Prasat Phum Phon – Thailand’s oldest

Prasat Phum Phon in Sangkha, Surin is the oldest Khmer archeological site in Thailand.

It comprises three brick prasats and one laterite prasat, arranged in a row from north to south.

The third (principal) prasat is made of bricks without mortar. There are pillars adorning the door frame with a lintel carved from sandstone. Under the gable above the lintel, there is a scrolling leaf pattern in post-Gupta Indian art (6th-8th centuries), and a Sanskrit inscription with Pallava script, extant in the 7th-8th centuries.

Prasat Phum Phon has been restored by the Fine Arts Department, and ancient artefacts such as lintels, inscription fragments, and door frame pillars have been preserved and exhibited at the Surin National Museum.

 

© Kim Epton 2023

204 words, 6 photographs

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