Prasat Muang Tam
It is just 8 km away from Prasat Phanom Rung, by a concrete road through paddy fields.
The temple is surrounded by a community called Ban Cho-ra-ke Mak. In front of the car park there is a small shop cum museum displaying books and photos of Khmer architecture. The entrance gate opposite the museum charges entrance fees (10 Baht for Thai and 30 Baht for a foreigner).
There are local houses, a Thai temple and a school nearby the Khmer sanctuary.
In the low tourist season the site looks solitary and magical. The complex is surrounded by two walls. The inner wall is made of sandstone while the outer one is made of laterite. Sandstone archways at opposite points perforate the perimeter on all four sides. The lintel, pediment, and side columns of each archway are carved into scenes from Hindu myth.
There are four L-shaped ponds located between the outer and inner walls. At the center of the compound there are 5 Chedis all made of brick and built on a single laterite foundation.
It is comprised of 13 main parts. Part one is the stairway starting near the car parking. From this point you could not see any buildings until you walk to the end of the stairway. Then there is a pavilion setting on the right side, at the end of the stairway.
The third section is the flat pathway with columns on both sides. It leads to "Naga bridge", the section four. Next, there are 52 steps leading to the top of the hill. This construction connects to part six, the bridge linking to principal tower.
The second level Naga bridge, the boundary gallery, and the third level Naga bridge are located before the main building. The main square based tower is made of pink sandstone, which is 9.2 meters width and 23 meters tall.At the center of the building there is the "Shiva Lingam ", the most sacred religious object. There are two stone building and one minor building to the northeast and the southwest of the main building. In front of the tower, to the northeast and the southeast, are two laterite buildings used as libraries.
Normally visitors would walk up the ladder from the bottom. However you can drive up to the summit and park just behind the compound for a fee of 50 Thai Baht for a van. Entrance fee for visitors is 40 Thai Baht each for foreigners, and 20 Thai Baht each for Thais.
Every year in April there is a cerebration. Many tourists come to celebrate and worship at this ruin. There are display of beautiful parades, north eastern style dinner, traditional shows, sound and light show. In 2003 the cerebration takes place on 5 and 6 April.
Airport Authority of Thailand.
Thai Airways
Bangkok Airways (Regional Airlines)
PB Air (Thailand domestic lines)
Air Asia (Budget airlines)
Nok Air (Budget airlines)
Laos Airlines
Myanmar Airways International
Transport Co., Ltd. (Thailand inter city bus lines)
Their English language pages
Railways of Thailand
Train schedules in .pdf (08 Mar 2006):
Eastern lines : Northern lines : North-eastern lines : Sourthern lines
Sea and river travel
There are no regular long distance boat and passenger ships services in Thailand. Many of Thai rivers are blocked by dams so effectively making such transport impossible. However there are many ferry boat including speed boat services linking the piers on islands and main land throughout the country.
When planning a trip to remote places in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar some people, especially the first timers, tend to under estimate the time required to travel. There are logistical matters to research and make details out of all available information.
FMM (Frequently made mistakes)
- Whenever your flight arrives Bangkok (or any other city), you can always go to the bus station and take the bus to your destination wasting almost no time
- Regular, every hour or every few hours, bus services exist between some crowded tourists places. But it is not true for many other destinations. - All roads you find on a map in Thailand are passable the whole year
- There are some roads that are never finished but are shown on some maps (don't know why). Also there are some roads, especially those in the rugged lands, that can not be used during bad weather (rainy and flood/land slide seasons). - Every tourists destination can be reached from Bangkok or Chiang Mai almost straight, meaning without necessary to make hundreds of kilometers long detour.
- There are many mountain, forest, national park, and wildlife sanctuary lands in Thailand. Roads passing these areas are mostly seasonal or are just foot paths. That makes it necessary to go a very long way around to get to certain destination. - Assume that there are no "gates" operating on opening and closing time.
- When driving on the roads passing certain areas (for example, a national park) there are opening and closing time. As well when going across a river where there is no bridge you need to know the operating time of ferry boat service. Border gates here don't open 24 hours a day! - It is 160 km so the driving time should be 2 hours.
- You need to check with good topographic map. If it is a mountain road going up and down and turning hundreds of curves then it could take 4 hours.
1 = Chiang Rai (northernmost province)2 = Mae Song Son
3 = Chiang Mai
4 = Sukothai
5 = Tak
6 = Kanchanaburi
7 = Bangkok (capital)
8 = Nong Khai (bridge across Mekong river to Vientiane)
9 = Khon Kaen
10 = Ubon Ratchathani
11 = Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat)
12 = Buri Ram
13 = SaKaeo
14 = Rayong
15 = Koh Chang island (in Trat province)
16 = Chumphon
17 = Ranong (across river/sea to Kaw Thaung)
18 = Koh Samui island (in Surat Thani province)
19 = Surat Thani
20 = Phuket island
21 = Narathiwat
22 = Satun
Plan view of Prasat Phnom Rung temple (Buri Ram)
1 = Stairway2 = Pavilion
3 = Pathway (flat)
4 = Naga bridge
5 = Stairway leading to the main tower
6 = bridge to the main tower
7 = Second level Naga bridge
8 = Boundary gallery
9 = Third level Naga bridge
10 = Main tower
11 = Minor tower
12 = Brick tower
13 = Library
Naga Issuing From Makara,Unusually, this balustrade (in front of the mandapa) shows the naga issuing forth from the mouth of a makara. There is a modern example located near Kamphaeng Yai.
Makara,A chimera that is part water-snake and part crocodile or fish, usually with an elephant snout. It is a frequent decoration on balustrades, arches, waterspouts, and offering overflow spouts
Naga,The water-snake, whose cultural iconography and mythology was inherited from India via Southeast Asia. In temple decoration, both the balustrade and the framing arches of niches and doorways are often carved in the shape of nagas (usually, in those cases, a snake's body with a makara head.)
Phnom Rung, on the royal road between Angkor and Phimai, was built early in the reign of Suryavarman II (1112-1152) by Narendraditya, a local ruler and kinsman of the king. The east-facing axial temple is built upon a hill ("phnom" means "hill" in the Khmer language). The temple is approached by a long east-west causeway (160m, or 530') that is lined with lotus-bud posts. The west end of the causeway is seen in this photo, where it abuts a naga-bridge like the one at Phimai. Crossing over the platform, one climbs the stairs to reach the temple enclosure. Phnom Rung was built after Phimai and before Angkor Wat. It has several design features in common with both, particularly the use of naga bridges and the Khmer-type tower pioneered at Phimai. Yet, there is not a sense of progressive development in these three temples; Phnom Rung goes its own way, with a distinct triangular shape to its tower and an antarala (antechamber) between the entrance hall and sanctuary.
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