Та Прохм: Қамбоджадағы будда ғибадатханасының табиғи сұлулығы

Buddhist temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Ta Prohm (, UNGEGN: Ta Prôhm, ALA LC: Tā Brahm ; "Ancestor Brahma") is the modern name of a temple near the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia, approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray. It was built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th century and early 13th century and was originally called Rajavihara (, UNGEGN: Réachvĭhar, ALA LC: Rājvihār ; "Royal Monastery"). It was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and center of learning dedicated to his mother. The temple was built without mortar and, after it was abandoned, trees took root in the loosened stones. The trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of the most popular temples with visitors to the area. 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. As such, Ta Prohm formed a complementary pair with the temple monastery of Preah Khan, dedicated in 1191 A. D., the main image of which represented the Bodhisattva of compassion Lokesvara and was modelled on the king's father. The temple's stele records that the site was home to more than 12,500 people (including 18 high priests and 615 dancers), with an additional 80,000 inhabitants in the surrounding villages working to provide services and supplies. The stele also notes that the temple amassed considerable riches, including gold, pearls, and silks. Expansions and additions to Ta Prohm continued as late as the rule of Srindravarman at the end of the 13th century.

After the fall of the Khmer Empire in the 15th century, the temple of Ta Prohm was abandoned and neglected for centuries. When the effort to conserve and restore the temples of Angkor began in the early 20th century, the École française d'Extrême Orient decided that Ta Prohm would be left largely as it had been found, as a "concession to the general taste for the picturesque." According to pioneering Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize, Ta Prohm was singled out because it was "one of the most imposing [temples] and the one which had best merged with the jungle, but not yet to the point of becoming a part of it". Nevertheless, much work has been done to stabilize the ruins, to permit access, and to maintain "this condition of apparent neglect." By 2013, the Archaeological Survey of India restored most parts of the temple complex, some of which were constructed from scratch.

The design of Ta Prohm is that of a typical "flat" Khmer temple, as opposed to a temple pyramid or temple mountain, the inner levels of which are higher than the outer. Five rectangular enclosing walls surround a central sanctuary. The sanctuary is centered around the stone face of Prajnaparamita, the personification of wisdom, modeled after the king's mother. The three inner enclosures of the temple proper are galleried, while the corner towers of the first enclosure form a quincunx with the tower of the central sanctuary. This basic plan is complicated for the visitor by the circuitous access necessitated by the temple's partially collapsed state, as well as by the large number of other buildings dotting the site, some of which represent later additions. The most substantial of these other buildings are the libraries in the southeast corners of the first and third enclosures; the satellite temples on the north and south sides of the third enclosure; the Hall of Dancers between the third and fourth eastern gopuras; and a House of Fire east of the fourth eastern gopura.

Ta Prohm does not have many narrative bas reliefs (as compared to Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom.) At any rate, some depictions of scenes from Buddhist mythology do remain. One badly eroded bas relief illustrates the "Great Departure" of Siddhartha, the future Buddha, from his father's palace. The temple also features stone reliefs of devatas (minor female deities), meditating monks or ascetics, and dvarapalas or temple guardians.

The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm, and "have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any other feature of Angkor." and the smaller is either the strangler fig (Ficus gibbosa) or gold apple (Diospyros decandra).

Ta Prohm was used as a location in the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). In the film, Lara Croft, played by Angelina Jolie, picked a jasmine flower and then fell through the earth into the temple, with the forthcoming scenes filmed at Pinewood Studios.