Wat Bakong () is a

Theravada ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

Buddhist pagoda on the precincts of the Prasat Bakong in the Ruluos archeological area of the Siemreap Province.

History

In 1890, the French explorer Lucien Fournereau climbed up the Prasat Bakong and witnessed the presence of a Buddhist pagoda which sheltered ancient

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

s. In the 1930s, French tourists were surprised by the Brahmanic rites which continued to be celebrated in the Buddhist pagoda on top an Angkorian temple as in the nearby

Preah Ko Preah Ko ( km, ប្រាសាទព្រះគោ, "The Sacred Bull") was the first temple to be built in the ancient and now defunct city of Hariharalaya (in the area that today is called Roluos), some 15 kilometers south-east of the main ...

. The Wat Bakong was restructured in 1939. From the top of Wat Bakong which was going under archeological excavations and restoration, the Buddhist pagoda was displaced to the west wall of the temples precinct. In 1960, more than twenty years after its construction, the presence of this new pagoda in the precinct of the ancient temple was still criticized as an "hideous modern pagoda that disfigures Bakong". By 2011, the perception of its presence had changed and the paintings of the pagoda, now considered valuable cultural heritage, underwent restoration to restore the decoration of the pagoda as it was in 1946. The restored pagoda was inaugurated on December 12, 2011, in presence of Deputy Prime Minister

Sok An Sok An ( km, សុខ អាន; 16 April 1950 – 15 March 2017) was a Cambodian academic and politician. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Office of the Council of Ministers from 2004 to his death, and started serving in t ...

. In 2020, the monks of Wat Bakong collaborated with locals authorities to protect what are considered sacred fishes from the drought that dried up the

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

surrounding the temple.

Architecture

The shape of the pagoda is quite unique: its has a gallery to the north and to the south and on the east side a porch nine meters long with decorated panels. In both interior and exterior panels, scenes of daily Khmer life are enterwined with elements associated to the presence of the French, during the

French protectorate of Cambodia The French protectorate of Cambodia ( km, ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាក្រោមអាណាព្យាបាលបារាំង; french: Protectorat français du Cambodge) refers to the Kingdom of Cambodia when it was a Fren ...

: French military, French flags, airplanes, a truck and a French bicycle.

Porch

Under the porch, on the inside, seven paintings of the ''

Vessantara Jātaka The ''Vessantara Jātaka'' is one of the most popular jātakas of Theravada Buddhism. The ''Vessantara Jātaka'' tells the story of one of Gautama Buddha's past lives, about a very compassionate and generous prince, Vessantara, who gives away ev ...

'' are set between the columns while on the exterior, themes of other '' Jātaka tales'' are evoked.

Interior

The paintings inside the pagoda, above and under the

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

, describe stereotypical scenes of the life of the Buddha. The roof is ornated with characters floating over clouds as well as legendary animals.

References

Bibliography

* {{Buddhism in Cambodia, state=collapsed 20th-century Buddhist temples Religious buildings and structures completed in 1939