SIEM REAP — During the Angkorian kingdom, several mountains (or phnom in Khmer) temples were considered homes of the deities and representing the centre of the universe as is the belief in Hinduism.

Among the many mountain temples, Phnom Bok stands in a setting of unique serenity, because of its stones and bas-reliefs as well as its surroundings and the hundreds of steps one must climb to reach it, taking one on a journey to reach this temple set on one of the highest mountains of the region.  

Located about 20 kilometres northeast of downtown Siem Reap city, the temple is a Hindu monastery of the 10th century that is comparatively rarely visited by tourists.

Set a bit further from the famed temples in and around the walled city of Angkor Thom, Phnom Bok challenges visitors with the height at which it stands, the fairly difficult terrain and seasonal daylight heat one must deal with to reach it. But once at the temple, there is an impressive calmness, tranquillity, the temple showing the ravages of time over the centuries passed by, trees growing and falling, its stones damaged by the elements, at times falling while people came and went.

A trip to Phnom Bok begins for visitors as do trips to other temples in the Angkor Archaeology Park. Starting from downtown Siem Reap, the more picturesque route would be to go down Preah Sihanouk avenue, formerly known as the Charles de Gaulle avenue.

This way takes visitors through a part of the city with towering trees, gardens and sidewalks, leading eventually to the south side of the famed Angkor Wat temple. Those using motorcycles or bicycles will feel a cool breeze under the tree canopies with the moist air and sunrays shining in-between the tree branches.

The trip continues eastward along the vast moat, going through villages with local stores, pagodas, schools, street fruit vendors. And then, it is grids upon grids of rice paddies being planted, harvested or about to, depending on the time of year.

When harvest is underway with some plots remaining, these ripped rice paddies look as if they were a sea of golden waves gracefully moving in the sun and morning mist with water buffalos bathing in the many shallow ponds.

Young students in white shirts, blue shorts for boys and blue skirts for girls, can be seen pedalling their bicycles to school in groups, chatting with one another. In the meantime, their parents prepare for work in the fields or pack produce to sell if they are farmers, or put on business-type clothes if they work in offices or stores.

Sometimes, older people travel to the nearby forest to gather firewood for cooking. Small badges of wood are tied and put on the back of their bicycles as they go through the temples near which the houses of their ancestors may have been standing for centuries.

The route twists and turns according to the boundaries of each centuries-old site. This trip takes visitors across a number of temples such as Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdei, Banteay Samre, Pre Rup, the Srah Srang water reservoir, and a number of smaller temples hidden behind villagers' houses. A route that basically ran through a city long ago.

Caption: Kravan temple as seen from the main road.

Caption: Pre Rup temple as seen from the main road.

Caption: Riding along the Srah Srang ancient man-made water reservoir. 

Caption: Passing the eastern gate of the Banteay Kdei temple.

Visitors drive across the village of Preah Dak, which is known for its authentic styles and Cambodian dishes, and actually sit on top of a dried-out reservoir, the Eastern Baray.

Khmer sticky noodle soup, grilled pork, and palm desserts are some of the sought-after specialties at Preah Dak village, which can get rather crowded during national holidays as the number of Cambodian visitors increase.

Palm dessert is cooked in hot tin pans, creating white steam. Sellers wrap this juicy, yellow dish in palm-leaf boxes. Grilled pork on the stove will let go black smoke as cooks put sauce on the meat. Villagers sell local fruits in front of their lawn at affordable prices, hanging them under umbrellas.

This is a busy village with motorcycles and cars coming in and out like at an airport. At some times of the year, trees nearly form a roof over people’s heads in Preah Dak village, providing cover from the harsh sun for those on motorcycles.

Right after Preah Dak village, one comes to an intersection of roads offering people the option of going north to visit the Banteay Srei temple, the archaeological sites and waterfall of Phnom (mountain) Kulen, or going south to get on the way to Phnom Penh city.

Continuing eastward for several more kilometres takes people to a pagoda entrance at the foot of a mountain.

And here it is: the mountain on which is Phnom Bok, a temple about 1,000 years old. Today, a Buddhist pagoda built of bricks and wood stands next to it. Its name Chankiri pagoda is written on its brick entrance, which is simple in design. Cambodians in the area tend to call it the Bok pagoda.

