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Prae Roop |
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Prasat
Prae Roop,
often spelled Pre Rup, is the present-day
name of
a
Hindu
temple at
Angkor
dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and which
means ‘to turn the body’. It is assumed that the temple was used as a structure
on which the corpses of royalty and high ranking monks were cremated. |
It
was built with a combination of brick,
laterite (fig.)
and sandstone, and made to resemble a
towering mount, akin to Mt.
Meru,
i.e. the abode of the Hindu gods, and
a term also used for a
‘crematorium [for high dignitaries]’. |
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Prae Roop |
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Prae Roop |
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The
name
may hence refer to either the
ritual rotation of the body in
a circular, anti-clockwise procession
during funerals and
called
prasavya,
or to the fact that deceased transforms into a heavenly
body or form, as another possible translation would be
‘to transform the body’. |
The temple is usually referred to as
Prasat
Prae Roop, with the term prasat standing
for the
palace for a king or god and in which the tower, in both
religious and secular perspective, represents mount
Meru,
the abode of the gods in the clouds. |
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Prae Roop |
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