Prasat hunting in Kompong Speu

A slate pedestal at Wat Ang Serei, on top of the hill
The inside brick wall of one part of the broken prasat at Wat Ang Serei

Kompong Speu is not known as a hotbed of Angkorean temples for prasat-hunters like me to gorge themselves on, as there are in provinces like Siem Reap of course, Preah Vihear, Kompong Thom and so on. However, with the aid of the new Ministry of Culture/EFEO maps that I highlighted recently, you can certainly scout around the sites indicated on the maps to see what you can find and these can lead you onto sites that aren't mentioned on the maps, as I did last Sunday. The first of the prasats were at Wat Ang Serei, which they also called Wat Saportep, just aouth of Route 4 between Samrong Tong and Kompong Speu town. On a small hill, a brick tower was cut into the side of the hill, but all carvings, except for a broken slate pedestal, were long gone. The monk suggested that a tunnel led from the bottom of the tower to Wat Ampe Phnom, a couple of kilometres away but talk of underground tunnels is common at such places. The next ruin was in a field next to a newly-built canal and was called Neak Ta Thma Bang, a couple of kilometres from Wat Ang Po. A cluster of trees hid the site from the road and on closer inspection, the foundations of the brick tower remained but little else of note, except one piece of carving that I found under a carpet of leaves and pieces of colonettes that had been converted into a seat.

Returning to my moto, I was met by a local villager, Vo, who asked if I wanted to see the five temples that surrounded his nearby village. As these weren't mentioned on the map, I gave him a big beaming smile and asked him to lead on. We left the moto at the home of one of his neighbours in the village of Krang Metrei and began the start of our two-hour exploration on foot. Walking in a large semi-circle across burnt rice fields and shrub-land we visited five brick-built prasats that in each case consisted of a large hole inside brick foundations on top of a small rise in the middle of a field. In most cases, the temples had been broken apart by robbers looking for loot and large holes dug inside where the tower had stood on the hunt for whatever they could find. The prasats were spaced between 200-500 metres apart except for the fifth and final site, at least a kilometre from the others and much nearer the village, where I judged there to have been three brick towers in its hey-day with lots of bricks and a few slabs of sandstone scattered around the ruin. In order of our visits, Vo told me their names were Ang Pichiva, Ang Prum, Ang Kavuth, Ang Yeay Pheang and Ang Sakae. Not earth-shattering discoveries by any stretch of the imagination and for 99.9% of people, the two hours would've been a waste of time, but my view is that if you don't make the effort to visit these sites then you will never know what's there. Vo had been good company. He told me that he was married with two baby girls and that when he wasn't working as a carpenter, he helped his father grow cucumbers on his plot of land, on which Ang Yeay Pheang sat. We then returned to Vo's home for cold drinks and to chat to his father, Prak Doh, who related the history of the temples, as had been told to him by his father, and claimed that as little as ten years ago the prasats had been in much better condition until thieves came looking for their bounty. The sun was setting as I said my goodbyes to Vo and his family and closed the page on my prasat-hunting in Kompong Speu, until next time.

The colonettes at Neak Ta Thma Bang have been converted to seats
The remains of the brick tower at Neak Ta Thma Bang
The only piece of carving I could find at Neak Ta Thma Bang, under a carpet of leaves