Kbal Spean

Interesting facts

In the main field of lingas, five are set in a quincunx, an arrangement that, like the central towers of Angkor Wat, stands for the cosmic Mount Meru.

Each carved linga is roughly 25 cm square and about 10 cm deep, and they are laid out in a strikingly regular grid.

The reliefs are carved in the Baphuon style, the 11th-century manner named after the Baphuon temple at Angkor.

One relief shows Lakshmi massaging the legs of Vishnu as he drifts on the serpent Ananta across the cosmic ocean of milk.

On the east bank a group of carvings once centred on Shiva as an ascetic, a subject rarely seen at Angkor, but its central figure has been destroyed or taken.

Above that damaged group is a carved crocodile whose meaning scholars have still not been able to explain.

The walls of a pool by the river bear another pair of crocodiles, here shown with women holding their tails.

In April 2003 a large relief of Vishnu was hacked from the rock, most likely by looters.

Craftsmen trained at the Artisans d'Angkor workshops have recreated some of the missing carvings under the supervision of archaeologists.

Since 1992 Kbal Spean has been on Cambodia's tentative list for World Heritage status as part of the Phnom Kulen sites.

Why it is worth it

In the forested Kulen Hills northeast of Angkor, a small river runs over a bed of sandstone carved nearly a thousand years ago. Kbal Spean – "bridge head", after a natural sandstone arch over the stream – is a stretch of roughly 150 metres in which the riverbed and banks were turned into sculpture: reclining Vishnu on the serpent Ananta with Lakshmi at his feet, Brahma on a lotus rising from Vishnu's navel, Shiva and his consort Uma riding the bull Nandi, alongside Rama, Hanuman, frogs and crocodiles. When the water drops after the rainy season, the figures surface from the current one by one.

Downstream of the arch the stone is covered by the motif that gives the site its other name, the River of a Thousand Lingas: rows of small square bosses, each a linga, the emblem of Shiva, set in a regular grid under a few centimetres of clear water. One group sits in a rectangular frame with an outlet channel read as a yoni, the female principle. The idea behind it was practical as much as devotional: water flowing over the sacred carvings was sanctified before it continued down to the Siem Reap River and on to the temples and reservoirs of Angkor and the Tonlé Sap. Beyond the lingas the river drops into a pool whose rock walls carry further reliefs of reclining Vishnu.

Inscriptions place the carving in the eleventh century, beginning under King Suryavarman I and continuing under Udayadityavarman II, who is recorded as consecrating a golden linga here in 1059; the thousand lingas are attributed to hermits working under a minister of Suryavarman I. The site was found by the ethnologist Jean Boulbet in 1969, but the Cambodian Civil War cut off further exploration, and it became accessible again only from 1989. It lies within Phnom Kulen National Park, some 25 km from the main Angkor group.

Getting there

Kbal Spean is about 40 km from Siem Reap, reached by road past the temple of Banteay Srei; from the roadhead a forest path of about 2 km climbs to the carvings. The nearest airport is Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport (SAI), about 42 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

Kbal Spean is an Angkorian-era archaeological site on the southwest slopes of the Kulen Hills to the northeast of Angkor in Banteay Srei District, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. It is situated along a 150m stretch of the Stung Kbal Spean River, 25 kilometres (16 mi) from the main Angkor group of monuments, which lie downstream.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Kbal Spean

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia