Ta Keo/Prasat Ta Keo Siem Reap,Cambodia

Ta Keo, Prasat Ta Kev is a temple-mountain in Angkor (Cambodia), possibly the first to be built entirely of sandstone by the Khmer Empire.

History

Jayavarman V was ten years old when he succeeded his father, Rajendravarman, in 968. His early years of reign were turbulent and the court officials dominated the royal politics. When he was 17 (in 975), he began the construction of his own state temple, whose modern name is Ta Keo, that was dedicated some time around 1000. In contemporary inscriptions it is called Hemagiri or Hemasringagiri (“the mountain with golden summits”).

It remained unfinished until the reign of Suryavarman I.Yogisvarapandita, a high priest who became minister of Suryavarman I and “received” the temple from him many years later, says in inscriptions that a lightning strike hit the unfinished building, an evil omen, so the work stopped. Maybe work stopped simply because of the death of Jayavarman V, as there was a struggle for succession. The temple worked continuously as a cult center until the 13th century, and even Yogisvarapandita worshiped the shrines at the first levels of the temple.

A term tightly linked to Hemasringagiri is Jayendranagari (which in Sanskrit means “capital of the victorious king”), the royal palace or maybe the new capital city of Jayavarman V. However, the remains of this large hypothesized ensemble are very scarce. Today only a tower in the southwest survives, similar to the corner towers of Ta Keo, with an unusual single door to the south.