HISTORY AND PROBLEMS OF DISCUSSIONS AROUND THE DATE OF PRASAT SUOR PRAT IN ANGKOR THOM, CAMBODIA

Prasat Suor Prat, "Towers of the Rope Dancers", are now popularly considered to be built in the end of 12^ century, under the direction of King Jayavarman VII. This widespread understanding is, however, just based on several hypotheses, which had been formulated under drastic changes of general opinions about chronology of Khmer monuments, especially the "Bayon Period", among French scholars in the second half of the 1920s. This paper traces briefly the history of knowledge on Prasat Suor Prat, in order to clarify some fundamental problems inherent in previous Khmer studies.