One of the most imposing of temples in the 10th century Koh Ker complex

One of the most imposing of temples in the 10th century Koh Ker complex, some 120 kilometers northeast of Angkor, is the dark and brooding Prasat Chrap. This is how it seemed to me on one of my earlier visits in January 2005, as the locals were burning off the undergrowth in and around the temple site and the three massive standing towers, surrounded by smoke, appeared to be blackened by fire. The scene had changed little when I paid another visit to Prasat Chrap a couple of months ago, besides the absence of any scorched earth. The trio of towers are still blackish brown in colour, actually caused by their oxidation over the centuries exposed to weathering, and are similar in appearance to other laterite towers at Prasat Chen and Banteay Pir Choan. However, the west-facing frontage of all three towers has crumbled in on itself and there are few remnants of the sandstone doorways that once stood with their carved lintels and colonettes. A few miniature prasat-like antefixes still decorate the corners of each level of the central sanctuary, and some pedestals housing the feet of decorative guardian lions litter the floor, next to one remaining lion lying prone, who is in the same place as I saw him in 2005. In front of the three giant towers are the broken remains of two libraries, one of laterite and one of brick, as well as two surrounding walls of dark laterite.

All statues and lintels have long since been removed from the site, likely by looters before and after the civil war of the 1970s – Koh Ker’s fifty-plus temples were systematically looted of sculptures by gangs of thieves - though the curator of the National Museum in 1952, Jean Boisselier, did manage to rescue some pieces. Two male torsos, a head and a female body were found and taken to Phnom Penh, though the female torso has since disappeared. A head with a third eye denoting the god Shiva, which Boisselier recovered, was cemented onto one of the torsos in 1980, but during a cleaning-up process in 2002 it was belatedly realized that the head was on the wrong body (which is now on display at the Angkor National Museum, Ka.1667). Within a few months, the head was attached to the correct torso and this exhibit, recognized as Shiva, is now on display in the National Museum’s Koh Ker collection (Ka.1817). Both torsos are clothed in typical Koh Ker style but lack arms and legs, and one, his head.

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