Angkor

Angkor Wat Building

Independence of Kambujadesa (Cambodia) from Java and established his capital of Hariharalaya [now known as (Roluos)] at the northern end of Tonle Sap. Through a program of military campaigns, alliances, marriages and land grants, he achieved a unification of the country bordered by China (to the north), Champa (now Central Vietnam, to the east), the ocean (to the south) and a place identified by a stone inscription as "the land of cardamoms and mangoes" (to the west). In 802 Jayavarman articulated his new status by declaring himself "universal monarch" (chakravartin), and, in a move that was to be imitated by his successors and that linked him to the cult of Siva, taking on the epithet of "god-king" (devaraja).[4] Before Jayavarman's tour de force, Cambodia had consisted in a number of politically independent principalities collectively known to the Chinese by the names Funan and Chenla In 889 CE, Yasovarman I ascended to the throne.[6] A great king and an accomplished builder, he was celebrated by one inscription as "a lion-man; he tore the enemy with the claws of his grandeur; his teeth were his policies; his eyes were the Veda."[7] Near the old capital of Hariharalaya, Yasovarman constructed a new city called Yasodharapura. In the tradition of his predecessors, he constructed also a massive reservoir called a baray. The significance of such reservoirs has been debated by modern scholars, some of whom have seen in them a means of irrigating rice fields, and others of whom have regarded them as religiously charged symbols of the great mythological oceans surrounding Mount Meru, the abode of the gods. The mountain, in turn, was represented by an elevated temple, in which the "god-king" was represented by a lingam.[8] In accordance with this cosmic symbolism, Yasovarman built his central temple on a low hill known as Phnom Bakheng, surrounding it with a moat fed from the baray. He also built numerous other Hindu temples and ashramas, or retreats for ascetics.[9] Over the next 300 years, between 900 and 1200 CE, the Khmer empire produced some of the world's most magnificent architectural masterpieces in the area known as Angkor. Most are concentrated in an area approximately 15 miles east to west and 5 miles north to south, although the Angkor Archaeological Park which administers the area includes sites as far away as Kbal Spean, about 30 miles to the north. Some 72 major temples or other buildings dot the area. The medieval settlement around the temple complex was approximately 3,000 km² (1,150 square miles), roughly the size of modern Los Angeles. This makes it the largest pre-industrial complex of its type, easily surpassing the nearest claim, that of the Maya city of Tikal.[10] Climate change was one of the key factors in the abandonment of Cambodia’s ancient city of Angkor, Australian archaeologists said today. The centuries-old city, home to more than 700,000 people and capital of the Khmer empire from about 900AD, was mysteriously abandoned about 500 years ago. It has long been believed the Khmers deserted the city after a Thai army ransacked it, but University of Sydney archaeologists working the site say a water crisis was the real reason it was left to crumble. “It now appears the city was abandoned during the transition from the medieval warm period to the little ice age,” Associate Professor of Archaeology Roland Fletcher said in a statement released by the university. Professor Fletcher said that to sustain a population of 750,000 the Khmers had a meticulously organised water management system. But blockages found in two large structures that controlled the water system in central Angkor suggested the water management network had begun to breakdown late in the city’s history. Professor Fletcher said the discoveries complemented previous field work which had led his team to conclude the city was abandoned when new monsoon patterns, brought about by climate change, had made the site unsustainable.