Koh Rong

Phnom Da

Phnom Da, Takeo is a temple which was constructed on a small mountain. It was built in the 6th century by the King Rut Trak Varman. A French historian, Mi Bri No said that the temple is made of laterite stone. Phnom Da, Takeo is not enclosed by any wall and faces northwards.

Hermit temple

Phnom Da, Takeo is one of the ancient historical places in Cambodia. Earlier it was the old capital of Nor Kor Kouk Thlork of Kouk Thlork commune situated at Angkor Borey district in Takeo region. Phnom Da, Takeo is about 102 km away from Phnom Penh. It is about 24 km away from the town of Takeo. Phnom Da in Takeo is one of the popular tourist attractions in Takeo.

There are 5 man-made statues situated at the valley of the mountain. These statues represent the style of Phnom Da. Among the five caves, one of them was used for the purpose of cremation during the time period of 1975-1979. There is another temple which is located about 500 meters away from the Phnom Da temple in the southwest direction. This temple is made of sandstone.

 Every year thousands of local and international tourists visit the Phnom Da, Takeo. So many tourists visit the place in order to do a research on the well-known work of art of Cambodian ancestors. This work of art belongs to the old time of Koh Kok Thlork.

After the year 1979, the authority of the Takeo region built a canal known as “Canal No 15″. This canal connects the Takeo town to Ang Kor Bo Rey district. Phnom Da in Takeo is a short distance away from this canal. This canal has made transportation easier. Therefore traveling has become much hassle free.

Mondulkiri Province

 Mondulkiri  is a province of Cambodia. Bordering the provinces of Kratie to the west, Stung Treng to the northwest, Ratanakiri to the north and the country of Vietnam to the east and south, it is the most sparsely populated province in the country despite being the largest in land area. The province was created in 1961 from the eastern part of Kratié Province. The capital is the town of Senmonorom.

Location of Mondulkiri Province

Geography and Environment

Mondulkiri is known for its forested hills and powerful waterfalls. Some waterfalls include:

• Bou Sra Waterfall. Located at Pich Chinda District, 43 kilometers from Senmonorom town, Bou Sra is the largest waterfall, made famous by a popular Khmer song in Mondulkiri.
• Senmonorom Waterfall. Five kilometers from town and an easy walk, Senmonorom waterfall is not much to look at and used to be a nice picnic spot until the construction of a Japanese built hydroelectric power station that cut the flow of water.
• Romnea Waterfall. Ten kilometers from Senmonorom, Romnea waterfall is actually 1 of 3 large waterfalls that has now been deforested and privatised.

Culture

Although more and more houses are built in 'Khmer style', traditional Phnong houses can still be found. Pnong houses contain large jars (which are said to be more than a thousand years old) and traditional gongs. There are various gongs used at different occasions. Jars and gongs are among the most valuable possessions of indigenous communities both in traditional and spiritual as well as material terms. During the times of Pol Pot those objects were buried in hidden places in the jungle and in many cases they still wait in the ground.

(credit: wikipedia) 

Gallery: 

Busra Waterfall

View of province

Province Landmark

 

Angkor Thom Temple

 Angkor Thom

Date: Late 12th century and later (excluding some earlier monuments inside, such as the Bapuon and Phimeanakas)

Style: Bayon (excluding some earlier monuments inside) 

Visit: Several hours (see entries for individual monuments)

 This, one of the largest of all Khmer cities, was founded by Jayavaraman VII and probably remained the capital until the 17th century. For most visitors, the first sight of this monumental construction is the magnificent S Gate, with its towers with four faces pointing in each of the cardinal directions and elephants, preceded by the no less impressive avenue of gods and asuras  lining the bridge across the moat. 

Angkor Thom overlaps the SE corner of the first capital of Yasodharapura (end of 9th century), and incorporates temple of previous centuries, notably Bapuon and Phimeanakas. And, as it remained the capital of Jayavarman's successors, there are many later additions and some re-modelling. Its name which dates at least from the 16th century, appropriately enough, mean 'Great City'.
 