With Phnom Bok set on a mountain at a height of more than 230 metres, visitors can easily spot the temple from a distance. “Phnom Bok is often overlooked by international visitors but is an absolute must-see in Siem Reap,” said Craig Dodge, director of sales and marketing of the famed Phare, The Cambodian Circus, in Siem Reap city. He has been living in Siem Reap for many years.

“Phnom Bok is one of several spots outside the main Angkor Archaeological Park that are included in the Angkor Park Pass,” he said. “It’s a great way to make the most of a visit to Siem Reap at no extra cost other than transportation.”

At first, the Chankiri pagoda next to the temple seems like any other pagoda in Cambodia’s countryside with a vihara, some monks' houses, resting huts and modest food vendors selling coconuts and grilled chicken. A modern stone stele at the front of the staircase mentions the name of the site and the orientation of the entrance.

A few tourism police officers and heritage-police officers—from the police division affected to the protection of the country’s historical monuments, statues and so on—are stationed at the entrance where a small motorcycle parking lot has been set up. They are friendly and ready to talk with people about sites to visit in the area. Some friendly village dogs occasionally come near tourists who are eating in the hope of being given leftovers.

“Very few international visitors even know Phnom Bok exists,” Craig said. “It is quite likely that those who make the effort to go there will be the only ones, or among the very few, who will be exploring the historical site at the top.”

The journey up the mountain basically starts at the pagoda's entrance. As people go up the stairs, the slope gets steeper.  

At first, the terrain is quite daunting with pebbles and exposed tree roots along the path, which gets even more challenging during the rainy season. Further up, the path splits into two with one being a more direct path with a 630-step concrete staircase, and the other a winding dirt track with pebbles and exposed tree roots.

“I like to take the shaded trail up for a tranquil hike, often accompanied by the sounds of diverse birdlife,” Craig said. “Then, go down using the staircase, which offers breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.” The concrete staircase, which is 1.5 metre wide, is lined with an iron guardrail sometimes intact, sometimes not.

During the climb, a few grassy areas can be seen between large pockets of trees. These areas, although quite steep, may offer visitors a resting place and a window on the vast flatland of Siem Reap province stretching as far as the eye can see, teeming with palm trees and grids of rice paddies. Taking a small break here to drink water and enjoy the lush landscape is surely recommended.

Walking up the stairs, depending on the time of day, one may meet three ladies also going up. They are the temple caretakers on their way to work, hands full of bags with some food. Their responsibility is to clean the temple’s surroundings, clear away some overgrown grasses and manage rubbish.

Right beside the temple is a small hut where the ladies store their equipment and cook their meals, which may involve preparing firewood and cleaning fish before cooking it as they did that day. A simple, slow-paced life that adds to the timeless atmosphere of this centuries-old site.

Depending on the pace of the people doing so, climbing the 630 steps may take 30 minutes and stopping a few times to catch one’s breath. As visitors come close to the top, another vihara can be seen above the final steps of the staircase.

On the mountain, the setting is one of calm, the morning wind gently blowing and the leaves making small whistle-like sounds as one step in the Buddhist monastery where Cambodians often come to pray and pay respect as those of previous generations did.

The monastery of old-fashioned style includes a relatively small hall and a number of statues of Buddha. From one of its windows of the pagoda that opens on the side of the temple, one can see a heap of crumbled stones similar to those used to build the entrance of the temple and which may have fallen off over the centuries.  

Phnom Bok is one of three temples that King Yasovarman I built on top of mountains in the Angkorian region, the others being Phnom Krom and Phnom Bakheng. Compared to Phnom Krom, Phnom Bok is far more damaged with fewer modern-day reinforcement. But then, in a way, it’s a lesson on how powerful and destructive nature can be and that structures built by human beings will only stand for centuries if maintained.

The central path leading to Phnom Bok is flanked by two stone structures archaeologists refer to as libraries. Large Frangipani trees have grown through the roof of each one in almost perfect symmetry and, today, only some door frames and beams of these libraries remain standing, with bricks piled in heap in the immediate vicinity.

The main three towers were built to honour the trinity of divinity in Hinduism with the central one dedicated to Shiva, the one to the north to Vishnu and the one to the south to Brahma. Today, they are in poor condition. The central tower has its stone roof toppled inward. The two other towers have the front and back sides of their roofs missing.

