NATURE ON TA PROHM TEMPLE

The trees at Ta Prohm intertwine the roots and branches with the stones of temples built 1000 years ago. This majestic temple swallowed up by wild nature, the strangler ficus are taking possession of the ruins day after day, incorporating the sacred walls with their trunk. Ta Prohm was built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara ("monastery of the king"), it was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Jayavarman VII constructed Rajavihara in honour of his family. The temple's main image, representing Prajnaparamita, the personification of wisdom, was modelled on the king's mother. The northern and southern satellite temples in the third enclosure were dedicated to the king's guru, Jayamangalartha, and his elder brother respectively. Ta Prohm is also famous because was used as a location in the film Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie.