Phanom Rung

Name : Phanom Rung or, with its full name, Prasat Hin Phanom Rung (Phanom Rung Stone Castle),

Location : It is a Khmer temple complex set on the rim of an extinct volcano at 1,320 feet above sea level, in Buriram province in the Isan region of Thailand.

It was built in sandstone and laterite in the 10th to 13th centuries. It was a Hindu shrine dedicated to Shiva, and symbolises Mount Kailash, his heavenly dwelling.

Architecture :

Architecture :

After the three-leveled lower stairway, the visitor finds himself on the first cruciform platform with a first peek at the main temple. On the right, northward, is Phlab Phla or the White Elephant House. The pavilion is believed to be the place where kings and the royal family would change attire before rituals. Royalty would then enter the Processional Walkway, one of the most impressive elements of the park. It is 160 meters long and bordered by seventy sandstone posts with tops of lotus buds. The Walkway itself is paved with laterite blocks.

The Walkway leads to the first of three naga bridges. The five-headed snakes face all four directions and are from the 12th century. This bridge represents the connection between heaven and earth. The naga bridge leads to the upper stairway, which is divided into five sets. Each set has terraces on the sides. The last terrace is wide, made with laterite blocks. It has a cruciform shape and four small pools. A couple more steps lead to the second naga bridge. It has the same shape as the first one, only smaller. In the middle the remains of an eight petalled lotus carving can be seen.

This final terrace leads to the outer gallery. It probably used to be a wooden gallery with a tiled roof, but only a raised floor of laterite remains. After the outer gallery one reaches the inner gallery, which is divided in long and narrow rooms. It served as a wall around the principal tower. This last gallery leads to the third and last naga bridge, another small copy of the first one.

The bridge leads you directly into the main sanctuary. After the antechamber and the annex, one reaches the principal tower. Double porches lead out in all directions. The inner sanctum used to have the "linga", the divine symbol of Shiva. Currently, only the "somasutra" remains which was used to drain water during religious rites. The entrances have various lintels and icons depicting Hindu religious stories, e.g. the dancing Shiva and the five Yogi's. The southern entrance is guarded by a sandstone statue.

Apart from the main tower, other buildings in the compound are:

* Two brick sanctuaries built around the 10th century, northeast of the tower.
* The minor sanctuary southwest of the tower with a sandstone altar for a sacred image. It was built with sandstone in the 11th century. Prang Noi has only one entrance facing east. The sanctuary is square with indented corners, giving it a round feel.
* Two Bannalai southeast and northeast of the principal tower. The buildings are rectangular and have only one entrance. They were built in the last period, around the 13th century, and used as a library for holy scriptures.

Phnom Kulen

Name : Phnom Kulen

Location : It is a sacred hilltop site 30km from Angkor Wat in Cambodia and a national park of Cambodia. Phnom Kulen is widely regarded as the birthplace of the ancient Khmer Empire and is located some 48km from Siem Reap.Of special religious meaning to Hindus and Buddhists, it was at Phnom Kulen that King Jayavarma II proclaimed independence from Java in 802 A.D.

Special : The site is known for its carvings representing fertility and its waters which hold special significance to Hindus. Just 5cm under the water's surface over 1000 small carvings are etched into the sandstone riverbed. The waters are regarded as holy, given that Jayavarman II chose to bathe in the river, and had the river diverted so that the stone bed could be carved. Carvings include a stone representation of the Hindu god Vishnu laying on his serpent Ananta, with his wife Lakshmi at his feet. A lotus flower protrudes from his navel bearing the god Brahma. The river then ends with a waterfall and a pool.

Linga 1,000 is located on the mountain, along the Siem Reap River and has a lot of figures of Yoni and Linga spreading out at the bottom of the river.

Terrace Of Sdach Kamlung is a plain terrace having a small ruined temple made of solid brick at the middle; the study proves that the terrace covered by lava for hundreds years.

The Khmer Rouge used the location as a final stronghold as their regime came to an end in 1979. Nearby is Preah Ang Thom, a 16th century Buddhist monastery notable for the giant reclining Buddha, the country's largest.

