Late 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 Late Angkor period begins with the death of King Jayavarman VII around 1200 CE. ^[3] In contrast to the burgeoning growth of the Khmer Empire during the Classic period, the Late Angkor period was characterized by political and economic decline, culminating in the sack of the city of Angkor by the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya in 1431. ^[4]
The reign of Jayavarman VII marked the high point of Angkorean monument-building, and subsequent rulers did not carry out major construction projects at the ancient capital. ^[5] Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan visited Angkor in the late 13th century and saw temples capped in gold and copper, sumptuous religious festivals, thousands of slaves and servants, and a lively trade in Chinese goods. ^{[6] [7]} However, this grandeur concealed the fundamental instability of the state, and the Khmer administrative system with its centre at Angkor eventually disintegrated in the mid-15th century CE. ^[8] Warfare became ’endemic’, ^[9] and after the Ayyuthaya attacks in 1431, the rulers of Angkor moved to south-eastern Cambodia and founded a new capital at Phnom Penh. ^{[8] [10]}
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. ^[11]
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. ^{[12] [13]} 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. ^{[14] [15]}
However, the Late Angkor period saw a decline in the importance of the Hindu devaraja (god-king) cult, while Theravada Buddhism gained an increasingly stronger foothold among both the people and their rulers. ^{[16] [17]} This is reflected in the scarcity of Sanskrit inscriptions referencing Hindu gods ‒ the last known Angkor inscription to use this language dates to 1327 ^[9] ‒ and the increasing importance of Pali scriptures. ^[18] While some scholars suggest that this religious shift contributed to the loosening of centralized Khmer power, ^[8] the causes for imperial decline during this period remain a topic of intense scholarly debate. ^[19]
The riches of Angkor at the height of its power had always 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. ^{[11] [20]} Angkor kings also used corvée labour to build temples, irrigation infrastructure and other public works. ^{[20] [21]} In this period, however, rice agriculture decreased in importance in favour of trade and commerce, potentially undermining the traditional power base of the Angkor kings. ^[22]
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’: ^[23] at its peak in the 12th century (before this period) it covered 1000 square kilometres and may have housed over 750,000 people. ^[24] 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]: (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.

[4]: (Stark 2006, 146, 164) Miriam T. Stark. 2006. ’From Funan to Angkor: Collapse and Regeneration in Ancient Cambodia’, in After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies, edited by Glenn M. Schwartz and John J. Nichols, 144-67. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

[5]: (Higham 2014, 390) Charles Higham. 2014. Early Mainland Southeast Asia: From First Humans to Angkor. Bangkok: River Books.

[6]: (Higham 2014, 390-91) Charles Higham. 2014. Early Mainland Southeast Asia: From First Humans to Angkor. Bangkok: River Books.

[7]: (Higham 2001, 135-56) Charles Higham. 2001. The Civilization of Angkor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[8]: (Higham 2014, 391) Charles Higham. 2014. Early Mainland Southeast Asia: From First Humans to Angkor. Bangkok: River Books.

[9]: (Higham 2001, 140) Charles Higham. 2001. The Civilization of Angkor. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[10]: (Buckley et al. 2010, 6750) Brendan M. Buckley, Kevin J. Anchukaitisa, Daniel Penny, Roland Fletcher, Edward R. Cook, Masaki Sano, Le Canh Nam, Aroonrut Wichienkeeo, Ton That Minh and Truong Mai Hong. 2010. ’Climate as a Contributing Factor in the Demise of Angkor, Cambodia’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (15): 6748-51.

[11]: (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.

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

[13]: (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.

[14]: (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.

[15]: (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.

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

[17]: (Stark 2006, 164) Miriam T. Stark. 2006. ’From Funan to Angkor: Collapse and Regeneration in Ancient Cambodia’, in After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies, edited by Glenn M. Schwartz and John J. Nichols, 144-67. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

[18]: (Taylor 1992, 162-63) 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.

[19]: (Evans 2016, 165) Damian Evans. 2016. ’Airborne Laser Scanning as a Method for Exploring Long-Term Socio-Ecological Dynamics in Cambodia’. Journal of Archaeological Science 74: 164-75. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2016.05.009.

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

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

[22]: (Taylor 1992, 163) 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.

[23]: (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.

[24]: (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.