Sdok Kok Thom
Encyclopedia
Sdok Kok Thom or Sdok Kak Thom, is an 11th Century Khmer
temple in present-day Thailand
, located about 34 kilometers northeast of the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet. The temple was dedicated to the Hindu
god Shiva
. Constructed by a prominent priestly family, Sdok Kok Thom is best known as the original site of one of the most illuminating inscriptions left behind by the Khmer Empire
, which ruled much of Southeast Asia
from the end of the 9th century to the 15th century.
Built of red sandstone
and laterite
, the temple is a prime example of a provincial seat of worship during the empire's golden age. It is small by the standards of the major monuments in Angkor
, the empire's capital, but shares their basic design and religious symbolism. In its 11th Century heyday during the reign of King Udayādityavarman
II, the temple was tended by its Brahman
patrons and supported with food and labor by the people of surrounding rice-farming villages.
Scholars disagree as to the meaning of the name, which refers in old Khmer to the temple's setting. Translations include Great Reed Lake, Large Reservoir with Herons, and Abundant Reeds in a Large Swamp.
In various places in the temple, there is extensive carving on stone, including floral decoration, Nāga
serpents and a figure that appears to be the reclining Hindu god Viṣṇu.
A moat, likely representing the Hindu Sea of Creation, lies beyond each of the courtyard's four sides. An avenue leads east from the gopura. A laterite wall standing approximately 2.5 meters high and measuring 126 meters from east to west and 120 meters south to north provides additional enclosure to the entire complex. The midpoint of the eastern side of this wall has an elaborate gopura, standing on a laterite base. About 200 meters to the east of this gopura, along a laterite-paved avenue with free-standing stone posts on either side, is a baray
, or holy reservoir, measuring roughly 200 by 370 meters.
The inscription (classified K. 235) is a 340-line composition, in both Sanskrit
and ancient Khmer, carved on a gray sandstone stele 1.51 meters high that stood in the northeast corner of the temple's court. Dating to 8th February 1053 A.D., it recounts two and a half centuries of service that members of the temple's founding family provided to the Khmer court, mainly as chief chaplains to kings. In laying out this long role, the text provides a remarkable and often poetically worded look at the faith, royal lineage, history and social structure of the times.
The Sanskrit text opens: "Homage to Śiva whose essence is highly proclaimed without words by the subtle Śiva, His form, who pervades (everything) from within and who activates the senses of living beings." The inscription is perhaps most useful to historians in providing an account of twelve Khmer kings who ruled over the course of the two and a half centuries. It recounts monarchs' spiritual and martial virtues and basic events of their reigns. “As a teacher zealously impels his disciples or a father his children, so did he, for the sake of his duty, zealously impel his subjects, rightfully securing them protection and nourishment,” says the inscription of Udayādityavarman II. “In battle he held a sword which became red with the blood of the shattered enemy kings and spread on all sides its rising lustre, as if it were a red lotus come out of its chalice [or, applied to the sword: drawn out of its scabbard], which he had delightedly seized from the Fortune of war by holding her by the hair(or better, correcting lakṣmyāḥ in to lakṣmyā: which the Fortune of war, after he had seized her hair, had delightedly offered him).”
The earliest king mentioned is Jayavarman II
, who historians generally consider, partly on the authority of this inscription, to have founded the Khmer empire in ca. 800 A.D. The text includes the oft-cited detail that he came from a country named Java
which meanwhile by most scholars, such as Charles Higham
, was seen as a foreign people living in the east whose name is derived probably from Sanskrit yavana (barbarious), perhaps referring to the kingdom of Champa
. The Khmer portion of the text goes on to say: “A Brahman named Hiraṇyadāman, skilled in magic and science," was invited by the king "to perform a ceremony that would make it impossible for this country of the Kambuja
to pay any allegiance to Java and that there should be, in this country, one sole sovereign.”
The inscription documents nine generations of the temple's priestly family, starting with Śivakaivalya, Jayavarman II's chaplain. The advisors are praised in the same adulatory tone as is employed for the kings. The text gives a detailed account of how the family systematically expanded its holdings of land and other property over the course of its long relationship with the royal household. The final chaplain named in the text, Sadasiva, is recorded as leaving the holy orders and marrying a sister of the primary queen of Udayadityavarman II. The man was given a new name and placed in charge of construction projects. His career appears to have closed out the family's role in the royal inner circle; the family is never heard from again in inscriptions.
