"Phnom Bok is a beautiful hill with a Prasat Phnom Bok (temple) in the northeast of Eastern Baray in Siem Reap. It is one of the "trilogies of mountains", each of which has a temple with a similar layout built in the reign of Yasovarman I (889–910) 9th and 10th centuries. Those are named Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Krom."
Temple Info
Phnom Bok is the name of a hill (small mountain) and also the name of the temple on the hill. It located in the northeast of eastern Baray in Siem Reap Angkor or it about 23km from the Siem Reap city.
The temple was built during the reign of King Yasovarman I (889–910) at the same time as other trilogies of mountains temple which each of them has a similar layout.
Those of temples named Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Krom, however, according to archaeologists, Bakheng Temple was perfectly built and was taken by King Yasovarman I as the center of the city named Yasodharapura, the third capital city of the Khmer empire after Hariharalaya in the Roluos and the first capital named Mahendraparvata on the slopes of Phnom Kulen mountain in Siem Reap Province.
" The Khmer Empire also was known as the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to modern Cambodia was a Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. In our Khmer history, the Khmer empire grew out of the former kingdoms of Funan (50/68 AD–550 AD/627 AD) and Chenla (550 AD–802 AD). The beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 when King Jayavarman II declared himself Chakravartin ("Universal ruler") on Phnom Kulen. The empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century (802 - 1431). The first capital city of the Khmer empire named "Mahendraparvata" on the slopes of Phnom Kulen mountain, the second capital city named "Hariharalaya" in the Roluos, and the third capital city named "Yasodharapura" in Phnom Bakheng."
As a historical, the King Yasovarman I, son of Indravarman I (his capital was at Hariharalaya), shifted the capital to Yashodarapura (the first Angkor capital meaning "The City That Bears Glory"). The temples that he was built named Lolei (893 AD), Preah Vihear (893 AD), Phnom Bakheng (the Royal temple 900 AD), Phnom Bok (910 AD), and Phnom Krom (910 AD).
King Yasovarman I, did not choose Phnom Bok as the capital city, near the city of Hariharalaya, as he considered it unsuitable due to its "awkward and too high" a location to mark as the center of the city. He also did not choose Phnom Krom hill either, as he considered it too close to the Tonle Sap Lake. Eventually, Phnom Bakheng of the triumvirate of hills was chosen as the capital city due to its low height and a large expanse of land available to establish a capital city.
His objective was also to build a temple for housing a linga, which surpassed his father's Indresvara and named it as Yashodaresvara. He also named his capital as Yashodarapura, which became the first capital city of Angkor, but the third capital city of the Khmer empire.
He, however, installed the Trimurtis in the temples on the other two hills of Phnom Bok and Phnom Krom. Statues of the Hindu Trimurti were found at both Phnom Bok and Phnom Krom. Those head now in Guimet Museum in Paris.
God Brahma (Left), God Shiva (middle), and God Vishnu (right)
A part of architecture style, we would say the Phnom Bok temple is in a rectangular shape and attributed to the reign of Yasovarman I which is similar in design to the Phnom Krom temple. However, while the Phnom Krom central tower is higher than the other two flanking towers, the Phnom Bok temple has three identical sanctum towers in a row on a single terrace.
The temple was an Angkor monument that is dedicated to the Trimurti of the Hindu pantheon (the Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshwara or Shiva).
They were built in Bakheng style and designed with individual sanctums, which have door openings to the east and west. These are raised on a foundation with a plinth made of laterite stone.
Frontons of Bakheng and Phnom Bok are said to "represent heads of the entire thirty-three deities of the Hindu pantheon". There is said to be a "fine example of the head of Shiva in the Chandrasekhara form with the moon prominent on his locks" at the temple.
The summer solstice occurring over Phnom Bok hill temple, which had the images of Trimurtis defied in it, can be observed from the temple's western entrance. "the Solstice meaning that- either of the two times in the year, the summer solstice and the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky at noon, marked by the longest and shortest days".
Temple Facts
Name: Phnom Bok (hill) / Phnom Bok Temple
Date: 9th–10th century
Built by: King Yasovarman I (889–910 AD)
Deity: Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma
Affiliation: Hinduism
Style: Bakheng style of Khmer architecture
Getting There:
Phnom Bok is located in the northeast of Siem Reap about 23 km. The same way to the Banteay Srei temple, but when you arrive at four intersections road in the Preah Dak village you can go straight to the east approached along the road to the Banteay Samre temple. From Preah Dak Market to the hill, it will take about 10 min by car for about 6km.
It is the third natural hill site which elevated 221 meters high (725 ft). The hill is approached through 635 wide steps leading to the top where the Phnom Bok temple is situated.
From the top of this mountain, though the temple is seen mostly in ruins, the panoramic vistas seen all round are of the Tonlé Sap Lake, the Phnom Kulen to the north, and vast plains of rice fields to the south. Like Phnom Krom, Phnom Bok consists of sandstone which has a relatively high magnetic susceptibility.
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