Wat Muang Tam (Prasat Muang Tam)
The partially ruined and still majestic Muang Tam (10th or 11th century) is surrounded by four laterite walls. For many centuries it was hidden by dense jungle; it was only cleared in the mid-20th century. The walls are interrupted by four gate towers (gopurams), where on the preserved parts of the architrave one can admire finely crafted sculptures vividly representing stories from Brahmanic mythology. The outer courtyard looks very elegant, and with some imagination one can imagine how majestic the whole complex looked in former times. In each corner there is a rather large L-shaped pond, guarded by a stone naga with an inflated “hood”. Small fragments of sandstone walls and gate towers with richly carved architraves have been preserved from the galleries that once surrounded the courtyard around the perimeter.
In Myang Tam, the main sanctuary rises on a square platform: five brick prangs built in two rows, of which only three have survived. Only one foundation remains of the main prang. The beams of the door architrave with particularly rich ornamentation lie here on the ground, some of them in their original place. One of them depicts Krishna – the divine shepherd, one of the many hypostases of Vishnu – standing on the head of Kirtimukhi. This is a very rare iconographic variant, as Krishna is usually depicted with his beloved cowherdess Radha.
