Monument 487

(Mangalartha)

Access to this temple is gained along a 250m forest track leading south from a point 900 metres east of the royal square in Angkor Thom, on the road to the Victory gate.

Its principal interest lies in the fact that it is the last of the Angkor monuments to have been dated with any precision - for a four sided inscribed stele places it towards the end of the 13th century, with some information on the period which followed the death of Jayavarman VII. It also mentions that it was dedicated to deified figures - the Brahman Mangalartha, assimilated to Vishnou, and his Mother. Its architecture, which shows indication of the re-use of some materials, differs little to that of various examples from the last part of the style of the Bayon.

An isolated sandstone sanctuary, it opens to the east and is raised on a double base plinth which is moulded and decorated and cut by four projecting axial stairways - the super-structure has disappeared. Cruciform in plan with four avant-corps, it is preceded to the east by a vestibule, with false windows ornate with partially lowered blinds. The false doors are plainly moulded, as are the entrance colonnettes. One of the door jambs is inscribed, and the sanctuary chamber, of 2m.20 across measured at the centre, sheltered the two statues whose pedestal is still in place.

It has been possible to reconstruct most of the frontons on the ground. To the east is "Vishnou reclining on the serpent Ananta" - to the south "the Three Strides of Vishnou to gain the world" - to the north a "Shiva dancing" with four arms, surrounded by apsaras and with his "sakti" sitting on his knee, as well as a lintel of the "Churning of the Sea of Milk" - and finally, to the west, a lintel showing "Krishna lifting the mount Govardhana to shelter the shepherds and their flocks".