Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Rise of the Angkorian Empire
Gradually the Cambodian region was becoming more cohesive. Before long the fractured
kingdoms of Cambodia would merge to become a sprawling Asian empire.
A popular place of pilgrimage for Khmers today, the sacred mountain of Phnom Kulen,
northeast of Angkor, is home to an inscription that tells of Jayavarman II (r 802-50) pro-
claiming himself a 'universal monarch', or
devaraja
(god-king) in 802. It is believed that
he may have resided in the Buddhist Shailendras' court in Java as a young man and was in-
spired by the great Javanese temples of Borobudur and Prambanan near present-day
Yogyakarta. Upon his return to Cambodia, he instigated an uprising against Javanese con-
trol over the southern lands of Cambodia. Jayavarman II then set out to bring the country
under his control through alliances and conquests, becoming the first monarch to rule most
of what we call Cambodia today.
Jayavarman II was the first of a long succession of kings who presided over the rise and
fall of the greatest empire mainland Southeast Asia has ever seen, one that was to bequeath
the stunning legacy of Angkor. The key to the meteoric rise of Angkor was a mastery of
water and an elaborate hydraulic system that allowed the ancient Khmers to tame the ele-
ments. The first records of the massive irrigation works that supported the population of
Angkor date to the reign of Indravarman I (r 877-89), who built the
baray
(reservoir) of
Indratataka. His rule also marks the flourishing of Angkorian art, with the building of
temples in the Roluos area, notably Bakong.
By the turn of the 11th century, the kingdom of Angkor was losing control of its territor-
ies. Suryavarman I (r 1002-49), a usurper, moved into the power vacuum and, like Jayavar-
man II two centuries before, reunified the kingdom through war and alliances, stretching
the frontiers of the empire. A pattern was beginning to emerge, which was repeated
throughout the Angkorian period: dislocation and turmoil, followed by reunification and
further expansion under a powerful king. Architecturally, the most productive periods oc-
curred after times of turmoil, indicating that newly incumbent monarchs felt the need to
celebrate, even legitimise, their rule with massive building projects.
During much of the 1980s, the second-largest concentration of Cambodians outside Phnom
Penh was in the Khao I Dang refugee camp on the Thai border.
