By Anan Paengnoy
The Nation
Published on April 3, 2009
Students find that Buri Ram's famous temple is no longer aligned with the sun - but they know how old it is
Thirtysix Thai and 12 Cambodian children teamed up last month to determine the age of Buri Ram's Panom Rung Temple using astronomical knowledge. The project, part of a scheme called the "2nd Science and Cultural Activities for Next Generation KhmerThai", had the youths measure the temple's alignment.
15 doorways
Originally, the ancient temple was designed with 15 doorways aligned to frame the sunrise and sunset on the twiceyearly equinox day. But over the centuries, the sun and Earth have shifted under the forces of gravity and the sunshine no longer pierces all 15 doorways.
Measuring just how far the temple had shifted from its alignment with the North pole would help identify the temple's age, explains Mathayom 5 student Narin Asirapornpong, 17, from Bangkok's Suksanari School.
Shifted over the years
The team used compasses placed at 10 different spots, and discovered that the passage made by the doorways was now six degrees out of alignment. With the help of an astronomical model, those six degrees showed that the temple was built about 1,000 years ago - which tallies with the date given by archaeological evidence.
Thai-Cambodian friendship
Narin said that the students came from schools across the country and had to undergo basic training at Kerd Kaew Observatory in Kanchanaburi. The activity at the Panom Rung Temple helped her to exchange ideas with fellow students despite the language barrier with the Cambodians, she said.
Another Mathayom 5 student, Worawuth Judtho of Buri Ram's Ban Kruad Wittaya School, said: "The measuring of a temple's alignment to identify its age is something that I've never seen in school textbooks."
A Mathayom 6 student named Suwon from a school in Cambodia's Udonmeechai province said that he was happy to be chosen for the scheme. He remarked that Thailand was much more developed than Cambodia and that he would pass on the ideas he had learned to students back home.
Under the scheme, the youths also took part in a range of other cultural exchange activities, including an archaeology dig at Buri Ram's Ban Kruad district.
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