PRASAT BANTEAY KDEI

Date: late 12^th to early 13^th century

Style: Bayon

King: Jayavaraman VII, enlarged by Indravarman II

Religion: Mahayana Buddhism

Banteay Kdei means the citadel of the monks; it was constructed at the end of the 12^th century (1181) by the king Jayavarman VII to dedicate to his teacher who taught him about Buddhism, so it was a Buddhist monastery of the king Jayavarman VII when he was ruled the country.

The Banteay Kdei was flat temple stood on one ground level and surrounded by 3 laterite walls, the first wall is 500m wide by 700m long and has been with 4 gates, each tower’s gate was decorated by the 4 smiling faces of Lokasvara, so the 4 faces represented to the 4 kindness of the king are: Charity, compassion, sympathy and equanimity or represented to the 4 cardinal directions and on the both sides of each we could see a large sculpture which figure of the Garuda that was the mount of Vishu and on the top of the wall you could see the small Buddha images were chiseled by the Hinduism when this temple was converted.

 Well the temple had been clearance by Mr. Henri Marchal from 1920-1922 and some part of this temple was maintained during 1960, but it is still poor condition, and now we are in front of the east gate of the second wall which is enclosed by the laterite too (300m wide by 320m long). There are only two gate (east – west) this wall was formerly surrounded by a moat which has plenty of water in rainy season, the pediment on the east gate was depicted a scene from Ramayana story, and inside the gate we could see a big statue of Buddha from 16^th century when this temple became Theravada Buddhism. The head of this Buddha was not original, it was stolen by the looter temple and later they made a copy to replace in 1991, when we walk through the gate we can see the causeway which is bordered by the sandstone handrail in the form of Naga banisters and on the right you could see the unfinished building with double rows of pillars and has no roof. 

This temple was used as alter to offers something to the spirit. At the end of the causeway there is a rectangular sandstone hall was used as the dancing hall and next to the hall is the courtyard here you could see many pieces of stone carving collapsed. The third wall is 50m wide by 63m long with 4 gates and it used as the gallery for meditation by priests and pilgrims during the religious rites. This wall was originally encircled by another moat as we see it in the courtyard, the courtyard of this wall you could see some towers which were connected by the halls amongst the towers, there are 2 libraries on the left and the right hand side of the main tower that opened to the west, the main tower was originally opened to the 4 cardinal directions and was installed the Buddha statue.