SIEM REAP — About 3 kilometres off National Road 6 and around 40 kilometres northwest of Siem Reap city, a small temple stands quietly in a Cambodian village set among rice paddies stretching over the horizon.

The Daun Troung temple is believed to have been the chapel of one of the hospitals built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII who was in power in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, and built Angkor as a walled city with the Bayon temple in the middle.

According to a stone inscription of that era, the king’s program included building 102 hospitals throughout the country, along with chapels on the hospitals’ grounds.  

Those chapels were small stone structures that were set southeast of the hospitals, which had ponds to the northeast and were surrounded by stone walls. Daun Troung temple was built with laterite stones while the lintels, door frames, pediments or colonnettes were in sandstone and featured intricate sculpted elements.

This temple has long become part of a village located outside the Angkor Archaeological Park, about 40 kilometres from downtown Siem Reap city.

As can be seen at the site of the temple, many stones have fallen off and are now scattered on the ground, leaving some sections of its walls tilted. The eastern entrance has collapsed, and the northeast pond is now filled with overgrown vegetation.

And yet, one can see some lines of an inscription on the stone beam on top of the door that leads into the hall of the tower.

Going in through the small opening that is reinforced by wooden struts, one can enter the hall lit due to a small hole in the roof. Despite the hot weather outside, this room where can be seen some scattered stone fragments is relatively cool and humid.

A smaller stone structure referred to as a library is located on the southeast side and is also in a poor state. Since there is no pediment at the end of the roof, one can see the beauty and engineering knowhow that went into building this now slightly tumbled corbelled arch, which formed a properly-shaped roof for hundreds of years.

While some of the door frames are supported by smaller wooden struts, the main tower has been reinforced by large, interconnected wooden struts on the west side where the structure leans the most.

At the cornerstones, a sculpture of a five-headed naga (mythical serpent) emerges.

Today, this centuries-old temple is surrounded by houses, schools, and farmland, with a newly-built house just a few metres from it, a perspective of two worlds standing side by side at this point in time. This is also seen along the communal road where what is left of the Angkorian laterite stone wall is a few steps from a villager’s house made in concrete and steel. 

The temple has long become part of the village. Next to it is a small wooden hut with a tin roof where a woman usually cooks behind a barbershop, meters from a half-buried stone base with a hole in the middle on which might have been a statue of a deity.

Since it is located outside the Angkor Archaeological Park, visiting the Daun Troung temple does not require an Angkor Pass for non-Cambodian nationals.

Despite the distance, visiting the temple can be relatively easy to reach by bicycle, motorcycle or car via National Road 6. However, the road can be busy during the day as it is lined with shops and houses.

To know more about the chapel hospitals of the Khmer Empire:

Healing the Empire: Angkor’s Chapel Hospitals

Provisions and Manpower Needed to Run Angkor’s 12th Century Hospital