Cambodia Temple #12: Bakong Temple

Bakong is the first temple mountain of sandstone built by kings of the Khmer empire at Angkor close to present day Siem Reap in Cambodia. In the final decades of the ninth century AD, it plays a role as the official state temple of King Indravarman I in the ancient city of Hariharalaya, situated in a territory that today is called Roluos.  

History of Bakong Temple  

In 802 AD, the first king of Angkor Jayavarman II declared the sovereignty of Cambodia. After good and bad times, he set up his capital at Hariharalaya. Few decades later, his successors built Bakong in stages as the first temple mountain of sandstone at Angkor. The engraving on its stele says that in 881 King Indravarman I devoted the temple to the god Shiva and blessed its focal religious picture, a lingam whose name Sri Indresvara was a mix of the king's own and the postfix "- esvara" which stood for Shiva ("Iśvara").  

Bakong enjoyed its status as the state temple of Angkor for just a couple of years, yet later additions from the twelfth or thirteenth centuries affirm that it was not relinquished. At the end of the ninth century, Indravarman's son and successor Yasovarman I moved the capital from Hariharalaya to the territory north of Siem Reap now known as Angkor, where he established the new city of Yasodharapura around new temple mountain called Bakheng.  

Site of Bakong Temple  

The brick towers encompassing the focal pyramid look like those of other temples at Hariharalaya, namely Preah Ko and Lolei.  

The site of Bakong measures 900 meters by 700 meters, and comprises of three concentric enclosures isolated by two moats, the fundamental axis going from east to west. The external enclosure has neither a wall nor gopuras and its limit is the external moat. The inner moat delimits a 400 by 300 meters zone, with remains of a laterite wall and four cruciform gopuras, and it is crossed by a wide earthen thoroughfare, flanked by seven-headed Nagas, for example, a draft of Naga bridge. Between the two moats there are the remains of 22 satellite temples of brick. The innermost enclosure, limited by a laterite wall, measures 160 meters by 120 meters and contains the focal temple pyramid and eight brick temple towers, two on each side. Other various smaller buildings are additionally situated inside the enclosure. Only outside of the eastern gopura there is a modern Buddhist temple. A statue of a lion watches the stairs on the focal pyramid.  

The pyramid itself has five levels and its base is 65 by 67 meters. It was rebuilt by Maurice Glaize toward the end of the 1930s as indicated by methods for anastylosis. On the top there is a single tower that is much later in provenance, and the building style of which is not that of the ninth century establishments of Hariharalaya, yet that of the twelfth century temple city Angkor Wat.      

Despite the pyramid at one time must have been covered with bas relief carvings in stucco, today just parts remain. An emotional scene-section including what seem to be asuras in fight gives a feeling of the reasonable high quality of the carvings. Hugh stone statues of elephants are situated as gatekeepers at the corners of the three lower levels of the pyramid. Statues of lions protect the stairways.  

Layout of Bakong Temple  

The temple of Bakong is constructed on an artificial mountain and surrounded in a rectangular zone by two walls. It has a square base with five levels. The first or outside encompasses a moat with an embankment and boulevards on four sides, which are bordered by low Naga balustrades. The second and smaller enclosure has an entry tower of sandstone and laterite in the focal point of each side of the wall. There were initially 22 towers inside the first enclosures. After going through the entry tower at the east one goes to a long boulevard designed with substantial seven-headed serpents over a moat. Long halls on each side lie parallel toward the eastern wall. They were presumably rest houses for guests. Two square-molded brick building at the northeast and southeast corners are distinguished by lines of circular holes and an opening toward the west. The vents in the chimneys propose these structures served as crematoriums. There was initially a single building of this kind at the northwest and southwest corners however today they are totally demolished. On each side of the boulevard just past the halls there are two square structures with four entryways. The engraving of the temple was found in the one on the right.  

Further along the boulevard, there are two long sandstone structures on each side, which open to the boulevard. These may have been warehouses or libraries. Toward the north and south of the warehouses responsively there is a square brick sanctuary tower. There are two more on each side of the focal stage, making a sum of eight. Decoration on the towers is in brick with an overwhelming coating of stucco. The towers, with one entryway opening toward the east and three false entryways, have a stairway on each side, which is decorated with crouching lions at the base. The two toward the east of the focal stage have a one of a unique element, a double sandstone base, the entryway entrance and the false entryways were uniformly cut from a single block of sandstone. The design on the false entryways is extraordinarily fine, particularly that on the tower on the right in the front column, the false entryway of which has surprising Kala handles. The corners of the towers are designed with female and male guardians in niches.  

Some beautiful pictures of Bakong temple:

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2. Cambodia Temple #10: Preah Palilay Temple
3. Cambodia Temple #9: Chau Say Tevoda Temple
4. Cambodia Temple #8: Baksei Chamkrong Temple
5. Cambodia Temple #7: Preah Ko Temple
6. Cambodia Temple #6: Neak Pean Temple
7. Cambodia Temple #5: Takeo Temple
8. Cambodia Temple #4: Bayon Temple
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