Apsara Authority Restores Tonle Snguot Temple

Apsara Authority Restores Tonle Snguot Temple

Tonle Snguot temple, located in Kork Chak commune’s Angkor Krao village in Siem Reap city, has ‘reappeared’ after Apsara Authority finished restoring it.

The temple is built of sandstone with a tower facing to the east. According to the architecture and bas relief that adorn the temple, it is in the Bayon style of Jayavarman VII built in the late-12th to early-13th century.

Due to age, the temple, which was a former hospital during the reign of Jayavarman VII, was dilapidated and collapsed.

According to Apsara Authority’s Facebook post yesterday it said: “Apsara Authority had started the project to renovate this temple and just completed the restoration project that makes this temple stand and show its beautiful appearance again. The temple will become a new destination for tourists.”

It also said: “In this renovation project, Apsara Authority’s working group found a door almost two metres high, the Buddha King of Medicine, many statues buried under the ground, pieces of door, as well as so many traces of the lives of many people in the past.

Long Kosal, Apsara Authority spokesman told Khmer Times that: “There were two steps to restore in this temple. First, before repairing, we researched the style and foundation of the temple. We started working on this project in 2017, as far as I can remember.”

“After studying the basic structure, we collected the temple stones to test assemble them. After test assembling those stones, we put it together to look like today. It took around two to three years to repair this temple,” he said.

“Speaking of early research, it used to involve a group of students who did research from Singapore (as I remember), but within the framework of operations only. In particular, our restoration is under the auspices of the Apsara Authority, which is funded entirely by the national budget and by all Khmer experts as well,” said Kosal.

“Besides Tonle Snguot temple, there are many temples which are under repair by our team,” he added.

He said that the temple was closed during the restoration works, but now the temple is ready to welcome tourists from everywhere and people can walk through the temple when they visit it.

Tonle Snguot temple is one of 102 hospitals of Jayavarman VII. The temple is about 500 metres north of the pot gate, 13 kilometres away from Siem Reap city.