The Best of Cambodia & Laos

12
CAMBODIA IN DEPTH
2
LOOKING BACK
led to a return to the chaotic conditions
that previously held sway.
These events preceded the rise of the
mightiest empire in all of Southeast Asia.
It was Jayavarman II, the “god-king” or
devaraja, who set off the train of events
that would lead to Khmer rule encompassing
all of what is now Cambodia, most of
what now makes up Thailand and Laos,
and large parts of present-day Vietnam.
The physical remains of this empire are
dotted around the region as far west as
Kanchanaburi and as far north as Sukhothai
in Thailand, and as far east as the
South China Sea. Most historians concur
that Jayavarman II rose to power in about
a.d. 802. Inscribed on the sacred temple
of Sdok Kak Thom on Phnom Kulen
Mountain north of Angkor is an account
of how Jayavarman had himself made
“chakravartin” or universal monarch. It
was this dawn of the age of god-kings that
saw the creation of Angkor.
Although Hinduism had arrived, original
feudal and animist practices survived.
One such belief was the blurring of definition
between God and feudal lords. This
feudal reverence is imbued in the Khmer
psyche and in mutated forms continues to
this day. Through alliance and conquest,
Jayavarman first subjugated nearby Khmer
local warlords. He then turned his attention
further afield. Not much is actually
known about Jayavarman II except the fact
that he consolidated the lands that are
now Cambodia and laid the groundwork
for the empire that was to follow.
Angkor is the surviving representation
of hugely ambitious construction. Indravarman
I (a.d. 877–89) initiated incredible
irrigation projects (an obsession with
irrigation was revisited under Pol Pot’s
Khmer Rouge centuries later, inspired by
Angkorian supremacy). These projects
were vastly complex and allowed the production
of up to three rice harvests a year.
Angkor was a power built on water and
rice. Indravarman also presided over a
flowering of the arts.
THE DECLINE OF
ANGKOR & BATTLES
WITH SIAM
By the end of the 10th century, the empire
was in trouble. A usurper, Suryavarman,
pushed the boundaries of empire further
by annexing Lopburi in what is now central
Thailand. The town is still home to
some impressive Khmer ruins (largely
inhabited by monkeys). The rise and fall
of Angkor was not one unified process. It
ebbed and flowed with periods of near collapse
followed by triumphal renewal, with
new additions as a symbol of triumph.
One of these periods of renewal was
under the reign of Suryavarman II (1112–
77), ending a period of disunity marking
military victory against the Kingdom of
Champa in what is now Vietnam. Above
all, Suryavarman will be remembered as
the man who initially commissioned the
building of Angkor Wat itself as a devotion
to the god Vishnu. He was killed in a
retaliatory strike by the maritime forces of
Champa, who fought their way up the
Mekong and the Tonle Sap Lake and took
the Khmers by surprise.
Their triumph was not to last long.
Suryavarman’s cousin Jayavarman VII was
crowned in 1181 and defeated the Chams
decisively. This king was a Buddhist and it
was under his rule that much of what one
now sees at Angkor was constructed. It is
likely his face that you see serenely staring
out of the walls of the Bayon on such an
amazingly impressive scale. The bas-reliefs
around Angkor show a Buddhist king
immersed in Buddhist practices. Other
sculptures display an image of warlike
ferocity and relentless and brutal killing.
This undertaking probably involved a
huge amount of suffering for the laborers.
His motivation was partly political in an
insecure world of war and dispute. It was
also partly evangelical. His was the desire
to spread the word of Buddhism in a predominantly
Hindu world (although he