Prasat Muang Tam
A Nearby Discovery
One day we noticed a small article in the Bangkok Post describing the discovery of large quantities of pottery surfacing in a bean field in southern Buriram Provence not too far from the Khmer temples Muang Tam and Phnom Rung. The Chulalonghorn University had just completed carbon dating the pottery and determined them to be over 3000 years old. This would make them over 2000 years older than the Khmer temples. One rainy Sunday we decided to see if we could find the place where this event was happening. After feeling our way through the Thai countryside, with many stops for questioning people in small villages and farmers, we finally found the newly created Buddhist Wat set up to protect these ancient findings.
Arriving at the Wat after many hours of searching. It is only a few miles from the Cambodian border.
The Wat was located in a small farm building converted to be a temporary Wat until a permanent one could be constructed.
Inside were many rows of pottery shards laid out for sorting and display. When we asked where these were being found, we were directed to a small farm about a quarter mile away.
We found the farm house and were immediately invited by the farmer to see his amazing discovery.
We were led across a bean field and told to keep looking for pottery pieces in the dirt.
Pretty soon we found large areas where the shards were poking up, waiting to be discovered.
The farmer, on the left, told us about the soon to begin archeological dig to determine what had caused these to be here. And he insisted we take the handful of shards with us as a rememberance of our visit.
Late afternoon we head back for the three hour drive home, happy with our bag full of ancient pottery shards. And happy for another day of meeting wonderful people. The hill in the distance just to the left of the road is the ancient volcano on top of which sits the Phanom Rung Khmer Temple.