Bat Chum Temple

Bat Chum is a small temple built by Kavindrarimathana, a learned Buddhist minister of khmer king Rajendravarman, at the middle of the 10th century. It is located about 400 meters south of Srah Srang, at Angkor, Cambodia.

It consists of three inline brick towers (in poor conditions at present), standing on the same platform, surrounded by an enclosure and a moat, with a single gopura to the East.

On the doorjambs there are Buddhist inscriptions that mention Kavindrarimathana, the "architect" (or official in-charge for construction) who built Srah Srang, East Mebon and maybe planned the temple-mountain of Pre Rup.

During the excavations in 1952, in the northern and central towers flagstones showing a yantra were found, which George Coedès was able to reconstitute and link only with extreme difficulty to the buddhist divinities mentioned on doorjambs.

In every tower there is a different inscription signed by three different persons. The last verse of all three names equally the elephants as "dyke breakers".

The small road which passes through rice plantations is very pleasant, especially with the lighting of end of day. One arrives then on three small brick towers under restoration but of which large-thing should not be awaited. The surprise comes from this built Buddhist temple in the 10 century, whereas the Hinduism was still very present among Khmers.