Phnom Bok

Name : Phnom Bok

Location : It is a temple in Angkor, the area of Cambodia that was capital of the Khmer Empire.

Built during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910 AD), the temple stands atop a hill northeast of the East Baray, the huge Angkorian reservoir that is now dry. Phnom Bok is one of three hilltop temples built during the king's reign, the others being Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Krom. The sandstone edifice consists of three main towers.

Phnom Krom

Name : Phnom Krom

Location : It is a hilltop temple in Angkor, Cambodia.

The temple was built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889 A.D.-910 A.D.). Located 12 kilometers southwest of Siem Reap, it is a Hindu shrine dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma.

Oriented toward the east, the temple is enclosed by a wall built of laterite blocks. Along the walls' top runs a cornice. Gates bisect the walls at each of the four cardinal directions. Just inside the east gate are four small buildings arrayed in a north-south row, possibly formerly used as crematoria. Inside the walls on the north and south sides are three halls, now collapsed. The temple’s focus is three towers, also in a row running north to south. They sit atop a platform reached by staircases of seven steps. The southern tower is dedicated to Brahma, the central to Shiva, the northern to Vishnu. They are built of sandstone; much of their carving and detail has been lost to erosion.

Phnom Krom is the southernmost of three hilltop temples built in the Angkor region during the reign of Yasovarman. The other two are Phnom Bakheng and Phnom Bok.

Legend : The hill on which Phnom Krom stands is very rocky; local legend has it that the rocks were exposed by the monkey general Hanuman during a hunt for medicine in the Ramayana epic. The area beyond the temple’s west gate affords a spectacular view of the Tonle Sap lake.

Phnom Bakheng

Name : Phnom Bakheng

Location : At Angkor, Cambodia, is a Hindu temple in the form of a temple mountain.

Deity : Dedicated to Shiva, it was built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910 A.D.). Located atop a hill, it is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views of the much bigger temple Angkor Wat, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast. The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng one of the most threatened monuments of Angkor. [1]

Constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was in its day the principal temple of the Angkor region, historians believe. It was the architectural centerpiece of a new capital, Yasodharapura, that Yasovarman built when he moved the court from the capital Hariharalaya in the Roluos area located to the southeast.

An inscription dated 1052 A.D. and found at the Sdok Kak Thom temple in present-day Thailand states in Sanskrit: "When Sri Yasovardhana became king under the name of Yasovarman, the able Vamasiva continued as his guru. By the king's order, he set up a linga on Sri Yasodharagiri, a mountain equal in beauty to the king of mountains." Scholars believe that this passage refers to the consecration of the Phnom Bakheng temple approximately a century and a half earlier.

Surrounding the mount and temple, labor teams built an outer moat. Avenues radiated out in the four cardinal directions from the mount. A causeway ran in a northwest-southeast orientation from the old capital area to the east section of the new capital's outer moat and then, turning to an east-west orientation, connected directly to the east entrance of the temple.

Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, a status emphasized by the temple’s location atop a steep hill. The temple faces east, measures 76 meters square at its base and is built in a pyramid form of six tiers. At the top level, five sandstone sanctuaries, in various states of repair, stand in a quincunx pattern--one in the center and one at each corner of the level’s square. Originally, 108 small towers were arrayed around the temple at ground level and on various of its tiers; most of them have collapsed.

Special : Jean Filliozat of the Ecole Francaise, a leading authority on Indian cosmology and astronomy, interpreted the symbolism of the temple. The temple sits on a rectangular base and rises in five levels and is crowned by five main towers. One hundred four smaller towers are distributed over the lower four levels, placed so symmetrically that only 33 can be seen from the center of any side. Thirty-three is the number of gods who dwelt on Mount Meru. Phnom Bakheng's total number of towers is also significant. The center one represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller ones represent the four lunar phases, each with 27 days. The seven levels of the monument represent the seven heavens and each terrace contains 12 towers which represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul Wheatley, it is "an astronomical calendar in stone."

Phnom Bakheng is one of three hilltop temples in the Angkor region that are attributed to Yasovarman's reign. The other two are Phnom Krom to the south near the Tonle Sap lake, and Phnom Bok, northeast of the East Baray reservoir.

