Prasat Ban Phlong

Keywords : Shiva, Baphuon, Prasat Narai Cheng Weng, Prasat Ta Muen Thom, Prasat Sa Kamphaeng Yai

Site common name	Prasat Ban Phlong
Type of artwork	Architecture
Sub district	Ban Phluang
District	Prasat
Province	Surin
Region	Northeast
Country	Thailand
Geographic Coordinates Decimal degree	Lat : 14.610251 Long : 103.424447
Geographic Coordinates UTM	Zone : 48 P Hemisphere : N E : 330252.19 N : 1615807.13
Place of artwork	The only prasat that is facing east

History of production	No evidence related to the establishing history
Production process	No evidence related to the establishing history
Art	It is a small single prasat built from sandstone located on a large cross-shaped Phaitee laterite base. The fact that the laterite base has two wings which are much larger than the prasat itself can assume that that there might be a plan to build a surrounding prasats. However, those prasats are not in existence nowadays. It is unknown whether the prasats had never been completed or they were built with wood, so they had all been lost. This is an example of a small prasat with quite complete carvings. The main entrance is in the east while the other three are false doors. The prasat has beautiful engravings in Baphuon Arts both on the lintel and the gable. Therefore, the age of the prasat can be assumed to be around the late 16^th century B.E to the early 17^th century B.E. The peak of the prasat might be built with bricks but it was lost over time. The lintel of this prasat usually consists of a Kala face sticking out a triangular tongue to the front and spitting out a garland and this is a typical Baphuon style. Sometimes there is a bunch of flowers to separate the crescent lintel and sometimes there are none. This proves that the crescent and non-crescent lintels are popular in contemporary times. The gable is in Baphuon style. It is in a shape of a flower stalk facing downward. There is a Naga with a visor. Inside of the gable composed of flora patterns with a Kala face underneath. With the appearing visor, it may be possible that this prasat is in the late Baphuon period and its age may be slightly later than Prasat Khao Phra Viharn and Prasat Mueang Tum. Both the gable and the lintel of this prasat show images of Krishna in various episodes such as Krishna lifting the Kovanthana mountain and Krishna subdued Naga Kaliya. In addition, the images of Indra on the Erawan elephant also appeared in several areas.
Key academic information	It is an example of a religious site in Khmer culture that was built around late 16th century.
Period	Historical Period
Art period	Lopburi, Baphuon
Age	Late 16th century B.B. – Early 17th century B.E.
Religion	Brahmanism-Hinduism
Sect	Shaivite
Religion and belief	Shaivism in Brahminism
Related artwork	Prasat Sa Kamphaeng Yai Prasat Narai Cheng Weng Prasat Ta Muen Thom

Type of License	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
Rights	Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre
Date of record creation	2016-06-02
Record creator	Rungroj Thamrungraeng
Bibliography	เฉลิมเกียรติ กิจตระกูลรัตน์. ปราสาทบ้านหินพลวง ตำบลกังแอง อำเภอปราสาท จังหวัดสุรินทร์. สารนิพนธ์หลักสูตรศิลปศาสตรบัณฑิต ภาควิชาโบราณคดี บัณฑิตวิทยาลัย มหาวิทยาลัยศิลปากร, 2528. สุริยวุฒิ สุขสวัสดิ์, ม.ร.ว. บรรณาธิการ. ปราสาทหินและทับหลัง. กรุงเทพฯ : โครงสืบสานมรดกและวัฒนธรรมไทย, 2542.