In The Spring Of Health At Neak Pean, Cambodia.
Commissioned by King Jayavarman VII in the second half of the 12th-Century, Neak Pean in the Siem Reap province of Cambodia hosts a giant spring built up of four individual springs; each set to represent Earth, Water, Fire and Wind.
Designed and implemented to treat all manners of medical illness, the spring was considered by many during its time to be a hospital of sorts under ancient Cambodian standards. During its heyday, the spring was seen as a communal gathering space and collective bathing area for the sick, where those who wished to enter would be relieved of all their growing ailments.
Historically, the central pool would be filled with various elixirs that would then be homogenized in the surrounding waters, allowing those who bathed in it to receive the nourishing and healing properties from these potions.
It is widely speculated that Neak Pean may also have been representative of Anavatapta, a mythical lake situated in the Himalayas, thought to cure all manners of illness for those who chose to bathe in it.
