Ta Prohm - 2013

After our early morning jaunt to Angkor Wat it was back to the hotel for a bit and then in mid-afternoon it was off to Ta Prohm Temple, the most “un-restored” of the Major Angkor Temples. It was constructed by “Jayavarman VII, a great king who reconquered the Khmer empire from Cham invaders in the years 1177-1181”, and “was known as Rajavihara, the 'Royal Monastery'”. Reportedly it housed 12,640 people, which seems far too high for an area of 60 hectares, who were “supported by a population of 79,365 who worked in nearby villages to provide food and supplies.”

It seems that it was “the headquarters of a vast hospital network” that supplied the other “102 hospitals located throughout the empire”. During the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century it was abandoned and “neglected for centuries” with only the encroaching jungle taking over. A deliberate decision has been made to leave Ta Prohm pretty much as it was when uncovered, save for some stabilisation and construction of  wooden walkways.

As you walk around you see towering Cotton Trees and appropriately named Strangler Figs sprouting out of the ruins and their tendril like roots snaking through the masonry almost like protective Nagas. Among the carvings is a bas-relief that appears reminiscent of a stegosaurus that has excited some fantastic debate and seized on by some as evidence of contemporaneous co-existence of man and dinosaurs- see Smithsonian Magazine .

For further information on the complex see Asian Historical Architecture and Wikipedia.

When I was working on the photos I began experimenting and came up with something for the sepia toned pictures that resembles hand tinted images, hence the multiple copies of the same subject.