ANGKOR: LOST CITY OF KHMER PEOPLE
ANGKOR: LOST CITY OF KHMER PEOPLE
Angkor, the capital city of the opulent Khmer Empire, which flourished in present-day Cambodia from the 8th to 15th centuries, was an ideal combination of religious faith and economic, military and technological stability. But, what were the reasons that led to its sudden decline and collapse?
“It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome”, Alexandre Henri Mouhot (1826-1861), jotted down these words in his diary in 1860. He was a French naturalist and explorer of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos and a Greek scholar. Mouhot had gone to Indochina in search of rare birds and insects, but found instead monumental highways, artificial waterways and imposing temples and palaces. He realised that these were not ordinary constructions, but were the remnants of a magnificent civilisation that had seen its doomsday like most other ancient cultures throughout the centuries.
Unfortunately, Mouhot fell sick and could not pursue his quest and in November 1861 he died of tropical fever near Naphan, Laos. His tomb is located just outside of Ban Phanom to the east of Luang Prabang in Laos.
Mouhot’s reports were passed on to others which helped arrive at one conclusion: there flourished a brilliant civilisation the vestiges of which remained carpeted with the luxuriant vegetation of the dense tropical jungles of Cambodia.
Until 1946, a part of Indochina was under the rule of French colonialists. The French government set up an Exploration Commission and by 1885 they had worked up a chronology of the south-east Asian Khmer rulers who had conceived and created the wondrous city of Angkor as their capital. In the heyday of the vast Khmer or Angkorian Empire, governed by God-Kings (Devarajas), the city developed militarily, economically and technologically for over 500 years and in the 15th century it began to decline and degenerate and it was so mysteriously abandoned. French archaeologists, painstakingly, rescued the ruins, swallowed up by the surrounding jungles, and restored them.
The word ‘Angkor’ derives from the Khmer word ‘nokor’, meaning ‘kingdom’ which it turn is derived from ‘nagara’ in Sanskrit, meaning ‘city’. (Angkor was also named Yasodharapura in Sanskrit.) This Hindu-Buddhist empire, at its peak between the 11th and 13th centuries, was larger than the East Roman Byzantine Empire that existed around the same time. Angkor was the world’s first and largest pre-industrial mega-city, built nearly 1000 years ago and it bears ample testimony to man’s outstanding architectural achievements. Research has indicated that it was an urban centre where the world’s first healthcare system was introduced, with 102 hospitals.
Fr. Charles Émile Bouilleraux, a French missionary, based in Battambang, presently the third largest city and the leading rice-producing region of Cambodia, had visited Angkor 5 years before Mouhot. Diogo do Couto, a Portuguese trader, visited the city in the 16th century and Portuguese monk Antonio da Magdalena had also written about his visit to Angkor in 1586. Although Mouhot is mistakenly credited with the discoverer of the archaeological sites of Angkor, none of these European visitors wrote as evocatively as Mouhot.
The founder of the Khmer Empire and a royal dynasty was Jayavarman II (770-835 A. D.) His name meant ‘Protector of Victory’ and he was a military genius who ruled for 48 years, unifying the State. Setting up a new capital on a mountain, he brought an Indian, adept in ‘magic science’ to exorcise all foreign demons and to entrust the protection of his empire to Lord Siva. He declared himself the God-King-the incarnation of Siva and established a religious hierarchy to supervise every aspect of national life.
His nephew Indravarman I ruled for 11 years, solidifying the empire by building lakes to store water for irrigation, thus improving the social condition of peasants. Khmer people subsisted on rice and agriculture, just as many Cambodians still do.
Fall of the empire
Indravarman’s son Yasovarman I and his successor Suryavarman kept the torch of progress burning, but after the death of the latter, the empire entered a period of decline, primarily because there was no heir to the throne. However, Jayavarman VII, brother of the dead king who was in exile, gave new light to the kingdom-architecturally and politically. He polished and completed the earlier unfinished temples. The king dedicated a temple to his parents and to himself and also to Buddha, called the Bayon.
Chou Ta, Chinese commercial envoy and traveller, has elaborately described the class structure and social divisions of the people in the empire, claiming that there existed slavery, and the gulf between the rich and the poor had widened up. This may have paved the way for the disintegration of a glorious civilisation.
In the 13th century, the Siamese people from the powerful city of Ayutthaya in modern Thailand, invaded the empire, looting and plundering. When the invaders returned the following year, the entire city had been deserted, with no trace whatsoever of the Khmer people.
Dr. Damian Evans, an Australian archaeologist, who has worked in Cambodia in the 1990s and from 2007-2015, is a recipient of many awards. According to him, the water management system used by the Khmers, may have had the potential to create some very serious environmental problems that adversely affected their empire.
On 05th January 1976 Khmer Rouge leader and dictator Pol Pot (1925-1998) announced a new constitution changing the name Cambodia to Kampuchea. Under his regime, Cambodia was converted into a one-party communist State and he perpetrated the ruthless Cambodian genocide, killing 1.5-2 million people from 1975 to 1979.
However, Cambodia’s tourism has blossomed over the last 10-15 years, mainly due to the Angkor Wat temple complex, the largest religious monument in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that covers 1,626,000 m². Its 5 lotus-like towers, rising 65 m into the sky, afford an awe-inspiring sight. Siem Reap, Cambodia’s second largest city after the capital Phnom Penh, has prospered in recent times with a number of new hotels, restaurants, etc. owing to its close proximity to the ruins, visited annually by a large number of tourists the world over. ***
