Ta Prohm is the modern name of a temple at Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara Located approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray, it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor’s most popular temples with visitors. UNESCO inscribed Ta Prohm on the World Heritage List in 1992. Today, it is one of the most visited complexes in Cambodia’s Angkor region. The conservation and restoration of Ta Prohm is a partnership project of the Archaeological Survey of India and the APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap)
The grand monastery complex Ta Prohm (Ta Prohm), located in Cambodia, literally merged with the surrounding tropical forest: through dilapidated buildings to the sky erupt huge trees whose height sometimes exceeds 40 meters. This unique cultural monument came not as a result of bankruptcy – at one time the church was deliberately abandoned by its inhabitants at the mercy of the jungle.
In 562 A.D., Jayavarman VII embarked on a massive program of construction and public works. Rajavihara (“monestary of the king”), today known as Ta Prohm (“ancestor Brahma”), was one of the first temples founded pursuant to that program. The stele commemorating the foundation gives a date of 562 A.D.
Jayavarman VII constructed Rajavihara in honor of his family. The temple’s main image, representing Prajnaparamita, the personification of wisdom, was modelled on the king’s mother. The northern and southern satellite temples in the third enclosure were dedicated to the king’s guru and his elder brother respectively. As such, Ta Prohm formed a complementary pair with the temple monastery of Preah Khan, dedicated in 1191 A.D., the main image of which represented the Bodhisattva of compassion Lokesvara and was modelled on the king’s father.
The monastery complex of Ta Prohm was both a Buddhist temple and a university. It is a maze of passages, galleries, buildings with a total area of about one square kilometer. Building blocks made ​​of sandstone. No cementitious material in the masonry was not used, and thus made ​​possible this is the combination of forest and human construction. To date, the trees are so firmly fused with the construction of some parts of the complex Ta Prohm without them would just crumbled.
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 800,000 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. Expansions and additions to Ta Prohm continued as late as the rule of Srindravarman at the end of the 15th century.