Classical Angkor

  General Description   The Khmer Empire was established in 802 CE, when a ruler known as Jayavarman II had himself proclaimed a ’universal monarch’ in a ceremony performed by Sanskrit-speaking priests on a mountain close to the Tonlé Sap lake. ^[1] By bringing previously independent polities under their control, Jayavarman II and his successors expanded their realm across mainland Southeast Asia, including parts of modern-day Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. ^[2] Our Classic Angkor period begins in 1100 CE, when a new dynasty ‒ named after their place of origin, Mahidharapura ‒ came to power. ^[3] The reign of Jayavarman VII, beginning in 1181 CE, marks the height of Angkorean power in the region, and we end this period with his death around 1220 CE. ^{[4] [5]}
Population and political organization
Numerous small kingdoms formed in the lower Mekong Basin in the mid-1st millennium CE, but until the conquests of Jayavarman II, most failed to outlive their founders. ^[1] Jayavarman II managed to unify previously warring local lords under his aegis, turning independent polities into provinces and laying the foundations for over six centuries of Khmer rule centred on the Siem Reap plain. ^[6]
Like many polities in Southeast Asia at the turn of the 1st millennium CE, the new kingdom, with its growing urban centre on the north shore of the Tonlé Sap, borrowed from Indian religious practices, concepts of divine kingship, language, writing and iconography in order to legitimize royal power. ^{[7] [8]} Its kings patronized both Hindu and Buddhist institutions, building monasteries and sanctuaries dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and the Buddha that doubled as outposts of royal power throughout the realm. ^{[9] [10]} The Early Angkor devaraja (god-king) cult and the veneration of Hindu gods retained their importance into the Classic Angkor period: it was Suryavarman II (r. 1113‒1150 CE) who sponsored the construction of Angkor Wat, dedicated to Vishnu and still one of the largest single religious structures in the world. ^[11] However, Jayavarman VII’s religious policies differed from those of his predecessors. Providing support for the spread of Buddhism throughout the Khmer realm and portraying himself as a compassionate ruler, he also mobilized labour to build 102 ’hospitals’, 121 rest houses, and to improve the road network. ^[12]
The riches of Angkor ultimately flowed from wet-rice agriculture, ^[1] and an institutionalized hierarchy of officials developed to funnel surplus rice produced in villages, as well as other goods like honey, spices, cloth and gold, to the royal centre. ^{[6] [13]} Angkor kings also used corvée labour to build temples, irrigation infrastructure and other public works. ^{[13] [14]}
The Khmer Empire is famous for its sprawling but low-density urban sites. ^[2] It has been claimed that Angkor itself was the ’largest settlement complex of the preindustrial world’: ^[15] at its peak in the 12th century it covered 1000 square kilometres and may have housed over 750,000 people. ^[16] However, the total population of the empire in this period is still unclear.

[1]: (Taylor 1992, 159) Keith W. Taylor. 1992. ’The Early Kingdoms’, in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol. I: From Early Times to c. 1800, edited by Nicholas Tarling, 137-82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[2]: (Fletcher 2012, 300) Roland Fletcher. 2012. ’Low-Density, Agrarian-Based Urbanism: Scale, Power, and Ecology’, in The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies, edited by M. Smith, 285-320. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[3]: (Higham 2001, 107-09) Charles Higham. 2001. The Civilization of Angkor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[4]: (Tully 2005, 27) John Tully. 2005. A Short History of Cambodia: From Empire to Survival. Singapore: Allen & Unwin.

[5]: (Vickery 1986, 103) Michael Vickery. 1986. ’Some Remarks on Early State Formation in Cambodia’, in Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries, edited by David G. Marr and A. C. Milner, 95-115. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

[6]: (Higham 2012, 185) Charles Higham. 2012. ’Khmer Civilization and the Empire of Angkor’, in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, edited by Brian M. Fagan, 183-86. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[7]: (Higham 2001, 8) Charles Higham. 2001. The Civilization of Angkor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[8]: (Kulke 1986, 14-15) Hermann Kulke. 1986. ’The Early and the Imperial Kingdom in Southeast Asian History’, in Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries, edited by David G. Marr and A. C. Milner, 1-22. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

[9]: (Taylor 1992, 160) Keith W. Taylor. 1992. ’The Early Kingdoms’, in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol. I: From Early Times to c. 1800, edited by Nicholas Tarling, 137-82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[10]: (Lieberman 2003, 33) Victor Lieberman. 2003. Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800‒1830, Vol. 1: Integration on the Mainland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[11]: (Winter 2007, 9) Tim Winter. 2007. Post-Conflict Heritage, Postcolonial Tourism: Culture, Politics and Development at Angkor. London: Routledge.

[12]: (Hall 2011, 197) Kenneth R. Hall. 2011. A History of Early Southeast Asia: Maritime Trade and Social Development, 100-1500. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

[13]: (Coe 2003, 141) Michael D. Coe. 2003. Angkor and the Khmer Civilization. New York: Thames & Hudson.

[14]: (Higham 2014, 368-70) Charles Higham. 2014. Early Mainland Southeast Asia: From First Humans to Angkor. Bangkok: River Books.

[15]: (Evans et al. 2013, 12595) Damian H. Evans, Roland J. Fletcher, Christophe Pottier, Jean-Baptiste Chevance, Dominique Soutif, Boun Suy Tan, Sokrithy Im, Darith Ea, Tina Tin, Samnang Kim, Christopher Cromarty, Stéphane De Greef, Kasper Hanus, Pierre Bâty, Robert Kuszinger, Ichita Shimoda, and Glenn Boornazian. 2013. ’Uncovering Archaeological Landscapes at Angkor Using Lidar’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (31): 12595-600.

[16]: (Penny et al. 2014, 1) Dan Penny, Jean-Baptiste Chevance, David Tang, and Stéphane De Greef. 2014. ’The Environmental Impact of Cambodia’s Ancient City of Mahendraparvata (Phnom Kulen)’. PLoS ONE 9 (1): e84252.