Banteay Samre

One of the many interesting features of Banteay Samre is a pair of elevated causeways leading to the citadel from both the east and the west: the former featuring naga balustrades and guardian lions and the latter running 350 m towards the western edge of the East Baray (now dry).

While each of the four exterior gopuras features unique lintel carvings, once inside the citadel you will discover dozens of lintels above doorways throughout the complex, enough to keep you busy for some time. It’s best to walk from the entrance on the north to examine the eastern causeway before entering the temple from the eastern side.

A traditional cruciform gopura is absent from the eastern entry, which is particularly odd, as the temple underwent extensive reconstruction from 1936 to 1944 using the method of anastolysis, which replaced missing or damaged stones with newer ones as the temple was reconstructed. Considering the overall mastery of the reconstruction one is left to wonder whether a gopura had ever been intended at this entrance, or whether the temple was left incomplete.

After passing through the eastern entry into the first enclosure, the elevated path leads to a terrace where you will notice the remains of a gallery that follows the high walls around the interior of the first enclosure. All that remains of the gallery are sandstone columns, though square holes in the interior of the enclosure wall suggest that wooden beams once supported a roof.

The central enclosure is accessible from another series of four cruciform gopuras, which are themselves connected by a gallery, this one enclosed by sandstone walls capped by a corbel arch. As you walk into the central enclosure, note the naga railings along the walkways of the interior enclosure. As the naga is symbolically associated with water and traditionally used as a railing along causeways spanning moats and elsewhere alongside water it is believed that the interior enclosure featured an interior moat or pools, something also visible around the round-collumed pavilion inside of Preah Khan.

The eastern entry continues towards the central sanctuary, passing first through a mandapa, or antechamber, which houses a stone cistern of unknown purpose, and then through a short hall to the central tower where perhaps a Vishnu statue was once housed as most of the fine carvings around the temple feature the Hindu god. Each of the doorways leading into the central sanctuary features carved lintels, including those above several exterior-facing door frames, and the walls of the mandapa are decorated with shallow floral reliefs.

You may enjoy taking some time to wander the walkways around the moat in order to examine the lintels above the various doorways. One really needs a knowledgable tour guide to appreciate them fully, but most are scenes from the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, or depict events associated with Vishnu. Also worth checking out are the two libraries positioned in the eastern side of the moat, unattached to any other structure or hallway. The triangular fronton above the lintel on the northeast library features Vishnu reclining on the naga Ananta as Brahma arises from a lotus flower growing out of Vishnu’s navel at the beginning of a new cycle of the universe.