Scholars have paid special attention to the inscription’s account of the cult of the devarāja
, a key part of the Khmer court’s religious ritual. “Hiraṇyadāma(n), the best of brahmins, with superior intelligence like Brahmā
, came, moved with compassion. To the king Jayavarman II
he carefully revealed a magic which had not been obtained by other people,” the text reads. The king was instructed in four holy treatises. “After carefully extracting the quintessence of the treatises by his experience and understanding of the mysteries, this brahmin contrived the magic rites bearing the name of Devarāja, for increasing the prosperity of the world.” But the description is sufficiently enigmatic that scholars cannot agree on the cult’s function. The term means obviously "king of the gods," in the sense that one god, generally Śiva, was recognized as higher than others in the Hindu pantheon and through his authority brought order to heaven. Court religious ritual, as described repeatedly in the inscription, focused on maintaining a linga, or holy shaft, in which Śiva’s essence was believed to reside.
The inscription is also key to understanding important events in Khmer history, such as the late 9th Century relocation of the capital from the area around the present-day village of Roluos. “Again, the skillful Vāmaśiva was the preceptor of Śrī Yaśovardhana, bearing as king the name Śrī Yaśovarman
,” the Sanskrit text states. “Invited by the king, he erected a liṅga Mount Yaśodhara, which was like the king of mountains (Meru
) in beauty.”
French scholars initially believed that Śrī Yaśodharagiri was the mountain-like Bayon
temple. But it is now established that the Bayon was built almost three centuries later than the event described in the inscription and that the linga was in fact placed in the newly constructed Phnom Bakheng
temple, which stands about two kilometers south of the Bayon atop a real hill.
The text also notes the relocation of the capital from Angkor to the site now known as Koh Ker under Jayavarman IV
, and turmoil during the times of King Sūryavarman I
. He is described as having dispatched soldiers against people who had desecrated shrines in the area of Sdok Kok Thom. Historians generally believe that Sūryavarman fought his way to power, eventually driving out of Angkor a king named Jayavīravarman (who significantly is not mentioned in the inscription).
Elsewhere, the text provides myriad details of everyday existence in the empire—the establishment of new settlements, the recovery of slaves who had fled a pillaged settlement, payments given for land, such as gold, lower garments, goats and water buffaloes.
The text describes the creation of Sdok Kok Thom itself. The family was gifted the land by Udayādityavarman II, it says. The final member of the line, now in his role as construction chief, "erected a stone temple with valabhi [spire], dug a reservoir, built dikes and laid out fields and gardens." The precise boundaries of its land and the size, duty schedules and male-female breakdown of local work teams that maintained the temple are listed.
Khmer inscriptions were created in part to glorify heaven and the earthly elite. For that reason, their value as factual records is often thrown into question. But many parts of this one are confirmed by other texts, and some of the places it describes have been reliably located. Moreover, many of its numbers and descriptions, particularly concerning land and its ownership, read as if they have the full accuracy and authority of modern courthouse documents. Overall, there is general consensus among scholars that the words chiseled out at Sdok Kok Thom are perhaps the most important written explanation that the Khmer empire provided of itself.
The inscription’s author or authors are not named. Many scholars conclude firmly that Sadasiva wrote it; Sak-Humphry believes the text was likely drafted in consultation with the Brahman, but was meant to represent declarations of his king, Udayādityavarman II.
Buddhism
, then to the Theravada
form of the faith that today predominates in Thailand and Cambodia. At an unknown time, Sdok Kok Thom became a place of Buddhist worship.
The inscription's existence was reported to the outside world in 1884 by Étienne Aymonier
. In later writing, Aymonier gave a detailed physical description of the temple. At some point prior to 1944, the inscription stele was moved to the Thai
capital Bangkok
, where it entered the collection of the national museum. In 1958, it was severely damaged when a fire swept through the museum, but museum staff were later able to reconstitute much of it. In any case, rubbings had been made of the text prior to the fire, so the words were not lost.
Following the Vietnam
ese army's invasion of Cambodia
in 1978 and the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge
government, the forested area around the temple became the site of a large camp of Cambodian refugees, known as Nong Samet Camp
or Rithysen. The camp was controlled by anti-communist guerrillas known as Khmer Serei
, who were opposed to the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia. The camp eventually became an important source of support for the KPNLF.
In 2002, with the Cambodian conflict long settled and the refugees gone, the Japan
Alliance for Humanitarian Demining Support, the Thailand Mine Action Center and the General Chatichai Choonhavan Foundation began cooperating on a program to remove landmines and other unexploded ordnance from the area. Local villagers were recruited and trained for this work, which ended in 2004 after the removal of 76 mines and other pieces of ordnance.
Over the years, the temple had fallen into a grave state of disrepair. The Thai government’s Fine Arts Department has begun an extensive restoration of the temple (see photos at and ). Workers have cleared brush and trees and excavated soil on the temple grounds down to its original level. Fallen stones have been cataloged and returned to what experts believe to be their original positions; masons have fashioned replacements for missing or severely damaged stones. This work is on-going and will take a considerable amount of time.
In modern times, Thailand and Cambodia have often disputed the precise location of their common border, most notably in a World Court
case that in 1962 awarded Preah Vihear
, another border-region temple of the Angkorian age, to Cambodia. In January 2003, the Thai government disclosed a new development concerning the border issue, a letter from the Cambodian government stating that it considers Sdok Kok Thom to be in Cambodian territory. Some Cambodians have pointed to statements by various Thai officials in the 1980s that the Khmer Serei-controlled Nong Samet
(or Rithysen) refugee camp by the temple was on the Cambodian side of the unmarked frontier. Many diplomats, however, viewed those statements, which local Thai villagers contested at the time, as a temporary expedience intended to allow Thailand to maintain that it was not involved in the Cambodian conflict and was not hosting armed Cambodian guerrillas on its soil. Today Thailand argues that the temple is unmistakably on its territory. The Thai government has built a number of roads in its vicinity. Thai authorities have continued to administer the temple site and spend large amounts of money on its restoration.
The temple is located in Khok Sung district
, Sa Kaeo province
, near the village of Ban Nong Samet.
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
temple in present-day Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, located about 34 kilometers northeast of the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet. The temple was dedicated to the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
god Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
. Constructed by a prominent priestly family, Sdok Kok Thom is best known as the original site of one of the most illuminating inscriptions left behind by the Khmer Empire
Khmer Empire
The Khmer Empire was one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalized parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Malaysia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city...
, which ruled much of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
from the end of the 9th century to the 15th century.
Built of red sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
and laterite
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...
, the temple is a prime example of a provincial seat of worship during the empire's golden age. It is small by the standards of the major monuments in Angkor
Angkor
Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara , meaning "city"...
, the empire's capital, but shares their basic design and religious symbolism. In its 11th Century heyday during the reign of King Udayādityavarman
Udayadityavarman II
Udayadityavarman II ruled the Angkor Kingdom from 1050 to 1066 A.D. He was the successor of Suryavarman I but not his son; he descended from Yasovarman I's spouse. He built the Baphuon Temple to honor the god Shiva, but some of the sculptures are dedicated to Buddha...
II, the temple was tended by its Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
patrons and supported with food and labor by the people of surrounding rice-farming villages.
Scholars disagree as to the meaning of the name, which refers in old Khmer to the temple's setting. Translations include Great Reed Lake, Large Reservoir with Herons, and Abundant Reeds in a Large Swamp.
Architectural Features
At the center of the temple is a sandstone tower, which served as the main sanctuary, probably sheltering a linga, symbol of Shiva. The tower's door is on the east, approached by steps; the other three sides have false doors. A few meters to the northeast and southeast are two sandstone structures known as libraries, with large side windows and laterite bases. Enclosing the tower and libraries is a rectangular courtyard measuring roughly 42 by 36 meters and having galleries on all four sides. On the court's eastern side is a gopura, or gate, reflecting the temple's orientation to the east.Naga
Naga or NAGA may refer to:* Nāga, a group of serpent deities in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.-People:* Nayan / Nayar/Nair people of Kerala Society* Naga people, a diverse ethnic identity in Northeast India...
serpents and a figure that appears to be the reclining Hindu god Viṣṇu.
A moat, likely representing the Hindu Sea of Creation, lies beyond each of the courtyard's four sides. An avenue leads east from the gopura. A laterite wall standing approximately 2.5 meters high and measuring 126 meters from east to west and 120 meters south to north provides additional enclosure to the entire complex. The midpoint of the eastern side of this wall has an elaborate gopura, standing on a laterite base. About 200 meters to the east of this gopura, along a laterite-paved avenue with free-standing stone posts on either side, is a baray
Baray
A baray is an artificial body of water which is a common element of the architectural style of the Khmer Empire of Southeast Asia. The largest are the East Baray and West Baray in the Angkor area, each rectangular in shape, oriented east-west and measuring roughly five by one and a half miles....
