Editing Ta Prohm

{{Short description|Buddhist temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia}}
{{Contains special characters|Khmer}}
{{Infobox religious building
| name = Ta Prohm 
| native_name = 
| image = Ta Prohm (III).jpg
| image_size = 
| alt = Ta Prohm in 2019
| caption = 
| locale = [[Angkor]]
| map_type = Cambodia
| map_caption = Location in Cambodia
| coordinates = {{coord|13|26|06|N|103|53|21|E|type:landmark_region:KH|display=inline,title}}
| province = [[Siem Reap Province|Siem Reap]]
| religious_affiliation =  [[Buddhism]]
| sect =[[Mahayana]]
| deity = [[Prajnaparamita]]
| country = [[Cambodia]]
| functional_status = 
| website = 
| architecture = [[Khmer architecture|Khmer]]
| founded_by = [[Jayavarman VII]]
| year_completed = {{start date and age|1186}}
}}
'''Ta Prohm''' ({{langx|km|ប្រាសាទតាព្រហ្ម}}, [[Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN|UNGEGN]]: {{transliteration|km|Ta Prôhm}}, [[Romanization of Khmer#ALA-LC Romanization Tables|ALA-LC]]: {{transliteration|km|Tā Brahm}} {{IPA|km|taː prom|}}; "Ancestor [[Brahma]]") is the modern name of a temple near the city of [[Siem Reap]], [[Cambodia]],  approximately one kilometre east of [[Angkor Thom]] and on the southern edge of the [[East Baray]]. It was built in the [[Bayon]] style largely in the late [[12th century]] and early [[13th century]] and was originally called '''Rajavihara''' ({{langx|km|រាជវិហារ}}, [[Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN|UNGEGN]]: {{transliteration|km|Réachvĭhar}}, [[Romanization of Khmer#ALA-LC Romanization Tables|ALA-LC]]: {{transliteration|km|Rājvihār}} {{IPA|km|riəc.vihiə|}}; "Royal Monastery"). It was founded by the [[Khmer Empire|Khmer]] King [[Jayavarman VII]] as a [[Mahayana Buddhist]] monastery and center of learning dedicated to his mother.<ref name=lp/> Almost 80,000 people were required to maintain or attend at the temple, including over 2,700 officials and 615 dancers.<ref name=lp/>

The temple is referred to as the "[[Tomb Raider]] Temple" or the "[[Angelina Jolie]] Temple" due to its depiction in the film ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider]]'' (2001).<ref name=lp>{{Cite web | url=https://www.lonelyplanet.com/cambodia/temples-of-angkor/attractions/ta-prohm/a/poi-sig/500632/1002179 | title=Ta Prohm | work=[[Lonely Planet]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/nov/25/angelina-jolie-temple-cambodia | title=Holy Jolie: Cambodian temple takes Angelina's name | first=Catherine | last=Shoard | work=[[The Guardian]] | date=25 November 2010}}</ref>

The temple was built without mortar and, after it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones.<ref name=ao>{{Cite web | url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ta-prohm | title=Ta Prohm | work=[[Atlas Obscura]]}}</ref> The trees growing out of the ruins and the [[jungle]] surroundings have made it one of the most popular temples with visitors to the area.<ref name=ao/> It has been on the [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage List]] since 1992.

==History==

===Foundation and expansion===
In 1186 A.D., [[Jayavarman VII]] embarked on a massive program of construction and public works. Rajavihara ("monastery of the king"), today known as Ta Prohm ("ancestor Brahma"), was one of the first temples founded pursuant to that program. The [[stele]] commemorating the foundation gives a date of 1186 A.D.<ref>Glaize, p.143. For the text of the foundational stele and its translation into French, see Coèdes, "La stèle de Ta-Prohm."</ref>

Jayavarman VII constructed Rajavihara in honour of his family. The temple's main image, representing [[Prajnaparamita]], the personification of wisdom, was [[Model (person)|modelled]] on the king's mother. The northern and southern satellite temples in the third enclosure were dedicated to the king's guru, Jayamangalartha,<ref name=Coedes>{{cite book|last=Coedès| first=George| authorlink=George Coedès |editor=Walter F. Vella |others=trans.Susan Brown Cowing |title=The Indianized States of Southeast Asia|year=1968|publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-0368-1}}</ref>{{rp|174}} and his elder brother respectively. As such, Ta Prohm formed a complementary pair with the temple monastery of [[Preah Khan]], dedicated in 1191 A.D., the main image of which represented the [[Bodhisattva]] of compassion [[Lokesvara]] and was modelled on the king's father.<ref name="Freeman and Jacques, p.136">Freeman and Jacques, p.136.</ref>

The temple's [[stele]] records that the site was home to more than 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers), with an additional 80,000 inhabitants in the surrounding villages working to provide services and supplies. The stele also notes that the temple amassed considerable riches, including gold, pearls, and silks.<ref>Glaize, p.143.</ref> Expansions and additions to Ta Prohm continued as late as the rule of Srindravarman at the end of the 13th century.

