Bat Chum

About

<p>Bat Chum is a small temple built by Kavindrarimathana, a learned Buddhist minister of&nbsp;<strong>Khmer king Rajendravarman</strong>, at the middle of the 10th century. It is about 400 meters (1,300 ft) south of Srah Srang, at Angkor, Cambodia.</p>

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<p>Bat Chum is a small temple built by Kavindrarimathana, a learned Buddhist minister of Khmer king Rajendravarman,[1] at the middle of the 10th century. It is about 400 meters (1,300 ft) south of Srah Srang, at Angkor, Cambodia.</p>

<p>It consists of three inline brick towers (in poor conditions at present), standing on the same platform, surrounded by an enclosure and a moat, with a single gopura to the east.</p>

<p>On the doorjambs there are Buddhist inscriptions that mention Kavindrarimathana, the &quot;architect&quot; (or official in charge for construction) who built Srah Srang, East Mebon, and maybe planned the temple-mountain of Pre Rup.[2] The latter was dedicated in 960 AD, shortly before death of the architect. There were houses and a Buddhist monastery near the temple, but these wooden structures have been gone for a long time.[3]</p>

<p>During the excavations in 1952, in the northern and central towers, flagstones showing a yantra were found, which George Coed&egrave;s was able to reconstitute and with extreme difficulty link to the Buddhist divinities mentioned on doorjambs.[4]</p>

<p>In every tower there is a different inscription signed by three different persons. The last verse of each of the three refers to the elephants as &quot;dyke breakers&quot;.</p>