From the time of Jayavarman II (c. AD 800 - AD 850) to the mid-15th century, the Khmer Empire was known as the Kingdom of Kambuja, after the legendary first-century founder of the first Cambodian kingdom of Funan, the Indian brahmin Kambu. It is in this earliest Cambodian kingdom that Cambodian people see their real roots. The English word `Cambodia' is derived from this name.

From around AD550 to AD800, the Kingdom of Chenla ruled some of the lands that would become the Khmer Empire. In this text the lands in question will be referred to as Funan and Chenla up to the reign of Jayavarman II. From then on, they will generally be referred to as the Khmer Empire or Kambuja. Cambodia will also be used, referring both to the Khmer empire, and to the smaller kingdom which the French dominated in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Khmer Civilization

The beginning of the Khmer or Angkor civilization takes place during the period from 802 to 1431 A.D.. Il stretched, then its apogee, up to the Thailand-Burma border in the West and Wat Phou of Laos in the North.

Above: the Khmer Empire at it's height

It appeared owing to the ancient Khmer rulers who strengthened unity between peoples with a good political doctrine and the development of an intelligent irrigation system who allowed to control water of the Mekong River for agricultures and so to work out its prosperity. Then it were slowly deteriorated during five century. Of this Khmer Civilization, it left some fabulous and exceptionals monuments (like Angkor Wat and Bayon Khmers temples), some numerous sculptures.

The ancient Khmers were great masters of stone carving and we can see the evidences of various Angkor temples who extended on the large plain of Siem Reap up to outside of Cambodian border to the Preah Vihear at Dangrek mountain, Phnomrung and Phimai in Thailand and Wat Phu in Laos. These temples were make up patiently during centuries by Khmer artisans. This expect a main energy to realize such efforts as a long time, in contradiction with the normal and easy life of the Khmer people and villagers of their time.

For historians and archaeologists, it is not easy to do the detailed study of Khmer civilization. Most of the writing, found after the excavation of Angkor, were carved in the stones, who became the best support against time wear. They are important evidences to understand the basic constituency of Khmer society and its chronology. They relate principally religious rituals, king's praise and literatue of Indian epics of " Ramayana " and " Mahabharata ". There is not much things on the subject of the ordinary life of the local people.

It is owing to a Chinese Ambassador, Zhou Daguan in the middle of 13th century during the Chinese dinasty Yuan, who traveled to Angkor, lived with peoples and explored the empire during one year, that we learn more things about Khmer civilization. He writed very clearly and vividly how people were live in the khmer society in this period.

Another view of Angkor

Angkor Wat represent center of Khmer civilization. It is situated on the plain of Siem Reap province north of the Great Lake of Tonle Sap. All along Khmer history, the throne were often desire, which involved some violent bloodshed. Differents successive kings build each one a different capital, alls in the Angkor Wat and Ruolos sector, with some names like Hariharata, Yasodharapura, Jayendanagari, Angkor Thom and a lot of others unknown names.

In the Khmer society, hierarchy include above the God-King, surrounded by brahmins tutors and the members of his royal family. The priests who live in the temples were also powerful and contoled their own lands and paddy fields.

The names of donors were written in the stone, on the temples and we learn that they were allowed noblemen or high dignitary responsible for the administrative and judiciary tasks, how that may be, all this wasn't very precise for historians, it is so difficult to drow up a complete list of the Angkor Empire hierarchy.

The Khmer Civilization economy was based principally on agriculture, the majority of people was farmers or peasants and some of the less wealthy of them was fastened to large landowners or of the temples.

The lowest hierarchy of the Khmer Civilization was reserved to slaves who beloyed at temples, which we found the majority of the names inscribed on the stone. Their names was keeped in a holy place, what who let think they could not have been the low class slaves as its word " slave " implied. For historians they were only temples servants and priests were " Gods slaves " and not to any human being. In fact, slaves were mostly captured in the neighboring countries, but Khmer people themselves could fall in the lowest status and being a " slave " if they failed to pay their rents or loans to the upper ruling class.

Ankgor Wat Temples

The word " Angkor " is derived Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language), of " Nagara " which means " City ". Angkor Wat literally means " City of Temple " and Angkor Thom " The Magnificent City ".

The temples of Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD, represent one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 stone temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings - palaces, public buildings, and houses - were built of wood and are long since decayed and gone.

Conventional theories presume the lands where Angkor stands were chosen as a settlement site because of their strategic military position and agricultural potential. Alternative scholars, however, believe the geographical location of the Angkor complex and the arrangement of its temples was based on a planet-spanning sacred geography from archaic times. Using computer simulations it has been shown that the ground plan of the Angkor complex – the terrestrial placement of its principal temples - mirrors the stars in the constellation of Draco at the time of spring equinox in 10,500 BC. While the date of this astronomical alignment is far earlier than any known construction at Angkor, it appears that its purpose was to architecturally mirror the heavens in order to assist in the harmonization of the earth and the stars. Both the layout of the Angkor temples and iconographic nature of much its sculpture, particularly the asuras (‘demons’) and devas (‘deities’) are also intended to indicate the celestial phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes and the slow transition from one astrological age to another.

