IN THE LATE NINTH CENTURY, a monarch ruling over a relatively small domain made the sort of decision that turns a kingdom into an empire, and a minor royal house into a dynasty.
Looking north from lowland Cambodia, he sent his army through the narrow passes of the Dongrek Mountains and descended to a sun-baked plain, rich with rivers and arable land.
This was the Khorat Plateau, and the king was Indravarman I. He began an expansion that would eventually take the Khmer empire as far west as modern-day Burma and east to Vietnam. When the last Khmer king died more than 500 years later, much died with him. His wooden palaces rotted away and sacred texts withered into dust. But the empire's temples survived, providing a rich architectural heritage.
Many of the Khmer temples in northeast Thailand are now little more than laterite rubble. However, two stand out as among the finest examples of Khmer architecture outside Cambodia.
The most significant is Prasat (temple) Phimai. Such was its importance that King Jayavarman VII built a royal road between Phimai and the capital Angkor Wat. The Khmers took their religion and temple styles from India, but as their civilisation evolved, so their culture, iconography and beliefs mutated, and Hinduism was replaced by Mahayana Buddhism. However, Hindu cosmology and its deities were not discarded. At the centre of the universe was always the abode of the gods, Mount Meru, symbolised on Earth by the central sanctuary tower in the temple. At Phimai, wherever you stand, the eye is drawn to the white sandstone tower.
At the main entrance of Phimai there is a naga bridge. Nagas are mythical snakes, protecting the causeway linking the realm of man to the home of the gods. Four ponds represent the oceans of the universe.
As with all the temples, exquisite carvings depicting Buddha, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma can be found on the lintels and gables above the central sanctuary doorways.