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Angkor, Siem Reap · 13.4631°, 103.8944°
An artificial island shrine set in the Jayatataka baray beside Preah Khan, built under Jayavarman VII and counted among the hospitals of his reign: bathers were understood to have the elements within them rebalanced and their disease cured. Four linked pools stand for water, earth, fire and wind, each with its own spout in the form of an elephant, bull, horse or lion, and the Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan recorded the site during his visit to Angkor in the late thirteenth century.
What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.
The pools are held to represent Anavatapta, a mythical Himalayan lake whose waters cure every illness, and the surviving horse figure is Balaha, the form Avalokiteshvara took to carry shipwrecked sailors away from the ogresses of Tamradvipa.
coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Khmer Empire
Answers only from cited records
Opening the line…