At the temple of Phnom Bakheng there are 108 surrounding towers. The number 108, considered sacred in both Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, is the sum of 72 plus 36 (36 being ½ of 72). The number 72 is a primary number in the sequence of numbers linked to the earth’s axial precession, which causes the apparent alteration in the position of the constellations over the period of 25,920 years, or one degree every 72 years. Another mysterious fact about the Angkor complex is its location 72 degrees of longitude east of the Pyramids of Giza. The temples of Bakong, Prah Ko and Prei Monli at Roluos, south of the main Angkor complex, are situated in relation to each other in such a way that they mirror the three stars in the Corona Borealis as they appeared at dawn on the spring equinox in 10,500 BC. It is interesting to note that the Corona Borealis would not have been visible from these temples during the 10th and 11th centuries when they were constructed.

Angkor Wat, built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II, honors the Hindu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Hindu cosmology. Consisting of an enormous temple symbolizing the mythic Mt. Meru, its five inter-nested rectangular walls and moats represent chains of mountains and the cosmic ocean. The short dimensions of the vast compound are precisely aligned along a north-south axis, while the east-west axis has been deliberately diverted 0.75 degrees south of east and north of west, seemingly in order to give observers a three day anticipation of the spring equinox.

Angkor Thom, another city from the Khmer Civilization that shows the many sided faces on the peaks of their temples.

Unlike other temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left as it was found, preserved as an example of what a tropical forest will do to an architectural monument when the protective hands of humans are withdrawn. Ta Prohm's walls, roofs, chambers and courtyards have been sufficiently repaired to stop further deterioration, and the inner sanctuary has been cleared of bushes and thick undergrowth, but the temple has been left in the stranglehold of trees. Having planted themselves centuries ago, the tree's serpentine roots pry apart the ancient stones and their immense trunks straddle the once bustling Buddhist temple. Built in the later part of the 12th century by Jayavarman VII, Ta Prohm is the terrestrial counterpart of the star Eta Draconis the Draco constellation.

During half-millennia of Khmer occupation, the city of Angkor became a pilgrimage destination of importance throughout Southeastern Asia. Sacked by the Thais in 1431 and abandoned in 1432, Angkor was forgotten for a few centuries. Wandering Buddhist monks, passing through the dense jungles, occasionally came upon the awesome ruins. Recognizing the sacred nature of the temples but ignorant of their origins, they invented fables about the mysterious sanctuaries, saying they had been built by the gods in a far ancient time. Centuries passed, these fables became legends, and pilgrims from the distant reaches of Asia sought out the mystic city of the gods. A few adventurous European travelers knew of the ruins and stories circulated in antiquarian circles of a strange city lost in the jungles. Most people believed the stories to be nothing more than legend however, until the French explorer Henri Mouhot brought Angkor to the world's attention in 1860. The French people were enchanted with the ancient city and beginning in 1908 funded and superbly managed an extensive restoration project. The restoration has continued to the present day, excepting periods in the 70's and 80's when military fighting prevented archaeologists from living near the ruins.

Orthodox archaeologists sometimes interpret the temples of the Angkor complex as tombs of megalomaniacal kings yet in reality those kings designed and constructed the temples as a form of service to both god and their own subjects. The temples were places not for the worship of the kings but rather for the worship of god. Precisely aligned with the stars, constructed as vast three dimensional yantras and adorned with stunningly beautiful religious art, the Angkor temples were instruments for assisting humans in their realization of the divine.

Jayavaram VII, spoke of his intentions in erecting temples as being:

“full of deep sympathy for the good of the world, so as to bestow on men the ambrosia of remedies to win them immortality….By virtue of these good works would that I might rescue all those who are struggling in the ocean of existence.”

Sponsors

Culture

The People

The word "Angkor" is derived Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, of "Nagara" which means "City". Angkor Wat literally means "City of Temple" and Angkor Thom "The Magnificent City".

No doubts, the ancient Khmers were great masters of stone carving. As we can see today the unarguable evidences of various Angkor temples lying on the vast plain of Siemreap, or even beyond its present-day border to the Preah Vihear at Dangrek Mountain, Phnomrung and Phimai in Thailand and Wat Phu in Laos. All these were created and carefully crafts by the ancient Khmers in successive centuries. This seems to contradict with the normal and easy-going life of the local Khmer people and villagers of their time. What drive them to put such an extraordinary efforts and time will be explained in the next chapters.

The study of Khmer civilization in depth is not easy and pain-taking by the historians and archaeologists. Most of the writing, found after the excavation of Angkor, were carved in the stones which became the unperishable materials against time. Although these evidences are important for us to understand the basic constituency of Khmer society and its chronology, they were mainly concerned with religious rituals, King's praise, and literature of Indian epics of "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata". There were little things saying about the ordinary life of the local people.

The Hindu God Vishnu, from the temples of Angkor

Interestingly, we learn about the daily way of life of the ancient Khmers, not from the Khmer themselves, but from the Chinese annals. In the middle of 13th century during Chinese Yuan Dynasty, a Chinese ambassador named Zhou Daguan traveled to Angkor, stayed with the local villagers, and explored this empire for a year before his return. He wrote in his Chinese chronicle about this amazing empire, and explain vividly how the people lives with the clear portrayal of the Khmer society during those days.