There are piles of stones on the temple’s grounds along with portions of bas-relief and sculpted features. The feet of a sculpture are still attached to its pedestal and some eroded Khmer Singha lions still guard the temple’s door, a duty they have performed for centuries.

On one of the towers, a female deva, or celestial being, gracefully smiling, is sculpted in a bas-relief, the upper half of her face eroded. Still, she keeps on welcoming visitors born centuries after she was immortalized in stone here, at Angkor.

“Who were these ladies,” a visitor might ask himself as he admires this simple yet affectionate smile sculpted in stone a very long time ago and that still remains in spite of the ravages of time and the elements on the temple. “Were they actually real women who once stood here, at this exact same spot,” he might ask himself, maybe as models for the sculptor. And in case this actually happened, the visitor says goodbye, if not a “till I see you again.”

In another tower whose roof fell off outside the tower, a large stone pedestal broken into big and small pieces is surrounded by small offerings left by recent visitors.   

Those towers make one wonder what would have happened on such a day in their glory days when elite religious figures held ceremonies for royal family members and high-ranking officials surrounded by an army of servants and guards.

There is no such busy-ness today, which makes this temple on a mountain a place to get away from busy-ness and relax as Craig mentioned. “After the invigorating hike to the top, I love to just sit peacefully…listen to the wind rustling through the leaves and admire the ancient sculpted scenes,” he said.

After a short walk toward the northwest along a small dirt path, seeing rusted antenna’s anchors along the way, visitors reach the site of a Hindu monument.

Showing the damages of time and the elements, this large sculpture of a Hindu Shiva linga, which is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, stands on a laterite temple-like platform the size of an average house, quietly hidden in the woods.

As can be seen, the sandstone linga and its base was broken into many pieces over the centuries. No doubt by the elements although some believe that a great deal of the damage might have been caused by an explosion during the conflicting latter half of the 20th century.

Removed from its pedestal, the Shiva linga now lays horizontally under a zinc roof with wooden beams, secured with steel cables. Even lying down, this offers a glimpse of what this impressive sculpture might have been when it was standing.

According to Hour Sothoun, an archaeologist of the APSARA National Authority, a government body tasked to protect and development the Angkor Archaeological Park, this Shiva Linga was reassembled back in 2021.

At more than four metres long and more than one metres in diameter, the entire linga is thought to weigh around 14 tonnes.

“It is actually common to see temples built on top of mountains, but most of them are made from bricks”, the archaeologist said.

“For Phnom Bok temple, the structure is made from large block of sandstones on top of one of the highest points in the region. This signifies power of the monarch”.

Drops of candle wax around it as they are commonly found at other similar sites are proof of Cambodians’ enduring beliefs across time.

A Cambodian middle-aged man in a sports outfit and running shoes, who might have climbed the mountain as part of his workout routine, contributed some clean, drinking water from his bottle to help cleanse the linga as if it was a ritual. A discreet day-to-day activity that visitors can still see in parts of Siem Reap province.

“Occasionally there will be a monk or a security guard up here who is happy to share stories about the place,” Craig said. “I encourage visitors to make a small contribution to them for their efforts.”

Visitors can choose to go down the mountain by using the same concrete staircase or walk along a winding dirt track with a gentler angle of descent although it can be slippery due to large round pebbles on the path.

Yet, with proper shoes and trained legs, this hard track can make one feel the adventure of crossing the mountain. Exposed tree roots and rough stones do sometimes help going down as they are slightly easier to grip. Termite mounds, loved by farmers as fertiliser, can be seen on each side of the path.

With Phnom Bok temple being not that far from the city and reached by well-maintained roads, a visit to the temple can comfortably be done in a morning or an afternoon. And exercising in the process at a site that provides tranquillity and peace of mind.

Compared to many temples in Angkor Park that are grandiose both in style and size, Phnom Bok temple is more like a graceful being resting quietly on a mountain overlooking the horizon and providing unforgettable memories to those who go up the mountain.

To learn about Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Krom temples, click on the links below:

https://cambodianess.com/article/the-bakheng-diving-into-the-history-of-cambodias-pyramid

https://cambodianess.com/article/phnom-krom-a-hindu-temple-that-became-an-artillery-station-now-a-destination