, or holy reservoir, measuring roughly 200 by 370 meters.
Inscription
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and ancient Khmer, carved on a gray sandstone stele 1.51 meters high that stood in the northeast corner of the temple's court. Dating to 8th February 1053 A.D., it recounts two and a half centuries of service that members of the temple's founding family provided to the Khmer court, mainly as chief chaplains to kings. In laying out this long role, the text provides a remarkable and often poetically worded look at the faith, royal lineage, history and social structure of the times.
The earliest king mentioned is Jayavarman II
Jayavarman II
Jayavarman II was a 9th century king of Cambodia, widely recognized as the founder of the Khmer Empire, which ruled much of the Southeast Asian mainland for more than six hundred years. Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 802 AD to 850 AD, but some scholars now have set it back to...
, who historians generally consider, partly on the authority of this inscription, to have founded the Khmer empire in ca. 800 A.D. The text includes the oft-cited detail that he came from a country named Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
which meanwhile by most scholars, such as Charles Higham
Charles Higham (archaeologist)
Charles Higham is a British archaeologist most noted for his work in Southeast Asia. Among his noted contributions to archaeology are his work about the Angkor civilization in Cambodia, and his current work at Ban Non Wat...
, was seen as a foreign people living in the east whose name is derived probably from Sanskrit yavana (barbarious), perhaps referring to the kingdom of Champa
Champa
The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...
. The Khmer portion of the text goes on to say: “A Brahman named Hiraṇyadāman, skilled in magic and science," was invited by the king "to perform a ceremony that would make it impossible for this country of the Kambuja
Kambojas
The Kambojas were a kshatriya tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature.They were an Indo-Iranian tribe situated at the boundary of the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians, and appear to have moved from the Iranian into the Indo-Aryan sphere over time.The Kambojas...
to pay any allegiance to Java and that there should be, in this country, one sole sovereign.”
The inscription documents nine generations of the temple's priestly family, starting with Śivakaivalya, Jayavarman II's chaplain. The advisors are praised in the same adulatory tone as is employed for the kings. The text gives a detailed account of how the family systematically expanded its holdings of land and other property over the course of its long relationship with the royal household. The final chaplain named in the text, Sadasiva, is recorded as leaving the holy orders and marrying a sister of the primary queen of Udayadityavarman II. The man was given a new name and placed in charge of construction projects. His career appears to have closed out the family's role in the royal inner circle; the family is never heard from again in inscriptions.
Scholars have paid special attention to the inscription’s account of the cult of the devarāja
Devaraja
"Devarāja" is a Sanskrit word which could have different meanings such as "god-king" or "king of the gods". In a Khmer context the term was used in the latter sense, but occurs only in the Sanskrit portion of the inscription K...
, a key part of the Khmer court’s religious ritual. “Hiraṇyadāma(n), the best of brahmins, with superior intelligence like Brahmā
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
, came, moved with compassion. To the king Jayavarman II
Jayavarman II
Jayavarman II was a 9th century king of Cambodia, widely recognized as the founder of the Khmer Empire, which ruled much of the Southeast Asian mainland for more than six hundred years. Historians formerly dated his reign as running from 802 AD to 850 AD, but some scholars now have set it back to...
he carefully revealed a magic which had not been obtained by other people,” the text reads. The king was instructed in four holy treatises. “After carefully extracting the quintessence of the treatises by his experience and understanding of the mysteries, this brahmin contrived the magic rites bearing the name of Devarāja, for increasing the prosperity of the world.” But the description is sufficiently enigmatic that scholars cannot agree on the cult’s function. The term means obviously "king of the gods," in the sense that one god, generally Śiva, was recognized as higher than others in the Hindu pantheon and through his authority brought order to heaven. Court religious ritual, as described repeatedly in the inscription, focused on maintaining a linga, or holy shaft, in which Śiva’s essence was believed to reside.
