Bat Chum

Bat Chum (Khmer: ប្រាសាទបាទជុំ) is a small temple built by Kavindrarimathana, a learned Buddhist minister of Khmer king Rajendravarman,^[1] at the middle of the 10th century. It is about 400 meters (1,300 ft) south of Srah Srang, at Angkor, Cambodia. A minister is in these cases a learned monk-advisor comparable with the Hindu purohita.

Bat Chum
Religion
Affiliation	Hinduism
Province	Siem Reap
Deity	Buddha
Location
Location	Angkor
Country	Cambodia
Location in Cambodia
Geographic coordinates	13°25′29″N 103°54′27″E
Architecture
Architect(s)	Kavindrarimathana
Type	Khmer (Pre Rup style)
Creator	Rajendravarman
Completed	Mid 10th century AD
Temple(s)	3 towers
Inscriptions	3 (1 in each 3 towers)

It consists of three inline brick towers (in poor conditions at present), standing on the same platform, surrounded by an enclosure and a moat, with a single gopura to the east.

On the doorjambs there are Buddhist inscriptions that mention Kavindrarimathana, the "architect" (or official in charge for construction) who built Srah Srang, East Mebon, and maybe planned the temple-mountain of Pre Rup.^[2] The latter was dedicated in 960 AD, shortly before death of the architect. There were houses and a Buddhist monastery near the temple, but these wooden structures have been gone for a long time.^[3]

During the excavations in 1952, in the northern and central towers, flagstones showing a yantra were found, which George Coedès was able to reconstitute and with extreme difficulty link to the Buddhist divinities mentioned on doorjambs.^[4]

In every tower there is a different inscription signed by three different persons. The last verse of each of the three refers to the elephants as "dyke breakers".^[5]

Gallery

• 
  The temple
• 
  Left tower
• 
  Middle tower
• 
  Right tower
• 
  Door to the middle tower
• 
  Stone lions

Footnotes

1. Coedès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1.
2. Freeman and Jacques, 2006, p.158
3. Ancient Angkor guide book, by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques, published in 2003.
4. Dumarçay et al., 2001, pp.18-19
5. Freeman and Jacques, 2006, p.155

References

• Dumarçay, Jacques; Royère, Pascal; Smithies, Michael; Kähler, Hans; Arps, Ben; Spuler, Bertold; Altenmüller, Hartwig (2001). Cambodian Architecture, Eight to Thirteenth Century. Brill. ISBN 90-04-11346-0.

• Freeman, Michael; Jacques, Claude (2006). Ancient Angkor. River Books. ISBN 974-8225-27-5.

External Links

• Media related to Bat Chum at Wikimedia Commons