Prasat Ta Muan Thom, Thailand

Address

Prasat Ta Muan Thom Ta Mieng, Phanom Dong Rak District, Surin 32140, Thailand

Diety

Shiva

Introduction

Prasat Ta Muen Thom or Prasat Ta Moan Thom is a Khom temple located on Cambodian-Thai border. The temple is situated in Surin province of Thailand. This temple is dedicated to Shiva (Lord of universe)also called as Prasat Ta Muen Toch (“Minor Temple of Grandfather Chicken”), During the 1980s-90s, when the Khmer Rouge controlled the area, the temples in the region were looted by the Khmer Rouge to finance their guerrilla campaign. Many architectural pieces and original sculptures were stolen, sometimes detached using dynamite, and smuggled out of Cambodia or sold on the black market. These three temples, all within a few hundred meters of each other, formed a complex which was an important stop on a major route of the Khmer Empire, the Ancient Khmer Highway from its capital at Angkor to its major administrative center in the northwest, Phimai

Puranic Significance

Ta Muen Thom is constructed of laterite and laid out in a rectangular plan with the entrance facing south, highly unusual for Khmer temples which usually face east. The temple’s enclosure is 46 meters by 38 meters with its center in a central sanctuary constructed of pinkish-grey sandstone and preceded by a mandapa and an antarala. A natural channel in the bedrock was used as the somasutra, a funnel which transported holy water used in rituals from the statue in the main chamber, which flows out from the garbhagriha and indicates the relative importance of the site. On the north side are two towers and two other laterite buildings that are still standing as well as the foundations of three other buildings which are no longer standing. On the south facade, the same side as the main entrance, is the main gopura, which is much larger than the others. A large broad steep laterite staircase, also facing south and extending well down into Cambodian territory, leads to the entrance of the temple. There is also a laterite staircase that leads down to a stream on the Cambodian side which curves around the temple. The orientation of Ta Muen Thom is very similar to that of Prasat Hin Phimai. Recent excavations inside the main tower have revealed the existence of a natural linga protruding from the top of the hill around which the temple was built. There is a similar natural linga at the Khmer temple Vat Phou in Laos.