Prang Sam Yod - Lopburi Thailand - Khmer Style Temple with 2,000 Monkeys

Prang Sam Yod Temple (พระปรางค์สามยอด) (early 13th century)

Prang Sam Yod (the 'Three Tower Temple') was a Mahayana Buddhist temple built by the powerful Khmer Emperor Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-1221). At that time, Lopburi (then known as Lavo) was on the northwestern frontiers of the empire.

Jayavarman may have been motivated to construct Prang Sam Yod as a center for the cult of royalty and the Buddhist religious system that imbued it with legitimacy. Some evidence for this is that Jayavarman also had installed in Lopburi a statue known as 'Jayabuddhamahanatha', which translates as 'Victorius Buddha, the Great Protector'. In any event, three major Buddhist deities were worshipped at this temple: the Buddha in the central tower, the Bodhisattva Avalokitasvara in the south tower, and Prajnaparamita (the goddess of wisdom) in the north tower.

The triple-tower layout of Prang Sam Yod was already a well-established convention at the time of its construction. One innovation is that the builders physically connected the three towers by two galleries that extend north-south from the central tower. On the exterior, the entire surface was likely originally covered with stucco from the influence of Mon tradition.

When the Thai people took control of the area some centuries later, the temple weas converted to Theravada Buddhism with the addition of a brick annex to the east of the central tower.

Visitors should note that the temple is locally famous for the hundreds of monkeys that now call it home. Unfortunately, the monkeys are slowly damaging the temple as they are allowed to scamper all around the exterior and climb all over the towers. What little stucco decoration has survived is deteriorating rapidly. The monkeys are generally kept out of the interior of the temple with iron gates on each of the doorways. However, the monkeys are extremely aggressive and will try to jump on the backs of visitors or grab any loose possessions.

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