Preah Vihear Temple (Khmer: ប្រាសាទព្រះវិហារ Prasat Preah Vihear) is an ancient Khmer temple that was built by the Khmer Empire and is on the top of a cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, in the Preah Vihear province, Cambodia.
Affording a view for many kilometres across a plain, Prasat Preah Vihear has the most spectacular setting of all the temples built by the Khmer Empire. As a key edifice of the empire's spiritual life, it was supported and modified by successive kings and so bears elements of several architectural styles. Preah Vihear is unusual among Khmer temples in being constructed along a long north–south axis, rather than having the conventional rectangular plan with orientation toward the east. The temple gives its name to Cambodia's Preah Vihear Province in which it is now located, as well as the Khao Phra Wihan National Park, which borders it in Thailand's Sisaket Province though it is no longer accessible from Thailand. In 1962, after a lengthy dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over ownership, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled that the temple is in Cambodia. On 7 July, 2008, Preah Vihear was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Location
The temple was built at the top of Poy Tadi, a steep cliff in the Dângrêk Mountain range which is the natural border between Cambodia and Thailand. The Temple is currently listed by Cambodia as being in Svay Chrum Village, Kan Tout Commune, in Choam Khsant District of Preah Vihear Province of northern Cambodia. The temple is 140 km from Angkor Wat and 418 km from Phnom Penh.
The Temple was listed by Thailand as being in Bhumsrol village of Bueng Malu sub-district (now merged with Sao Thong Chai sub-district), in Kantharalak district of the Sisaket Province of eastern Thailand. It is 110 km from the Mueang Sisaket District, the center of Sisaket Province. In 1962 the ICJ ruled that only the temple building belonged to Cambodia, while the direct way to access the temple was from Thailand, but currently, as of at least 2015, the only access is from inside Cambodia.
The site
The temple complex runs along a north–south axis facing the plains to the north, from which it is now cut off by the international border. It consists essentially of a causeway and steps rising up the hill towards the sanctuary, which sits on the clifftop at the southern end of the complex ( above the northern end of the complex, above the Cambodian plain and above sea level). Although this structure is very different from the temple mountains found at Angkor, it serves the same purpose as a stylised representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods. The approach to the sanctuary is punctuated by five gopuras (these are conventionally numbered from the sanctuary outwards, so gopura five is the first to be reached by visitors). Each of the gopuras before the courtyards is reached by a set of steps, and so marks a change in height which increases their impact. The gopuras also block a visitor's view of the next part of the temple until they pass through the gateway, making it impossible to see the complex as a whole from any one point. The fifth gopura, in the Koh Ker style, retains traces of the red paint with which it was once decorated, although the tiled roof has now disappeared. The fourth gopura is later, from the Khleang/Baphuon periods, and has on its southern outer pediment, "one of the masterpieces of Preah Vihear" (Freeman, p. 162) : a depiction of the Churning of the Sea of Milk. The third is the largest and is also flanked by two halls. The sanctuary is reached via two successive courtyards, in the outer of which are two libraries.
Nomenclature
Prasat Preah Vihear is the compound of words Prasat, Preah and Vihear, which mean the "religious offering of sacred shrine". In Sanskrit, Prasat (प्रसाद) (ប្រាសាទ) means "religious offering" which could even be taken as synonym of "temple" in this context, Preah (ព្រះ) mean "sacred" or "beloved", and "Vihear" (វិហារ) from the Sanskrit word Vihara (विहार) means "abode" or "shrine" (the central structure of the temple). In Khmer, "phnom" (ភ្នំ) means mountain, and Cambodians occasionally refer to it as "Phnom Preah Vihear" (ភ្នំព្រះវិហារ). These versions of the name carry significant political and national connotations (see below: New dispute over ownership).