Yasovarman I (Khmer: ព្រះបាទយសោវរ្ម័នទី១) was an Angkorian king who reigned in 889–910 CE. He was called "Leper King".
Yasovarman I (Khmer: ព្រះបាទយសោវរ្ម័នទី១) was an Angkorian king who reigned in 889–910 CE. He was called "Leper King".
Phnom Bakheng (Khmer: ភ្នំបាខែង [pʰnom baːkʰaeŋ]) is a Hindu temple in the form of a temple mountain in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. Dedicated to Shiva, it was built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889–910). Located atop a hill, it is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views of the much bigger temple Angkor Wat, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast. The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor. Since 2004, the World Monuments Fund has been working to conserve the temple in partnership with APSARA.
Yashodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ; Khmer pronunciation: [jeaʔ sao tʰeaʔ reaʔ boʔ raʔ]; Sanskrit: यशोधरपुर "Yashodharapura"), also known as Angkor (Khmer: អង្គរ), was the capital of the Khmer Empire for most of its history. It was established by King Yashovarman I in the late 9th century and centred on the temple of Phnom Bakheng.
Yashodharapura was referred to in the inscriptions as Phnom Kandal (Central Mountain). Phnom Bakheng was constructed just before the foundation of Yashodharapura due to Yashovarman's belief that the mountain was among the holiest of places to worship the Hindu deities. Yashodharapura was linked to an earlier capital, Hariharalaya, by a causeway. The urban complex included the East Baray or Yashodharatataka.
The East Baray (Khmer: បារាយណ៍ខាងកើត), or Yashodharatataka, is a now-dry baray, or artificial body of water, at Angkor, Cambodia, oriented east–west and located just east of the walled city Angkor Thom. It was built around the year 900 CE during the reign of King Yasovarman. Fed by the Siem Reap River flowing down from the Kulen Hills, it is the second-largest baray in the Angkor region (after the West Baray) and one of the largest handcut water reservoirs on Earth, measuring roughly 7.5 kilometers by 1830 m and holding over 55 million cubic meters of water. Stones bearing inscriptions that mark the construction of the baray have been found at all four of its corners. The labour and organization necessary for its construction were staggering: Its dikes contain roughly 8 million cubic meters of fill.
Scholars are divided on the purpose of this and other barays. By some theories, they held water for irrigation, but no inscription has been found mentioning such a function. Other theories say that barays served primarily a symbolic purpose in Khmer religious life, representing the seas of creation that surround Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods.