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Relative Orientation of Prasat Hin Phanom Rung Temple to Spica on New Year’s Day: The Chief Indicator for the Intercalary Year of the Luni-Solar Calendar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Siramas Komonjinda Open the ORCID record for Siramas Komonjinda [Opens in a new window] ,
Orapin Riyaprao ,
Korakamon Sriboonrueang  and
Cherdsak Saelee
Siramas Komonjinda
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand email: [email protected], [email protected]
Orapin Riyaprao
Affiliation:
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Maerim, Chiang Mai 50180, Thailand email: [email protected], [email protected]
Korakamon Sriboonrueang
Affiliation:
National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Maerim, Chiang Mai 50180, Thailand email: [email protected], [email protected]
Cherdsak Saelee
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand email: [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

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Prasat Hin Phanom Rung, located in Buriram Province of Thailand, is an ancient temple that had been built between the 10th and 13th century. The temple, which is off east-west orientation by 5.5° towards north, has unveiled the astonishing phenomena exhibiting both astronomical and architectural intellect of the ancient builders. The phenomena involve perfect quarterly-alignments of the sun through all the fifteen doorways of the temple. The phenomenal orientation of this ancient architecture has been elucidated by several scholars—including historians, archaeologists, and astronomers—that it might be related to solar or lunar events only. However, our studies have otherwise found a clue to this mystery that it may be based on how the ancient intelligence used stars in the zodiacal constellations to regulate agricultural calendars. In this study, we find that Phanom Rung was oriented with respect to Spica such that on the day Spica set on the west-side doorway at dawn, the sun was entering Mesha Rashi (Aries). This day has a direct connection to a New Year’s Day of Saka calendar (Śaka Era), presently called Thaloeng Sok Day. Furthermore, we have found the relationship between Spica and the full moon of Caitra from which the intercalary month-year (Adhikamas) was detected.

Keywords

Phanom RungTemple OrientationSpicaIntercalary Month-yearAdhikamas
Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 15 , Symposium S367: Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data in Astronomy , December 2019 , pp. 260 - 264
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

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