The center of the Khmer Civilization is at the Angkor Wat area which is situated on the plain of present-day Siemreap province north of the Great Lake of Tonle Sap. Throughout the course of Khmer history, the kingship was frequently attained by violent means with bloodshed throne. There were successive capitals built by different kings in the region, not far from each others; these capitals are at area of Angkor Wat and Roluos with the different names such as Harihalara, Yasodharapura, Jayendanagari, Angkor Thom and a few unknown names.

Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and several other Khmer temples are undoubtedly the relics of the past Khmer Civilization. In order to help travelers as well as readers to get a clearer picture of Cambodia and these temple complexes, we have put up several articles on Khmer Civilization which covers the historical background, successive eras from the beginning till the end, reasons of rise and fall of this civilization and a chronology.

Religion

Since the ancient time, the Khmers had accepted the two great religions from India, i.e. Hinduism and Buddhism, by which the former one was more popular. Hinduism had played an important role in Khmer civilization as the Angkor monarchs adopted its concept of deva-raja, or "god-king", by which the king was revered as an incarnation of the god Shiva, a supreme Hindu deity who was regarded as a protector.

Most temples in the Angkor Empire were dedicated to either god Shiva or god Vishnu. Believed to be the holy house of the supreme gods, the temples were carefully built with fine arts, and the materials used are those of everlasting stones. Many impressive sculptures of great craftsmanship were enshrined.

The second religion being revered by the Khmers was Buddhism of Mahayana sect which came into the region quite at same time as Hinduism, however, Buddhism was less prominent.

Both Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism played an important role as the political, religious and philosophical pillars of Khmer Civilization by which the king was revered as the god-king or deva-raja. This ideology enabled the king to rule over the country as an absolute monarch with sovereign spirituality over his people, and thus enhanced the unity of the kingdom. Successive kings were able to mobilize large manpower to serve the army, to maintain extensive irrigation system and to build numerous massive temples.

Not until the 13th century, Theravada Buddhism was introduced to the Khmer from Sri Lanka and became more prominent in the royal court as well as in the local people. The teaching of Theravada Buddhism directly crashed with the original belief of the Khmer people as it taught the people to seek self enlightenment and abandoned the worldly things. With this teaching, the attitudes of the people towards its Hindu gods as well as the god-king changed, and thus led to the gradual weakening of the empire which eventually collapsed in the first half of 15th century.

The Khmer people seem to be the obedient students, as they did not raise doubts about the riligious teaching of the original doctrines. We can see in Khmer history that the religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism were not divided into the different sub-sects in the land of Khmer, as they were so in some other civilizations.

In addition to Hinduism and Buddhism, the Khmer people also had their own indigenous beliefs such as the local deities, ancestral spirits, as well as the evil spirits. There are no inscriptions or manuscripts to describe these beliefs, however, it can be found to be prevalent in modern Cambodia, especially in the remote villages. These beliefs are passed on from one generation to another through the words of mouth.

Ancient Art

The idealized faces the sculptors of ancient Cambodia so skilfully managed to draw forth from stone represent strikingly realistic portraits that capture the majesty and impassivity of gods, as well as the compassion of divinities imbued with a gentle inner smile.
In their bas-reliefs, these artists devoted their talent not only to depicting the deities, but to realistically reproducing the secular world as well: the temple gallery walls are lined with military processions, raging battles, or simple everyday scenes carved with an amazing sense of movement and composition.

Starting with the first Preangkorean masterpieces - which can be traced from as early as the 6th century AD - and continuing during the Angkorean period from the 9th to the 15th centuries as well as during the Postangkorean period, Khmer stone sculptors looked to religion for inspiration. It is in glorification of their gods or deified kings that the artists, forever condemned to anonymity, created their temples, statues, and bas-reliefs. Indeed, their works represent genuine professions of faith and honor with respect to India's two main religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, introduced to Cambodia during the first centuries of the Christian era.

In the sanctuaries, the statues were sculpted in a contemplative sitting pose or standing upright, and were represented holding out in their hands the attributes by which they could be identified. They were expected to be inhabited by a deity (mainly Shiva and Vishnu, but Buddha too), from whose protection and blessing believers hoped to benefit.

It is the Brahmanist belief that Shiva, god of both regeneration and destruction, incarnates the cosmic order of things. The images of this god - dancing, with one head and two arms, with five heads and ten arms, in the form of a lingam, etc... - translate his complexity. Shivaism remained the most steadfast of Cambodia's religions during the Preangkorean and Angkorean periods.

Vishnu, the god of preservation, also inspired a major religious movement. Iconographically, he is most often represented as a four-armed god, with at first a cylindrical mitre as headdress and, later, a sort of stone diadem. The discus, conch, mace, and sphere (symbolizing the world) are this god's emblematic attributes.

In Khmer tradition, Buddha is often depicted in a meditative pose, seated on a base in the form of either a spread out lotus or a serpent whose seven heads fan out above him to afford protection.

Sponsors