Preah Khan

Infobox Mandir


creator = Jayavarman VII
proper_name = Preah Khan
date_built = 1191 A.D.
primary_deity = Avalokiteshvara
architecture = Khmer
location = Angkor, Cambodia

Preah Khan (Khmer: ប្រាសាទព្រះខ័ន) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built in the 12th century for King Jayavarman VII. It is located northeast of Angkor Thom and just west of the Jayatataka baray, with which it was associated. It was the centre of a substantial organisation, with almost 100,000 officials and servants. The temple is flat in design, with a basic plan of successive rectangular galleries around a Buddhist sanctuary complicated by Hindu satellite temples and numerous later additions. Like the nearby Ta Prohm, Preah Khan has been left largely unrestored, with numerous trees and other vegetation growing among the ruins.

History

Preah Khan was built on the site of Jayavarman VII's victory over the invading Chams in 1191. Unusually the modern name, meaning "holy sword", is derived from the meaning of the original — "Nagara Jayasri" (holy city of victory).ref|G01 The site may previously have been occupied by the royal palaces of Yasovarman II and Tribhuvanadityavarman.ref|FJ00 The temple's foundation stela has provided considerable information about the history and administration of the site: the main image, of the boddhisatva Avalokitesvara in the form of the king's father, was dedicated in 1191 (the king's mother had earlier been commemorated in the same way at Ta Prohm). 430 other deities also had shrines on the site, each of which received an allotment of food, clothing, perfume and even mosquito nets;ref|H01 the temple's wealth included gold, silver, gems, 112,300 pearls and a cow with gilded horns.ref|H02The institution combined the roles of city, temple and Buddhist university: there were 97,840 attendants and servants, including 1000 dancersref|G02 and 1000 teachers.ref|FJ01

The temple is still largely unrestored: the initial clearing was from 1927 to 1932, and partial anastylosis was carried out in 1939. Since then free-standing statues have been removed for safe-keeping, and there has been further consolidation and restoration work. Throughout, the conservators have attempted to balance restoration and maintenance of the wild condition in which the temple was discovered: one of them, Maurice Glaize, wrote that;

The temple was previously overrun with a particularly voracious vegetation and quite ruined, presenting only chaos. Clearing works were undertaken with a constant respect for the large trees which give the composition a pleasing presentation without constituting any immediate danger. At the same time, some partial anastylosis has revived variousbuildings found in a sufficient state of preservation and presenting some special interest in their architecture or decoration.ref|G03

Since 1991, the site has been maintained by the World Monuments Fund. It has continued the cautious approach to restoration, believing that to go further would involve too much guesswork, and prefers to respect the ruined nature of the temple. One of its former employees has said, "We're basically running a glorified maintenance program. We're not prepared to falsify history".ref|WMF00 It has therefore limited itself primarily to stabilisation work on the fourth eastern gopura, the House of Fire and the Hall of Dancers.ref|WMF01

The site

.ref|G04

Halfway along the path leading to the third enclosure, on the north side, is a House of Fire (or "Dharmasala") similar to Ta Prohm's. The remainder of the fourth enclosure, now forested, was originally occupied by the city; as this was built of perishable materials it has not survived. The third enclosure wall is 200 by 175 m. In front of the third gopura is a cruciform terrace. The gopura itself is on a large scale, with three towers in the centre and two flanking pavilions. Between the southern two towers were two celebrated silk-cotton trees, of which Glaize wrote, "resting on the vault itself of the gallery, [they] frame its openings and brace the stones in substitute for pillars in a caprice of nature that is as fantastic as it is perilous."ref|G05 One of the trees is now dead, although the roots have been left in place. The trees may need to be removed to prevent their damaging the structure.ref|AA01 On the far side of the temple, the third western gopura has pediments of a chess game and the Battle of Lanka, and two guardian dvarapalas to the west.

of Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma to the east; on the western temple, Krishna raising Mount Govardhana to the west.ref|G06

Connecting the Hall of Dancers and the wall of the second enclosure is a courtyard containing two libraries. The second eastern gopura projects into this courtyard; it is one of the few Angkorian gopuras with significant internal decoration, with garudas on the corners of the cornices. Buddha images on the columns were changed into hermits under Jayavarman VIII.

Between the second enclosure wall (85 by 76 m) and the first enclosure wall (62 by 55 m) on the eastern side is a row of later additions which impede access and hide some of the original decoration. The first enclosure is, as Glaize said, similarly, "choked with more or less ruined buildings".ref|G07 The enclosure is divided into four parts by a cruciform gallery, each part almost filled by these later irregular additions. The walls of this gallery, and the interior of the central sanctuary, are covered with holes for the fixing of bronze plates which would originally have covered them and the outside of the sanctuary — 1500 tonnes was used to decorate the whole temple.ref|FJ04 At the centre of the temple, in place of the original statue of Lokesvara, is a stupa built several centuries after the temple's initial construction.

Notes

# Glaize, "The Monuments of the Angkor Group" p. 173 quoting Coedès.
# Freeman and Jacques, "Ancient Angkor" p. 170.
# Higham, "The Civilization of Angkor" p. 128.
# Higham p. 129.
# Glaize p. 175.
# Freeman and Jacques p. 170.
# Glaize p. 175.
# John Sanday, quoted by Denis D. Gray in [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/011598/dest15.html Nations' trials meant to prevent errors during restoration of Angkor]
# World Monuments Fund, [http://wmf.org/angkor.html World Monuments Fund at Angkor]
# Glaize p. 173.
# Glaize p. 177.
# Gunther, [http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/seasia/angkor/pkhan/pk06.html Preah Khan]
# Freeman and Jacques p. 174.
# Glaize p. 179.
# Glaize p. 178.
#Freeman and Jacques p. 176.

References

*Freeman, Michael and Jacques, Claude (1999). "Ancient Angkor". River Books. ISBN 0-8348-0426-3.
*Glaize, Maurice (2003 edition of an English translation of the 1993 French fourth edition). [http://www.theangkorguide.com/text/part-two/angkorwat-to-angkorthom/angkorwat.htm The Monuments of the Angkor Group] . Retrieved 14 July 2005.
*Gray, Denis D. (January 15 1998). [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/011598/dest15.html Nations' trials meant to prevent errors during restoration of Angkor] . Accessed 22 August 2005.
*Gunther, Michael D. (1994). [http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/seasia/seasia.html#angkor Art of Southeast Asia] Accessed 22 August 2005.
*Higham, Charles (2001). "The Civilization of Angkor". Phoenix. ISBN 1-84212-584-2.
*World Monuments Fund. [http://wmf.org/angkor.html World Monuments Fund at Angkor] Accessed 22 August 2005.

External links

* [http://www.theangkorguide.com The Monuments of the Angkor Group] by Maurice Glaize, online version
* [http://angkorblog.com/_wsn/page3.html Photos of Preah Khan]
* [http://wmf.org/angkor.html World Monuments Fund at Angkor]
* [http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/kh/angkor/preahKhan_root.html Panoramic photos by Tito Dupret]