===Abandonment and restoration===
[[File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 06.JPG|thumb|Roots of a [[tetrameles nudiflora|spung]] running along the gallery of the second enclosure.]]
After the fall of the [[Khmer Empire]] in the 15th century, the temple of Ta Prohm was abandoned and neglected for centuries. When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of [[Angkor]] began in the early 20th century, the [[École française d'Extrême-Orient]] decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque." According to pioneering Angkor scholar [[Maurice Glaize]], Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing [temples] and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it".<ref>Glaize, p.141.</ref> Nevertheless, much work has been done to stabilize the ruins, to permit access, and to maintain "this condition of apparent neglect."<ref name="Freeman and Jacques, p.136"/>

In 1992, [[UNESCO]] inscribed Ta Prohm on the [[World Heritage List]]. The conservation and restoration of Ta Prohm is a partnership project of the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] and the [[APSARA]] (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap).<ref name=rebuilding>{{cite news | url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/asi-rebuilding-the-glory-of-buddhist-complex-in-cambodia/article3700248.ece | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731064407/http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article3700248.ece| archive-date=2012-07-31| title=ASI rebuilding the glory of Buddhist complex in Cambodia| website=[[The Hindu]]| url-status=live}}</ref>

By 2013, the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] restored most parts of the temple complex, some of which were constructed from scratch.<ref name=rebuilding/> Wooden walkways, platforms, and roped railings were put in place around the site to protect the monument from further damages from tourists.

In November 2022, a renovation of the Hall of Dancers was completed.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.phnompenhpost.com/travel/ta-prohms-hall-dancers-set-tourists | title=Ta Prohm's 'Hall of Dancers' set for tourists | first=Chea | last=Sokny | work=[[The Phnom Penh Post]] | date=15 November 2022}}</ref>

==The site==
[[File:Taprohmplan10.png|thumb|600px|center|Plan of the temple, showing the relative locations of the main features.]]
[[File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 47.JPG|thumb|150px|right|Bas relief on Ta Prohm wall]]
[[File:AsceticTaProhm.jpg|thumb|160px|right|A bas-relief over an entrance at Ta Prohm includes this intense meditating or praying figure.]]
[[File:Dinosaur carving at Ta Prohm temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia (5534467622).jpg|thumb|right|The "[[dinosaur of Ta Prohm]]", one of the reliefs of the temple popular in [[pseudoscience]]]]

===Layout===
The design of Ta Prohm is that of a typical "flat" Khmer temple, as opposed to a temple-pyramid or [[Khmer architecture#Temple mountain|temple-mountain]], the inner levels of which are higher than the outer. Five rectangular [[Architecture of Cambodia#Enclosure|enclosing wall]]s surround a [[Architecture of Cambodia#Central sanctuary|central sanctuary]].  The sanctuary is centered around the stone face of [[Prajnaparamita]], the personification of wisdom, modeled after the king's mother.<ref name=ao/> Like most Khmer temples, Ta Prohm is oriented to the east, so the temple proper is set back to the west along an elongated east–west axis. The outer wall of 1000 by 650 metres encloses an area of 650,000 square metres that at one time would have been the site of a substantial town, but that is now largely forested. There are entrance [[Gopuram|gopuras]] at each of the [[cardinal point]]s, although access today is now only possible from the east and west. In the 13th century, face towers similar to those found at the [[Bayon]] were added to the gopuras. Some of the face towers have collapsed. At one time, moats could be found inside and outside the fourth enclosure. The presence of two moats led some historians to speculate that the 12th/13th remain of Ta Prohm is an expansion of a more ancient Buddhist shrine on the same site.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jacques |first1=Claude |editor1-last=Bacus | editor1-first=Elisabeth A | editor2-last=Glover |editor2-first=Ian| editor3-last=Sharrock |editor3-first=Peter D | editor4-last=Guy | editor4-first=John |editor5-last=Pigott |editor5-first=Vincent C | title=Interpreting Southeast Asia's past: monument, image and text : selected papers from the 10th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists |date=2008 |publisher=NUS Press | location=Singapore |isbn=9789971694050 |pages=3–8 |chapter=Chapter 1: Moats and Enclosure Walls of the Khmer Temples}}</ref>

The three inner enclosures of the temple proper are [[Architecture of Cambodia#Gallery|galleried]], while the corner towers of the first enclosure form a [[Architecture of Cambodia#Quincunx|quincunx]] with the tower of the central sanctuary. This basic plan is complicated for the visitor by the circuitous access necessitated by the temple's partially collapsed state, as well as by the large number of other buildings dotting the site, some of which represent later additions. The most substantial of these other buildings are the [[Architecture of Cambodia#Library|libraries]] in the southeast corners of the first and third enclosures; the satellite temples on the north and south sides of the third enclosure; the Hall of Dancers between the third and fourth eastern gopuras; and a [[Dharmasala|House of Fire]] east of the fourth eastern gopura.

