Ta Prohm was built about seventy years after Angkor Wat by the ruler Jayavarman VII from 1186 as a Buddhist temple and university. He was the most ambitious and prolific builder, built hospitals, rest houses for travellers on roads, water reservoirs and more temples and palaces. He ruled over the greatest Khmer empire and extended his reign north and south-east over today's South Vietnam and Laos.
Ta Prohm has achieved fame as supplying the scenery for the movie "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider" with Angelina Jolie in 2001. It is the archetypal "temple in the jungle". Large trees have grown over the jumbled stones sending their roots down and today giving a means of stabilizing the ruins. The aim of the "Archaeological Survey of India" , who have taken on the task of preservation and upkeep, is to keep the temple ecosystem stable: removing the trees to clean up and reerect buildings would in most cases lead to a total collapse. So the current aim is to leave the temple in its picturesque and imaginative jungle state.
Tetrameles nudiflora - the "Strangler Fig"
playing in the ruins
This small orchestra of players maimed by landmines reminds us of the more gruesome recent history of Cambodia .
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