The inscription is also key to understanding important events in Khmer history, such as the late 9th Century relocation of the capital from the area around the present-day village of Roluos. “Again, the skillful Vāmaśiva was the preceptor of Śrī Yaśovardhana, bearing as king the name Śrī Yaśovarman
Yasovarman
Yasovarman I was an Angkorian king who reigned in 889–910 CE.-Early years:After the death of Indravarman I, a succession war was fought by his two sons. It's believed that the war was fought on land and on sea by the Tonle Sap. In the end Yasovarman I prevailed. Because of his father had sought...
,” the Sanskrit text states. “Invited by the king, he erected a liṅga Mount Yaśodhara, which was like the king of mountains (Meru
Mount Meru (Mythology)
Mount Meru is a sacred mountain in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology as well as in Jain cosmology, and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes...
) in beauty.”
French scholars initially believed that Śrī Yaśodharagiri was the mountain-like Bayon
Bayon
The Bayon is a well-known and richly decorated Khmer temple at Angkor in Cambodia. Built in the late 12th century or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, the Bayon stands at the centre of Jayavarman's capital, Angkor Thom...
temple. But it is now established that the Bayon was built almost three centuries later than the event described in the inscription and that the linga was in fact placed in the newly constructed Phnom Bakheng
Phnom Bakheng
-See also:* Angkor* Architecture of Cambodia* List of archaeoastronomical sites by country-References:* Goloubev, Victor. Le Phnom Bakheng et la ville de Yasovarman. Bulletin de l'EFEO , 33 : 319-344....
temple, which stands about two kilometers south of the Bayon atop a real hill.
The text also notes the relocation of the capital from Angkor to the site now known as Koh Ker under Jayavarman IV
Jayavarman IV
-Early Years:Jayavarman IV was an Angkorian king who ruled from 928 to 941 CE. Many early historians thought that he was a usurper. However, recent evidence shows that he had a legitimate claim to the throne. He was the son of king Indravarman I's daughter, Mahendradevi, and was married to his...
, and turmoil during the times of King Sūryavarman I
Suryavarman I
Suryavarman I was king of the Khmer Empire from 1010 to 1050. After the reign of Udayadityavarman I, which ended around 1000, there was no clear successor. Two kings, Jayaviravarman and Suryavarman I, both claimed the throne. Suryavarman I was a Buddhist who was said in the Chronicles of Chieng...
. He is described as having dispatched soldiers against people who had desecrated shrines in the area of Sdok Kok Thom. Historians generally believe that Sūryavarman fought his way to power, eventually driving out of Angkor a king named Jayavīravarman (who significantly is not mentioned in the inscription).
Elsewhere, the text provides myriad details of everyday existence in the empire—the establishment of new settlements, the recovery of slaves who had fled a pillaged settlement, payments given for land, such as gold, lower garments, goats and water buffaloes.
The text describes the creation of Sdok Kok Thom itself. The family was gifted the land by Udayādityavarman II, it says. The final member of the line, now in his role as construction chief, "erected a stone temple with valabhi [spire], dug a reservoir, built dikes and laid out fields and gardens." The precise boundaries of its land and the size, duty schedules and male-female breakdown of local work teams that maintained the temple are listed.
Khmer inscriptions were created in part to glorify heaven and the earthly elite. For that reason, their value as factual records is often thrown into question. But many parts of this one are confirmed by other texts, and some of the places it describes have been reliably located. Moreover, many of its numbers and descriptions, particularly concerning land and its ownership, read as if they have the full accuracy and authority of modern courthouse documents. Overall, there is general consensus among scholars that the words chiseled out at Sdok Kok Thom are perhaps the most important written explanation that the Khmer empire provided of itself.
The inscription’s author or authors are not named. Many scholars conclude firmly that Sadasiva wrote it; Sak-Humphry believes the text was likely drafted in consultation with the Brahman, but was meant to represent declarations of his king, Udayādityavarman II.
Later History
Hinduism began to die out in the Khmer Empire starting in the 12th Century, giving way first to MahayanaMahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, then to the Theravada
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
form of the faith that today predominates in Thailand and Cambodia. At an unknown time, Sdok Kok Thom became a place of Buddhist worship.
The inscription's existence was reported to the outside world in 1884 by Étienne Aymonier
Étienne Aymonier
Étienne François Aymonier was a French linguist and explorer. He was the first archaeologist to systematically survey the ruins of the Khmer empire in today's Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and southern Vietnam...
. In later writing, Aymonier gave a detailed physical description of the temple. At some point prior to 1944, the inscription stele was moved to the Thai
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
capital Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, where it entered the collection of the national museum. In 1958, it was severely damaged when a fire swept through the museum, but museum staff were later able to reconstitute much of it. In any case, rubbings had been made of the text prior to the fire, so the words were not lost.
