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The most ancient hinduist state of Indochina, goes
back up to the 1st century A.D. and it is known on Fou Nan name
which gave it the chinese. Its capital was situated in the current
cambodian province of Prey Veng. The dynasty claimed to go down
from Brahmane Kaundinya, having come from India.
Except for some sanscrits registrations among which the most
ancient(former) date of the 3th century, all that we knows about
this realm comes from Chinese texts. The first embassy of the
Fou Nan in the court of China dates of the year 225. The Fou
Nan collapsed in the 6th century, under the pressure of a vassal
state, Kambuja of the North annexed Cambodia of the South. One
of their kings, Içanavarman I, based its capital to Sambor
Prei Kuk, for which we still admires the ruins, in the North-Est
from Kompong Thom at 30 km
This complex groups together at least 176
monuments, among which 106 in a ray of 5 km.
Three complexes, dedicated to Shiva, were surrounded
with two surrounding walls. They are towers in bricks, varied
forms, square, oblong, octagonal, ten metres high on ten metres
wide. The brick is very finely sculptured in strong relief whose
decoration is typically of inspiration or Indian copy. (The lion
is often represented. But this animal did not exist in Cambodia)
The door's frames are in stoneware. Most
of these temples date of the beginning of the 7th century, 600
years before Angkor Vat. |
