Trip to Buriram
![]() Saturday morning! Its much nearer than Petchabun. Thanks to the "Outer Ring Road" we could reach Saraburi within one and half hour. Passing Saraburi you can see mountains and there are not much palm trees around. The scenery recalls mountains in Korea. We prepared sandwiches - our favorite ration for trip - and we could make a easy drive to Korat where we arrived only at 1:00 p.m. We checked our travel books and referred at the TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) office at Korat. At 2:00 we depart Korat to Phimai - around 60Km way to Khon Kaen. Phimai is a small town but its full of Khmer temple and ruins. I have been here a couple of years ago then they were under restoration. The official name is Prasat Hin Phimai. Angkor period Khmer shrine monument, originally started by Khmer King Jayavarman V in the late 10th century and finished by King Suriyavarman I (1002-49) in the early 11th century. Therefore, originally it was built as Hindu but later it worked like Mahayana Buddhist temple. Tall main shrine is made of white sandstone (as you see Naga - kind of snake) while other part of shrine is pink sandstone and laterlite - as you can see the picture on the left below.
After Phimai, we drove back to Korat to find the hotel.
Its around 19km south of Korat on the way to Buriram. Note : The pictures of the temples might look very similar. Here is the key. If BB is in blue shorts that's Phimai, while she is in red its Phanom Rung. Phanom Rung (see right top) was built between the 10th and 13th centuries during the reign of King Suriyavarman II (the one who built Angkor Wat, 1113-50), they call it the apex of Angkor architecture, but if you saw Angkor Wat already, its looks like a promotion sample of it. The complex faces east, towards the original Ankor capital. Of the three other great Khmer monuments of South-East Asia, Cambodia's Angkor Wat faces west, its Prasat Khao Wihaan faces north and Thailand's Prasat Hin Phimai (pic with monks on the left) faces southeast. Nobody knows why. They says most of smaller Khmer monuments in Thailand face east (towards the dawn - typical Hindu temple orientation). I read an article on the Bangkok Post about the
Lintel (see below) in this temple which was stolen and returned from US but now there are dispute whether that is real
one or not.
It was still early when we were on the way back. Thus we stopped by Kao
Yai National Park. Someone told its one of the best preserved national park in the world.
The pictures I took during the trip made quite nice. I used Kodak EliteChrome100 and Fuji Provia (both are slide films) and found Fuji is
better. The pictures I developed and made Kodak PhotoCD.
Story about the Lintel (Phra Narai Lintel) An Interesting story goes with the Phra Narai (Lord Narayana) lintel. In the 1960s local residents noticed the lintel was missing from the sanctuary and an investigation determined that it must have disappeared between 1961 and 1965. A mysterious helicopter was reportedly seen in the vicinity during this period. The Thais later discovered the lintel on display at the Art Institute of Chicago; the lintel had been donated by a James Alsdorf. The Thai government as well as several private foundations tried unsuccessfully for many years to get the artwork returned to its rightful place. As the
complex was reaching the final stages of restoration in preparation for the official opening in may 1988, a public outcry in Thailand demanded the return
of the missing lintel. In the USA, Thai | |
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