Following the Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese army's invasion of Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
in 1978 and the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
government, the forested area around the temple became the site of a large camp of Cambodian refugees, known as Nong Samet Camp
Nong Samet Refugee Camp
Nong Samet Refugee Camp, also known as 007, Rithisen or Rithysen was one of the largest refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and served as a power base for the KPNLF until its destruction by the Vietnamese military in late 1984....
or Rithysen. The camp was controlled by anti-communist guerrillas known as Khmer Serei
Khmer Serei
The Khmer Serei, or "Free Khmer", were an anti-communist and anti-monarchist guerrilla force founded by Cambodian nationalist Son Ngoc Thanh.-Origin:...
, who were opposed to the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia. The camp eventually became an important source of support for the KPNLF.
In 2002, with the Cambodian conflict long settled and the refugees gone, the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
Alliance for Humanitarian Demining Support, the Thailand Mine Action Center and the General Chatichai Choonhavan Foundation began cooperating on a program to remove landmines and other unexploded ordnance from the area. Local villagers were recruited and trained for this work, which ended in 2004 after the removal of 76 mines and other pieces of ordnance.
Over the years, the temple had fallen into a grave state of disrepair. The Thai government’s Fine Arts Department has begun an extensive restoration of the temple (see photos at and ). Workers have cleared brush and trees and excavated soil on the temple grounds down to its original level. Fallen stones have been cataloged and returned to what experts believe to be their original positions; masons have fashioned replacements for missing or severely damaged stones. This work is on-going and will take a considerable amount of time.
In modern times, Thailand and Cambodia have often disputed the precise location of their common border, most notably in a World Court
World Court
* any of the international courts located in The Hague:**the International Court of Justice , a UN court that settles disputes between nations...
case that in 1962 awarded Preah Vihear
Prasat Preah Vihear
Preah Vihear Temple is a Hindu temple built during the reign of Khmer Empire, that is situated atop a cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, in the Preah Vihear province, Cambodia...
, another border-region temple of the Angkorian age, to Cambodia. In January 2003, the Thai government disclosed a new development concerning the border issue, a letter from the Cambodian government stating that it considers Sdok Kok Thom to be in Cambodian territory. Some Cambodians have pointed to statements by various Thai officials in the 1980s that the Khmer Serei-controlled Nong Samet
Nong Samet Refugee Camp
Nong Samet Refugee Camp, also known as 007, Rithisen or Rithysen was one of the largest refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and served as a power base for the KPNLF until its destruction by the Vietnamese military in late 1984....
(or Rithysen) refugee camp by the temple was on the Cambodian side of the unmarked frontier. Many diplomats, however, viewed those statements, which local Thai villagers contested at the time, as a temporary expedience intended to allow Thailand to maintain that it was not involved in the Cambodian conflict and was not hosting armed Cambodian guerrillas on its soil. Today Thailand argues that the temple is unmistakably on its territory. The Thai government has built a number of roads in its vicinity. Thai authorities have continued to administer the temple site and spend large amounts of money on its restoration.
The temple is located in Khok Sung district
Amphoe Khok Sung
Khok Sung is a district in the eastern part of Sa Kaeo Province, eastern Thailand.-Geography:Neighboring districts are Aranyaprathet, Watthana Nakhon and Ta Phraya of Sa Kaeo Province, and to the east Banteay Meanchey of Cambodia.-History:The minor district was established July 15, 1996 with...
, Sa Kaeo province
Sa Kaeo Province
Sa Kaeo is a province of Thailand.It is located in the east of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Chanthaburi, Chachoengsao, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima and Buri Ram...
, near the village of Ban Nong Samet.
See also
- 2008 Cambodian-Thai stand-off2008 Cambodian-Thai stand-offThe Cambodian–Thai border dispute began in June 2008 as the latest round of a century-long dispute between Cambodia and Thailand involving the area surrounding the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple, located in the Dângrêk Mountains between the Choam Khsant district in the Preah Vihear province of...
- Ancient Khmer sculpture
- Nong Samet Refugee CampNong Samet Refugee CampNong Samet Refugee Camp, also known as 007, Rithisen or Rithysen was one of the largest refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and served as a power base for the KPNLF until its destruction by the Vietnamese military in late 1984....