Prasat Muang Tam

About this place

Prasat Muang Tam is a Khmer Hindu temple in Prakhon Chai District, Buriram Province, northeast Thailand, at the foot of Phanom Rung hill, about 6 km southeast of Phanom Rung temple and 57 km south of Buriram town in a straight line. Its name means «lowland castle». It was mainly built in the late 10th and early 11th centuries and dedicated to Shiva, with Vishnu also worshipped. Like most Hindu temples it faces east, and its plan is flat and concentric: a central sanctuary inside an inner wall, then ponds, then an outer wall. The ponds between the walls are unusual, as is the layout of its towers in rows of three and two. Four L-shaped ponds surround the temple, edged by stone serpents whose heads rear up at the corners, with pink lotus flowers floating on the water. Brick and sandstone towers and gateways are mirrored in the ponds, and big trees shade the paths between them. The temple is far quieter than Phanom Rung and needs about an hour. Go early in the morning or late in the day for the best light on the stone and its reflections.