===Representational art===
Ta Prohm does not have many narrative [[bas-relief]]s (as compared to Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom.){{Citation needed|reason=Not a clear source|date=February 2024}} At any rate, some depictions of scenes from Buddhist mythology do remain. One badly eroded bas-relief illustrates the "Great Departure" of [[Gautama Buddha|Siddhartha]], the future [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], from his father's palace.<ref>Glaize, p.145.</ref> The temple also features stone reliefs of [[Architecture of Cambodia#Apsara and devata|devata]]s (minor female deities), meditating monks or ascetics, and [[Architecture of Cambodia#Dvarapala|dvarapalas]] or temple guardians.

===Trees===
The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm, and "have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any other feature of Angkor."<ref name="Freeman and Jacques, p.136"/> Two species predominate, but sources disagree on their identification: the larger is either the silk-cotton tree (''[[Ceiba pentandra]]'') or thitpok ''[[Tetrameles nudiflora]]'',<ref name="dun">Dehra Dun, [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080614/nation.htm#8 "ASI to conserve trees at Cambodian temple"], 13 June 2008, ''The Tribune'', Chandigarh, India, accessed 2009-05-09</ref> and the smaller is either the [[strangler fig]] (''[[Ficus gibbosa]]'')<ref>Freeman and Jacques, p.137.</ref> or gold apple (''[[Diospyros decandra]]'').<ref name="dun" /> Angkor scholar [[Maurice Glaize]] observed, "On every side, in fantastic over-scale, the trunks of the silk-cotton trees soar skywards under a shadowy green canopy, their long spreading skirts trailing the ground and their endless roots coiling more like reptiles than plants."<ref>Glaize, pp.143-145.</ref>

==In popular media==
Ta Prohm was used as a location in the film ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider]]'' (2001). In the film, Lara Croft, played by [[Angelina Jolie]], picked a [[jasmine flower]] and then fell through the earth into the temple, with the forthcoming scenes filmed at [[Pinewood Studios]].<ref name=lp/>

==Gallery==
{{Gallery
| title = 
| width = 180
| height = 180
| align = center
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 01.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 03.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 53.JPG|
| File:Angkor - Ta Prohm - 033 Lintel Figures (8581974594).jpg|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 30.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 15.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 41.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 50.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 39.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 37.JPG|
| File:Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 33.JPG|
| File: Ta Phrom, Angkor, Camboya, 2013-08-16, DD 17.JPG|
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book | last=Albanese | first=Marilia |title=The Treasures of Angkor | location=Vercelli | publisher=White Star Publishers| year=2006 | type=Paperback | isbn=88-544-0117-X}}
*Coèdes, George. "La stèle de Ta-Prohm," in ''Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient'', Vol.6, No.1-2 (1906), pp.&nbsp;44–86. This article, written in French by Angkor-scholar Coedes, gives the original text of the foundational stele at Ta Prohm, as well as a French translation of the text. The article is available online at [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k73734c gallica.bnf.fr], the website for the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
*Freeman, Michael and Jacques, Claude. ''Ancient Angkor''. River Books, 1999. {{ISBN|0-8348-0426-3}}.
* {{cite web | last=Glaize | first=Maurice | authorlink=Maurice Glaize | title=The Monuments of the Angkor Group | year=1993 | url=http://www.theangkorguide.com/cgi-bin/MasterFrameReunion.cgi?http%3A//www.theangkorguide.com/text/part-two/angkorthom/bayon.htm | website=theangkorguide.com}}
*{{cite book |author1=Jessup, Helen Ibbitson |author2=Brukoff, Barry |title=Temples of Cambodia - The Heart of Angkor | location=Bangkok | publisher=River Books| year=2011 | type=Hardback | isbn=978-616-7339-10-8}}
*Rooney, Dawn. ''Angkor: An Introduction to the Temples''. Odyssey Publications 3rd edition 1999.{{ISBN|962-217-601-1}}.
*Bruno Bruguier, Juliette Lacroix, (2009). ''Phnom Penh et les provinces méridionales''. Guide archéologique du Cambodge, Reyum. <small>{{ISBN|9789995055417}}</small>.

{{Commons category|Ta Prohm}}
{{Angkorian sites}}
{{SiemReapProvince}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Angkorian sites in Siem Reap province]]
[[Category:Buddhist temples in Siem Reap province]]