Prasat Trapeang Phong

ប្រាសាទត្រពាំងផុង

Province: Siem Reap
Period: Angkor period (802–1431 CE)
Condition: Partial
Access: Remote
Visited: 23 February 2025
Coordinates: 13.30917, 103.96806

How to find it

South of the Bakong, beyond the villages of the Roluos group. In the dry season the track ends in deep sand, hard going on a motorbike. In the wet season the fields flood and the only way in is by boat.

It is inside the Angkor park, so you need an Angkor pass. Go in the morning, before the heat.

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Field notes

A single brick tower on a low mound in the wetlands south of Roluos, where the Tonle Sap floods every year. In the wet season it stands on an island. The marker dates it to the mid-9th century, which makes it one of the earliest temples in the Roluos group.

It is known for its stucco. The devatas on its walls were carved into the brick and then modelled in a skin of lime stucco, and a surprising amount of it survives: faces, crowns, the folds of skirts. They are among the oldest devatas at Angkor, centuries before the hundreds carved in sandstone at Angkor Wat.

The tower once stood among other sanctuaries and platforms. When the site was cleared in 1936 by an EFEO mission with Philippe Stern, the dig showed the central tower had been part of a larger complex. The area around Roluos was Hariharalaya, the early royal city, and Trapeang Phong was once thought to be its centre. Excavations by a French and Khmer team in 2004 and 2005 suggested otherwise.

RoluosHariharalayastuccodevatabrick

Sources

Christophe Pottier and Annie Bolle, Le Prasat Trapeang Phong à Hariharâlaya, Aséanie 24 (2009). Wikipedia: Trapeang Phong.

Photographs

A 360-degree photograph opened out: one corner of the brick tower with a devata in its niche, the dry fields stretching away on both sides — A 360 camera opens out the tower and the dry fields around it.

A tall brick temple tower with a stepped roof, its doorways framed in sandstone, rising behind a low bank of earth and fallen stones — The central tower, the only one of the sanctuary towers still standing.

A white stone marker among trees reading Trapeang Phong Temple, Mid 9th Century, East Entrance, in Khmer and English — The marker at the east entrance dates the temple to the mid-9th century.

The dark open doorway of the brick tower at the top of a short flight of steps, carved figures in niches on either side — The tower faces east. This is its only real door; the other three sides have false doors of sandstone.

A female figure carved in the brick wall of the tower, standing in an arched niche, patches of white stucco still on her skirt and around her — The figures on the walls were carved into the brick and finished in stucco. They are among the oldest devatas at Angkor.

Close view of a devata's face and body worked in stucco over brick, her features worn but her expression still clear — Her face, worked in stucco over the brick, has survived more than eleven centuries.

A devata in a pointed crown standing under a carved arch, the whole relief in pale stucco over red brick — A devata in a pointed crown under an arch of stucco ornament.

Looking up the brick wall of the tower past a figure in a niche to a sugar palm against a blue sky — Where the stucco has fallen away, the bare brick shows through.

A carved sandstone lintel seen from below: a monster face at the centre, scrolling foliage and hanging garlands — A sandstone lintel: a kala face at the centre, with scrolling foliage and hanging garlands.

An eight-sided sandstone colonnette carved with rings of leaves and flowers, standing against the brick wall — An octagonal colonnette beside a doorway, carved in rings of leaves.

A pointed brick arch over a doorway, a carved sandstone colonnette standing inside it — Brick corbelled into a pointed arch over a doorway.

The brick tower seen from one corner with the sun bursting over its top, a doorway framed in pink sandstone — The tower against the morning sun.

A broken block resting on a large round stone base in the foreground, the brick tower standing beyond on bare dry ground — A broken block on a round stone base, out in front of the tower.

A 360-degree photograph bent into a circle: the brick tower curling over the top, a devata in its niche, the ground forming a small round world below — The tower folded into a circle by a 360 camera.

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