The buildings of Paten ta Phrohm (the Brahmanical) are of a much more varied but less perfect style. They seem, from the descriptions of M. Mouhot and Dr. Bastian, to be Buddhist, Jaina, or Hindu, or all these styles mixed up together as in Java. In fact, they seem very much to resemble the buildings in that island, and their date is about the same, omitting only the Buddhist series, which does not seem to occur here; but, as no detailed drawings or good photographs of them have yet been published, there is very little to be said about them now. For the present our attention must be principally confined to the city of Ongcor—or Ongon, as it is popularly named, but more correctly known as Nakhon Thom—the great city—and especially to the suburban monastery of Nakhon Wat.
It is now not difficult to point out the situation of this city, as the lake near which it is situated and the hills that approach it have generally now found their way into most atlases. Generally it may be said that about half-way between the great rivers of Siam and Cambodia is a lake, the Tali Sab, about 120 miles long, and varying in width from 30 to 60. In the dry weather its average depth is only 4 ft., but in the rains it is fed by the Mekong, of which it is a backwater, and rises 30 ft. or 40 ft. more, so that it is easily navigable for large boats. At a little distance from the northern shore of this lake, in 103° 50´ East longitude and 13° 30´ North latitude, the ruins are to be found, situated in a great plain extending some fifty miles in width between the lake and the hills on its northern boundary.[641]
Temple of Nakhon Wat.
The temple of Nakhon Wat, literally “the temple of the city,” or “of the capital,” as it is now called by the Siamese, is situated in a sandy plain, about four miles to the southward of the city of Ongcor itself, and between it and the lake Tali Sab. As will be seen from the small plan (figure 2, Woodcut No. 370) it is almost an exact square, and measures nearly an English mile each way. The walled
370. Plan of Temple of Nakhon Wat. (From a Survey by Mr. J. Thomson.) Scale 155 ft. to 1 in.
enclosure of the temple measures 1080 yards by 1100, and is surrounded by a moat or ditch 230 yards wide. The moat is crossed on the west by a splendid causeway, adorned by pillars on either side. This leads to the great gateway, not unlike the gopura of a Dravidian temple, five storeys in height, but extended by lateral galleries and towers to a façade more than 600 ft. in extent. Within this a second raised causeway, 370 yards long, leads to a cruciform platform in front of the temple (shown in figure 1, Woodcut No. 370). On either side of this, about half-way down, is a detached temple, which anywhere else would be considered of importance, but here may be passed over.
The general plan of the temple will be understood from the woodcut (No. 370). It consists of three enclosures, one within the other, each raised from 15 ft. to 20 ft. above the level of that outside it, so as to give the whole a pyramidal form. The outer enclosure measures 570 ft. by 650 ft., and covers, therefore, about 370,000 sq. ft. The great temple at Karnac (Thebes) covers 430,000 sq. ft. There are three portals, adorned with towers on each face, and on either side of these are open galleries or verandahs, which, with their bas-reliefs, are probably the most remarkable features of this temple. Their external appearance will be understood from the Woodcut No. 373; that of the interior from Woodcut No. 374; though these illustrations are on too small a scale to do justice to their magnificence.