"A small ruined temple inside of Angkor Thom, standing in a quiet place at the western of the Bayon temple, a recent day under the restoring. A rarely of the visitor, but the temple story is quite interesting and good for a cycling tour."
Temple Info
West Tob Temple or Prasat West Top, one of the temples inside the ancient temple of Angkor Thom. It is rarely of the visitors as it stand-in a quiet section of Angkor Thom. It can be reached by taking the forest road (Carpeaux road) to the West Gate. After one kilometer there is a board, here you turn left and reach the site after 300 meters more.
Inscriptions indicate that the site was used as early as the 9th century, but the present structure is post-Angkorian. The materials from the 10th and 11th were reused for the current structure which was probably assembled in the late 13th century. The few carvings that still exist are Buddhist some dating as late as the 17th century.
Western Prasat Top has a counterpart in Eastern Prasat Top that is found near the road to the Victory Gate. This monument, however, was not Buddhist but rather the last Brahmanic temple constructed by Jayavarman VIII in honor of a high-ranking priest called "Mangalartha" and his mother.
The temple originally consisted of a single Prasat tower on a steep platform, it bears some similarity in appearance to the East Prasat Top, but it has a rather different history. Inscriptions reveal that the West Prasat Top temple was originally a Hindu shrine of a much earlier date. Maybe, it was built as early as the 9th century. An inscription of that Roluos period was found here.
Definitely, there was a Hindu monument at this site already in the tenth century. During the Bayon period, the temple was adopted as a Buddhist sanctuary and seems to have remained to be Buddhist even during the Hindu resurgence in the late 13th century. However, the current structure is from the late 13th century, from the post-Bayon period. Some elements are even post-Angkorian, e.g. some remaining carvings are Theravada Buddhists, dating as late as the 17th century.
The presumably original structures of this temple - a single sanctuary atop a laterite platform - are thought to date to the 10th century, though a 9th-century inscription was also discovered here.
The temple that we see today, inventoried as "Monument 486", is largely the result of successive transformations made for the Buddhist cult around to the 13th century and continuing at least into the 17th century.
Over the course of this period, the laterite platform was refaced with sandstone, the existent sanctuary reconstructed using 10th-century decorative elements (pink sandstone lintels and columns).
Two additional towers were erected, one to the north and the other to the south of what then became the central structure. The ensemble was abundantly sculpted with Buddhist imagery. Of particular note are the standing Buddhas still somewhat visible on the collapsed facades of the northern tower and other sculpture, primarily on architectural elements from the three towers, has been arranged by maintenance teams around the perimeter of the temple.
A buddha statue standing on the unopen door of the south towers from the west side.
The sandstone platform extending in front of the central tower, along with the statue pedestal built at its western end and scattered roof-tile fragments, are all that remains of the Buddhist worship hall (Vihear) once standing here, its wooden superstructure having long since perished.
As the fundamental ritual act in the appropriation of this ancient site for Theravada Buddhism in the centuries following the transfer of the capital from Angkor, the temple's sacred terrain was delimited at each of the eight cardinal and intercardinal points by double border stones (Seima); though partially buried today, some of these leaf-shaped sculptures can still be seen in their original positions.
Temple Facts
Name: West Tob Temple /Prasat Top West
Completed date: 9th - 17th Century
Builder: Unknown
Religion: Buddhism
Affiliation: Unknown
Dedicated: Unknown
Architecture type: Post-Bayon
Getting There
Inside of an ancient temple of Angkor Thom. It can be reached by taking the forest road (Carpeaux road) to the West Gate. After one kilometer there is a board, here you turn left and reach the site after 300 m more.
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