Tonle Bati

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Tonle Bati is about 30 km south of Phnom Penh, down National Road 2. It belongs to Ta Keo province. Tonle Bati is a popular picnic spot for people from Phnom Penh. Boat trips, fishing, relaxing on mats in rented huts on the water and enjoying a picnic are quite popular weekend leisure activities among locals. Frog is a typical delicacy of this area.

For those interested in ancient Khmer monuments, Tonle Bati is worth a visit, too, since a well-preserved temple from Jayavarman VII's reign is situated close to the lake. It is one of the few significant Khmer temples from the Angkorian era which are located to the south of Phnom Penh. The temple's name is Ta Prohm, sometimes spelt Taprohm or Taprom. In order to avoid confusion with other temples of the same name, it is often called "Ta Prohm at Tonle Bati" or even "Ta Prohm at Bati" or "Ta Prohm de Bati". The normal way to discern temples of the same name is to add the name of the province or district or village. So this is Ta Prohm Ta Keo, whereas Angkor's famous jungletemple is Ta Prohm Siem Reap. Those two are not the only temples called Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm Banteay Meanchey is a temple tower belonging to the huge temple complex of Banteay Chhmar. Ta Prohm means "ancestor Brahma", it is a modern Khmer name for those ancient structures. Accidentally, all three Ta Prohms mentioned above are from the late 12th century.

The Buddhist sanctuary Ta Prohm at Tonle Bati was erected on the spot of a much older sanctuary of the 6th century. That's the era called Funan. The centre of the Funan empire were in present-day Ta keo province and in neighbouring areas in southern Vietnam.

The Tonle Bati area suffered destructions by Khmer Rouge, but Ta Prohm de Bati is still in a good condition, at least its inner (first) enclosure of 30 m square is quite impressive. It is displaying a number of very well-preserved carvings. The edifice behind the central sanctuary (it appears to be a twin-temple) seems to be of a much later period, when Theravada Buddhism prevailed. Don't be frightened, Ta Prohm at Tonle Bati is considered to be one of the most popular Khmer monuments among Cambodian bats.