Tep Pranam Temple

This guide to Tep Pranam Temple in Siem Reap opens with a question: why does a giant made of stone need a roof? It traces the terrace back to a shrine raised under King Yasovarman the First near the end of the eight hundreds, the wooden hall that eventually rotted away, and the slow work of stonemasons who, centuries later, pieced the seated Buddha's body back together from separate sandstone blocks. Look closely at the head, weathered differently from the rest of the statue beneath it.