The ruins of Prang Ban Prang (ปรางค์บ้านปรางค์) are in an inconspicuous grove of trees in the middle of a little village. Driving past you’d pay it no mind if it weren’t for the two large signs marking it as a historic site.

The temple had a single prang built of sandstone and brick on a laterite base. While most of it lies buried in dirt, many pieces (mostly sandstone, but also some laterite and brick) sit on top of the small mound.

The joints for the four sandstone pieces of the doorway suggest Prang Ban Prang was built in the 11th century. Other sandstone carving includes two fairly complete pediment fronts. While in many villages Khmer art like this is turned into a shrine, here offerings are made at four small regular Thai-style shrines on top of the mound.

Not many things here survived the ages unbroken or unstolen, but the prang‘s lotus-bud top is complete. It and a few other carved sandstone pieces are kept two villages over to the northeast at Wat Bing. (Not at the nearby Wat Prang Noi, as you would expect from the name.) The old wooden posts also on display here are what funeral ashes used to be stored in up until about a century ago.

Nothing visible from a moat remains, though parts of one are shown on the site plan on one of the two information signs at the ruins. This is, however, unreliable since it would mean that the temple pointed to the north or the west instead of the usual east. (Note that the arrow on the sign indicating north is incorrect; it really points to the west.) Locals told us that the two large reservoirs a short ways to the north of the ruins could be Khmer-era baray, though it seems unlikely since they are not mentioned in either of the signs.

Location – Ban Thai Mu 2, Tambon Phlap Phla, Amphoe Chok Chai, Nakhon Ratchasima Province
Other Names – Prang Noi Phlap Phla (ปรางค์น้อยพลับพลา), Prang Maat (ปรางค์มาส)