Banteay Kdei Temple
History of the temple
Banteay Kdei temple is located next to Ta Prohm temple in the southeast corner of Srah Srang village in the south. The temple was built in the second half of the 12th and early 13th centuries by Jayavarman VII.
This temple is similar to Ta Prohm but smaller and less complicated. No one knows that this temple was built to dedicate to the Lord of Mahayana Buddhism. Recent research by Sofia University confirms that Banteay Kdei was built on a temple dating back to the 12th century, as the foundations of another temple were found under the foundation of Banteay Kdei.
Relation to Kod village since the reign of Jayavarman II. Banteay Kdei has two gates for access: the west and the east. The name of Banteay Kdei temple is composed of the words Banteay Bok and Kdei. The word fort is identified as a city or temple, while the word kdei comes from the word kodi, which is later pronounced and written as kdei .
Banteay Kdei is one of the many Mahayana Buddhist temples built during the reign of Jayavarman VII in the 12th century. But in the Middle Ages, the temple became a shrine of Hinayana Buddhism with pagodas and stupas. There is a lot of evidence that leads to such a conclusion, through the excavation found many urns in the temple. In addition, when European tourists visited Angkor in the 19th century, it was recorded that there were Buddha statues and monks' huts in the temple grounds as evidence .
Inscription
Five inscriptions were found on the grounds of Banteay Kdei. Three inscriptions have already been studied. In the inscriptions, the names of the deities, the king's religious servants, and so on are mentioned. Of all the inscriptions, only one remains in the temple to this day, while the other is in the National Museum of Phnom Penh . thumb | Buddha statue at Banteay Kdei temple, 1929.
Repairs and excavations
Banteay Kdei was first cleared from 1920-1922 by H. Marchal and Ch. Batteur, and later excavated for a site near the north gate of the gate. East by a project of SOFIA UNIVERSITY from Japan in 2001. During the excavation, 274 pieces of Buddha statues were found buried in the pit. Most of the statues found were of the Buddha, the dragon, the standing Buddha, and some of the meditative Buddhas, but most of the statues were in a state of disrepair and hair loss, and more interestingly. It is a large rectangular Buddhist pillar with 108 small Buddha statues buried on top of it. These pieces were collected and displayed at the Norodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum.
Architecture
Banteay Kdei has a three-story laterite wall and a sandstone gate facing east and west, with the exception of the first outer wall, which has four main entrances. Each gate has four tops, like the gates of Ta Prohm and the gates of Angkor Thom. There is a structure around the second wall, a hall, a ballroom and other secondary buildings .
References
.Angkor Empire Guidebook Part 2 2015 by Hem Sophoan, page 124.
Sofia University 2013
.Angkor Empire Guidebook Part 2 2015 by Hem Sophoan, page 125.
.Angkor Empire Guidebook Part 2 2015 by Hem Sophoan, page 129.
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