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At an ancient Chenla site, a series of carvings depict men who
appear to be foreigners. Their identity has confounded, and divided,
archaeologists and historians and raises questions about the
interactions of the Khmer empires with the outside world.
Leading off of the main highway 10 minutes north of Kampong Thom
city, the road to Sambor Prei Kuk is seldom travelled by tourists. But
after 16 kilometres, the road reaches an ancient temple at the site of
the former capital of the Chenla Empire.
The ruins provide not only a glimpse of the Pre-Angkorian period, but
of a mystery that has confounded researchers – one that, if solved,
could shed light on the people and cultures that interacted with ancient
Khmer civilisation.
Amid the dense tropical rainforest and bomb craters left by American
attacks in the 1970s lie 150 ancient sandstone temples, all pre-dating
the Angkorian era. Constructed on an area of 4 square kilometres, the
temples are divided into three clusters: the North Group, South Group
and Central Group.
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The southernmost is the home to the puzzle.
Facing the main temple, Prasat Yeah Poun, is a derelict construction
called Kda Ouk. Its architrave – the beam above the columns – bears the
carvings of 12 men. Each is different – some with strong, chiselled
features, and others more delicate – but they have notable
characteristics in common, including moustaches, long curly hair, big
eyes, thick eyebrows and pointy noses.
The unique features of these men do not fit with the statues and
engravings at the rest of the temples – nor, researchers say, with the
physical appearance of Cambodian people. This has led to speculation
that they are the portraits of foreigners. But who were these outsiders
and why, in the seventh century, would they have been important enough
to the Khmer people to have been literally put on a pedestal?
Chiv Heng, a 52-year-old farmer who has lived near Sambo Prei Kuk for
his entire life, said he has always wondered about the identities of
the men since he was a boy, but no one in the area had any answers for
him.
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“Some elderly people told me that they were Indian, and some said
they were religious idols, but no one is sure,” Heng said. “But, when
UNTAC [the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia] came to
Cambodia to organise the election, I noticed that the faces looked
similar to the face of the UNTAC’s barang [Western] staff.”
“Although I stayed in school for only five years and do not know much
about Khmer history, I could tell that the heads must have been the
copies of barang men who came to Cambodia in the past.”
Smey Smak, 59, a tourism police officer born in Kampong Thom and
stationed in Sambor Prei Kuk since 2004, shares the same hypothesis with
Chiv Heng.
“I usually hear the tour guides explain to the tourists that they
were Indian, but I do not believe that,” he said. “The busts look like
the Spanish people, if one asks me, but I never learned that Spanish
people came to Cambodia in ancient times.”
A foreign concept
Given its decay and remoteness, today it is easy to forget that Sambor
Prei Kuk was the capital of the Khmer Empire during the Chenla period,
beginning during the reign of King Isanavarman I between 616 and 637 AD.