Following Angkor's rediscovery by the outside world in the mid-19th Century, decades passed before archeologists grasped Phnom Bakheng's historical significance. For many years, scholars' consensus view was that the Bayon, the temple located at the center of Angkor Thom city, was the edifice to which the Sdok Kak Thom inscription referred. Later work identified the Bayon as a Buddhist site, built almost three centuries later than originally thought, in the late 12th Century, and Phnom Bakheng as King Yasovarman's state temple.

Joshimutt

Name : Sri Paramapurusha Perumal Temple, Joshimutt

Temple Location :
This Divyadesam is around 154 miles away from Haridwar, while travelling from Devaprayag to Badrinath.

There is no firm or conclusive agreement on the where this Divyadesam is situated. Many of the pilgrimage believe that Joshimutt is the Divyadesam which is called as "Thiruppirudhi" and some say that Thiruppirudhi is in the interior of Himalayas.

Specials:
The Specialty of this place is Sri Aadhi Sankaracharya, who came all the way from Kerala in the 8th Century A.D., performed Tapas under a tree here and after getting enlighten, established a MUTT known as "Jyothirmutt". This Jyothismutt later became "Joshimutt".

Sthalapuranam
Thiruppirudhi which is otherwise called as Joshimutt explains that it has a close relation between the Lord Emperumaan and His devotees. The devotees shows their Preethi (affection) towards the Emperumaan and they get the same from the Emperumaan. That's the reason this spot got the name as "Thiruppirudhi".

This Thiruppirudhi Kshetram is about 154 miles away from Haridwar while travelling from Devaprayag to Badrinath.

Devotees who travel towards Badrikashramam with lots of efforts and traveling in snow, they feel tired and supressed. But, after reaching this Joshimutt they are happy and feel relaxed because only few miles away from here is Badrikashramam. The Salagrama Narasimha at the Sankara Mutt is being worshipped by the devotees as considering him as the Lord Sriman Narayana.

It is said a king by named "Nandar" stayed in this Kshetram and sacrifices for the welfare of the whole humanity to live a good life, this sthalam is also called as "Nandaprayag". It is said that the Kanva Maharishi also lived in this sthalam.

In winter season, when Badrikashramam sthalam is closed, the Badrinath utsavar is took from Badrinath and kept in here and gives his seva as Badri Narayanan for his bhaktas for six months.

Among 108 divyadesams, there are two divyadesams where we cant go with our body, only our Aathma (soul) can reach. That two divyadesams are Paramapadham and Thirupparkadal. But, the Lord God shows His full view as depicted in Thiruppaarkadal, to His devotees in this location.

Sri Aadhi Sankarar has constructed a temple here for Sri Narasimha and standing posture Sri Vasudeva. To reach the temple, one has to go downwards in the step which is around 3/4 miles away. Sri Aadhi Sankarar has established a peetam and got the Gnana by doing tapas here and wrote "Sankara Bhashyam".

Moolavar:
The Moolavar of this sthalam is Paramapurushan. He is in sleeping posture (Kidantha kolam) in Bujangha sayanam facing east. Prathyaksham for Parvathi devi.

Thaayar:
The Thaayar of Thiruppirudhi sthalam is Parimalavalli Naachiyaar.

Mangalasasanam:
Thirumangai Alwar is the only Alwar who has done Mangalasasanam on this sthala perumal in 10 Paasurams.

Pushkarani:
Since, this sthala perumal is like the same way as the perumal found in Thiruppaarkadal and His disciples can't go along with their human body only their Aathma (soul) can reach, the bhaktas in their mind itself worship this perumal as the perumal in Paarkadal. Since, the bhaktas worship in their mind (Maanaseegam), the pushkarani is Maanasaras. Other theertham are Govardhana Theertham and Indira Theertham.

Vimaanam:
In Krishna avathaar, Sri Kannan protects all the Yadhavas, Aayars and all the cows from the heavy rain through the Govardhana mountain serving them as an umbrella. Likewise, this sthala perumal protects the people here having his Vimaanam as Govardhana Vimaanam.