Prasat Ta Muen Thom

Prasat Ta Muen Thom
Prasat Ta Muen Thom Location within Cambodia
Name
Proper name	Prasat Ta Muen Thom
Geography
Coordinates	14°20′57″N 103°15′59″E / 14.34917°N 103.26639°E / 14.34917; 103.26639Coordinates: 14°20′57″N 103°15′59″E / 14.34917°N 103.26639°E / 14.34917; 103.26639
Country	Cambodia
State/province	Oddar Meanchey Province
Location	Cambodia-Thai border
Culture
Primary deity	Shiva
Architecture
Architectural styles	Khmer
History and governance
Date built	11th century
Creator	Udayadityavarman II

Prasat Ta Muen Thom (Khmer: ប្រាសាទតាមាន់ធំ, Thai: ปราสาทตาเมือนธม, rtgs: Prasat Ta Muean Thom) is a Khmer temple located in the Oddar Meanchey Province. Its Khmer name translates literally to "Great Temple of Grandfather Chicken". It lies not far from two related temples in a densely forested area where access is difficult on one of the passes through the Dangrek Mountains. Prasat Ta Muen Toch ("Minor Temple of Grandfather Chicken"), the hospital chapel, lies two and half kilometers to the northwest and just 300 meters beyond that is the rest house chapel, Prasat Ta Muen ("Temple of Grandfather Chicken"). During the 1980s-90s, when the Khmer Rouge controlled the area, the temples in the region were looted by the Khmer Rouge to finance their guerrilla campaign. Many architectural pieces and original sculptures were stolen, sometimes detached using dynamite, and smuggled out of Cambodia or sold on the black market. These three temples, all within a few hundred meters of each other, formed a complex which was an important stop on a major route of the Khmer Empire, the Ancient Khmer Highway from its capital at Angkor to its major administrative center in the northwest, Phimai (now in Thailand).

The temple is located in the Ta Muen Thom pass at the top of the escarpment of the Dangrek Mountains which forms the current border between Cambodia and Thailand in the region. North of the border is the Khorat Plateau while to the south are steep cliffs as the mountains form sheer drops down to the plains Northwest Cambodia. Ta Muen Thom is constructed of laterite and laid out in a rectangular plan with the entrance facing south, highly unusual for Khmer temples which usually face east. It is suspected that this is due to the topography, both to meet travelers having just climbed the pass from the plains below and to provide a defensible position with a strategic view southward down the mountains. The temple's enclosure is 46 meters by 38 meters with its center in a central sanctuary constructed of pinkish-grey sandstone and preceded by a mandapa and an antarala. A natural channel in the bedrock was used as the somasutra, a funnel which transported holy water used in rituals from the statue in the main chamber, which flows out from the garbhagriha and indicates the relative importance of the site.