This temple, adapted from Bayon Style, was built during the late 12th and early
13th centuries, during the reign of King Jayavarman VII (AD 1181 - 1120) as a
place of worship for Brahmans and Buddhists.
Ta Prohm is the modern name of a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara.
The temple is 42 meters long, 36 meters wide and 11 meters high. Today the
temple body, the gallery, the wall, the
gopura (gateway) and the moat
surrounding the temple are heavily damaged. The temple was constructed of brick
and sandstone and divided into many rooms. The outside wall is decorated with
bas-reliefs illustrating the Brahman story about the celestial nymph. Inside the
temple are five rooms and a 13th century Buddha statue that faces east.
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
souls 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.
After the fall of the Khmer empire in the 15th century, the temple of Ta Prohm
was abandoned and neglected for centuries.
As of 2010, however, it seems authorities have started to take a more aggressive
approach to restoration. All the plants and shrubs have been cleared from the
site and some of trees are also getting removed.
A crane has been erected and a large amount of building work is underway to
restore the temple, with much of the work seemingly just rebuilding the temple
from scratch as at other sites. Wooden walkways, platforms, and roped railings
have been put in place around the site which now block some of the previously
famous postcard photo opportunities.
The temple of Ta Prohm was used as a location in the film Tomb Raider. Although the film took visual liberties with other Angkorian temples, its scenes of Ta Prohm were quite faithful to the temple's actual appearance, and made use of its eerie qualities.
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".Two species predominate, but sources disagree on their identification: the larger is either the silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) or thitpok Tetrameles nudiflora, and the smaller is either the strangler fig (Ficus gibbosa). or Gold Apple (Diospyros decandra). Indulging in what might be regarded as "descriptive excess".
