West Mebon (Baray) Temple

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Overview

The West Mebon is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, located in the center of the West Baray, the largest reservoir of the Angkor area. The temple's date of construction is not known, but evidence suggests the 11th Century during the reign of King Suryavarman Iand Udayadityavarman II.

About The Temple

The temple was built to a square design, with sides measuring about 100 meters. Each side had three tower-passages crowned with stone lotus flowers and arrayed about 28 meters apart. In the center of the square was a stone platform linked to the eastern wall by a laterite and sandstone causeway.

Today the platform, causeway and much of the east wall and towers remain; the other sides are largely gone, though their outlines in stone are visible when the baray's waters are low. There is no central sanctuary to be seen, though the platform may have supported some comparatively small structure in times past.

Legend and Stories

In 1936, the West Mebon yielded up the largest known bronze sculpture in Khmer art, a fragment of the reclining Hindu god Vishnu. The fragment includes the god's head, upper torso and two right arms. A local villager is said to have dreamt that an image of the Buddha was buried in the West Mebon and wished to be freed from the soil. Subsequent digging unearthed the statue of Vishnu.

The Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan, who visited Angkor at the end of the 13th Century, wrote that the West Mebon had a large image of Buddha with cascading water. Zhou, mistook the Vishnu statue for a Buddha image, and the West Mebon for the East Mebon.

The statue, which in complete form would have measured about six meters long, entered the collection of the National Museum in Phnom Penh. It has also been shown abroad, including in Washington D.C.

How To Reach Cambodia

Airport

There are regular flights from Singapore, Vientiane and Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the visitors arrive by flight from Bangkok and Phnom Penh to reach Siem Reap. One can get buses and boats regularly to Siem Reap.

Sea

The passenger ferries which plying between Vietnam’s Chau Doc and the Cambodian capital can be availed to Phnom Penh.

Road

Cambodia is well connected with Laos, Vietnam and Thailand via roads. The most common mode of transport is bus.

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