has been left in a somewhat overgrown state, giving the visitor an idea of what the temples looked like when they were first “rediscovered” by French archeologists early in the 20th century. They had been abandoned for 400 years, and the jungle had reclaimed a lot of them.
To visit this temple, built in 1176 CE and founded by Khmer King Yayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university, you walk through very heavily forested grounds (about 650,000 square meters) until you come to your first sight of the temple – in fact, its library, with what looks like a Spung (silk cotton) tree growing out of the top of it.
As you continue to explore, you find tree roots wrapped around huge blocks of stone. Some of the roots, in fact are larger than many trees with which we are familiar.
Some of the roots are so heavy that they have been shored up with scaffolding, so as to keep them from crushing the rock.
And you come across passage ways that are blocked by fallen rocks that you are sure must lead to somewhere, if only you could get there….
There are also exquisite carvings on some of the walls, and on blocks of stone that have fallen haphazardly over the centuries.
Temple Visited 1/19/18
Post published in Ho Chi Mihn City (aka Saigon) 1/29/18
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