In the Cham language, Po Klong Garai means something like "Great Water-Dragon Sovereign." According to tradition, the man who bore this title started life as a cowherd—no dynasty, no palace, no claim to power. Destiny intervened, as it does in the origin stories of many Southeast Asian kingdoms, and the cowherd became king of Champa, ruling the principality of Panduranga from 1151 to 1205. His reign was remembered for wisdom and for service to his people, qualities rare enough in any era to earn deification. After his death, Po Klong Garai was elevated to the status of a god and protector. The temple complex that bears his name was built not during his lifetime but nearly a century later, by King Jaya Simhavarman III toward the end of the 13th century, as an act of devotion to his legendary predecessor.

The complex consists of three brick towers arranged on a hilltop: a main tower of three stories, a smaller gate tower, and an elongated structure capped with a distinctive saddle-shaped roof said to be dedicated to Thang Chuh Yang Pui, the God of Flame. The buildings belong to the Thap Mam style, the final major period of Cham art and architecture, and scholars have noted the complex is "distinguished by the purity of its outlines and the austerity of its decor." Above the main tower's front door sits a carved figure of Shiva that art historians consider one of the Thap Mam style's masterpieces. Inside, the primary sacred object is a mukhalinga—a linga bearing a human face—dating to the 16th or 17th century. In Hindu practice the linga represents Shiva, but the Cham identify this particular image as King Po Klong Garai himself, blurring the boundary between Hindu deity and national hero in a way that is characteristically Cham.

Though Jaya Simhavarman III is credited with constructing the temple complex, the site carries traces of a much longer history. An inscription dated to 1050—more than two centuries before the current towers were built—commemorates a military victory by two Cham princes, likely representing the northern dynasty of Indrapura headquartered near the famous ruins of My Son. According to this inscription, the victorious princes celebrated by erecting two lingas and a victory column at the site. The presence of these earlier steles suggests that Jaya Simhavarman may have restored and expanded structures that were already sacred ground. Panduranga, the southernmost principality of the Cham kingdom, maintained its identity longer than any other Cham territory, persisting as a semi-autonomous region long after the northern Cham capitals had fallen to Vietnamese expansion.

Champa as a political entity is gone, absorbed into Vietnam over centuries of southward expansion. But the Cham people remain, and Po Klong Garai Temple remains their most important religious site. The complex is still the location of Cham festivals, ceremonies that connect a modern ethnic minority to a kingdom that once rivaled the Khmer Empire and controlled much of the coast of mainland Southeast Asia. The temple's continued use sets it apart from the more famous Cham ruins at My Son, which function primarily as archaeological monuments. At Po Klong Garai, the mukhalinga still receives offerings. The God of Flame's saddle-roofed tower still marks the ritual calendar. The cowherd who became a dragon king is not merely a historical figure here but an active presence, invoked by worshippers who maintain traditions stretching back to a time when Panduranga was sovereign and the towers on the hilltop were new.