Plan

The city walls, surrounded by a moat, enclose a square, approximately 3km on each side. The total area, therefore, is 900 hectares, most of it now forest but originally a considerable city. These walls are pierced by four gates at the cardinal points, and the roads that pass through them converge on the central State Temple of Jayavarman VII, the Bayon. A 5th gate, known as the Victory Gate, pierces the E wall of the city 500m N of the E Gate, and its road leads directly to the Royal Palace (by tradition, the palace was always sited N of the State Temple).  

Visit 

The usual approach is from the S, passing through the S Gate and on to the Bayon in the exact centre of the city. There are, however, so many other monuments, most of them in the area N of the Bayon, that a single visit is rarely sufficient. Moreover, temple in the N, NE and E of the Angkor region are usually reached by driving through Angkor Thom, so that many people stop off at monuments inside the city while passing through. Because of this, individual monuments are dealt with separately in this guide in the following pages.

The S Gate

On the road from Angkor Wat and Siem Reap, this is the first point of entry to the city for most visitors. All  five gates are similar, but the S Gate has been the most extensively restored and is the most complete. Constant use has helped to save the statues of gods and asuras that line its approach; most of the heads at the other gates have been stolen, and only the N Gate retains a number of complete figures. 

The approach to the gate, crossing the moat, is lined by an avenue of statues. On the left and on the right, two rows of figures each carry the body of a giant serpent-- a seven-headed naga -- almost in the attitude of a tug-of-war. The figures on the left are gods, while those on the right, with fierce grimaces, are asuras (demons). The parallels with Churning of the Sea of Milk, particularly as sculpted on the gallery of Angkor Wat, are obvious; even the headdresses are the same. The question then remains, where is the actual churning taking place, with Mount Mandara as the pivot? The most likely focus is the State Temple of the city itself-- the Bayon. Support for this theory is the absence of enclosing wall and moat around the Bayon, suggesting that the walls of the city and its moat take their place. If so, this is a grand conception of religious symbolism, covering an entire city.

The symbolism does not stop there, however. the use of naga balustrades lining the approach to a temple and usually across a moat was common, and it is believed that the purpose was to link the world of men (outside the temple) to the world of the gods (inside). According to George Coedes and Paul Mus, such 'naga bridges' correspond to a rainbow, which provides the same function in Hindu traditions. So, even with tradition of gods and asuras, the approach to the gate of Angkor Thom are 'naga Bridge'. Another suggestion is that the nagas are the guardians of the city's royal wealth.

Angkor Wat temple

 Angkor Wat

Date: Early 12th century (between 1113 and 1150) with later additions

Style: Angkor Wat

Reign: Suryavaraman II 

For once, the modern name of a temple is completely justified. Angkor Wat, the city which become a pagoda, was not only the grandest and most sublime of all the Khmer temples, but also a city in its own right. It was built during the reign of Suryavaraman II, in the first half of the 12th century, both as the capital and the State temple dedicated to Vishnu.

 

 Plan

The outer limits of Angkor Wat are set by its broad moat, faced in laterite and sandstone. Including this, the total area is almost 200 hectares-a rectangle of 1.5 Km E-W by 1.3 Km N-S, the largest temple at Angkor. Two causeways at W and E cross the 190m-wide moat to the outer enclosure, bounded by a laterite wall of 1025m by 802m. Because of Angkor Wat's unusual orientation, the W gopura of this outer  enclosure is by far the largest of the four.

Within the 82 hectares of the outer enclosure, the temple itself stands in the middle on a terrace measuring 332m * 258m, nearly 9 hectares. The remaining 9/10ths of course no trace remains of these buildings, presumably constructed in light materials. Following tradition, the palace would have been to the north of the actual temple. 

The temple proper combines two major features of Khmer architecture: a pyramid and concentric galleries. Pyramids, which in most cases were created by means of stepped terraces, date back to the 8th century Ak Yum and the better 9th century Bakong, and were the Khmer method of symbolising the centre of the Hindu universe, Mount Meru, in the form of a temple-mountain. Galleries, however, evolved later, around the beginning of the 11th century; they were the natural succession to a growing number of annex buildings surrounding the sanctuary. Angkor Wat is, to put it as simply as possible, a pyramid of three levels, each one enclosed by a well-developed gallery with four gopura  and corner towers. The summit is crowned with five towers in a quincunx.