Angkor

Angkor Cambodia

In its late-medieval period heyday, Angkor was a significant center of trade along the Indian Ocean routes and the largest city in the world when many of its considerable capitals were mere hamlets. This burgeoning metropolis housed countless landmarks, hospitals, and residences. It is located north of the central Tonlé Sap Lake on the Mekong River.

The stone temples at Angkor Wat are the main surviving structures here, so vast–400 acres–that residents considered the site a city within the city of Angkor. Angkor, translated means "temple city." Its original name, Yasopdharapura, means "glory-bearing city."

Angkor Background

Trade during the Khmer (or Angkorian) empire centered around the Mekong River, the seventh largest river in the world. Much of the history of Angkor is rooted in Indian Ocean Trade via access points of the Andaman Sea and the southern Strait of Malacca. This influence expressed itself through India's culture, goods, and religion and showed its traces in the many Hindu reliefs found at Angkor Wat.

Fig. 1 - Drawing (left) made from bas-relief (right)

The Khmer Empire

Reflecting this multiculturalism, the Khmer Empire was an efficient and highly religious state that vacillated between Hinduism and Buddhism. The Khmer people that inhabited the empire were an Austroasiatic ethnic group. The Khmer spoke what is also known as the Khmer language.

Origin stories tell the tale of an Indian Brahmin priest who fell for a Naga princess. According to legend, the two married, and the girl's father led them to the Cambodian kingdom. Historians date the first Khmer migration from Southern China into Northern India into Cambodia at about 2000 BCE.

In reality, the Khmer Empire was founded by Jayavarman ll (ca. 802-850 CE), its first proper emperor, in 802 CE, and lasted a good six centuries before falling in 1431 CE. As the Medieval period fell between the fifth and fifteenth centuries CE, Angkor qualifies as a genuinely Medieval city, reaching its height just as European maritime empires were preparing to launch themselves onto the world stage.

Masters of engineering

Angkor was a complex, king-based society. Rice farmers were an integral part of the population, as they were responsible for building the temples and feeding the upper classes. Khmer builders were second to none, and their engineering methods continue to astonish even now. The Khmer used ancient farming techniques that have little changed over the centuries. Khmer feats of engineering included reservoirs and perfectly straight roads. They were also highly skilled in creating stone and wood art. The walls of Angkor boast stunning bas-reliefs depicting the Champa, the chief foe of the Khmer, attacking.

Around the same time in the twelfth century, a new king was crowned by the name of Jayavarman Vll (ca. 1122-1218). He had visited the old city, as the capital had moved to another location before his rule. He then decided to rebuild the city walls at Angkor and place his Temple Mount, Bayon, right at its center (Refer to fig. 4).

Fig. 2 - Temples at Angkor Wat

Angkor Trade Routes

The figure below depicts the major trade routes of Southeast Asia. The map shows the Khmer Empire in pink in what is today in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Southern Vietnam. The map shows the River Mekong, the main artery of Angkor, as a thin red line bisecting this landscape, flowing from Angkor into the South China Sea. The great river covers about 5,000 miles and six countries: Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, China, and Vietnam.

Goods traded among the Khmer were mostly natural resources culled from the forest, including tusks, feathers, spices, silk, gold, and wax. Chinese goods were also in high demand in Khmer marketplaces. Traces of pottery found by archaeologists have helped them chart relationships among the Khmer elites and international clientele.

Fig. 3 -trade routes of SE Asia

Now let's take a closer look at Angkor itself.

Angkor map

The figure below shows the great city Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat within that, almost a city with its massive stone temples and labyrinthine design deep within the jungle. The cluster of structures in the middle of Angkor Thom features Bayon, the Temple Mount of Jayavarman Vll.

Fig 4 - Angkor Map

Chinese Products

Apart from harboring a wealth of natural resources for the Chinese, the Khmer also specialized in the trade of certain goods that were important for this market. At the top of the list of these goods were silver and ceramics. When the area became a French protectorate in the 19th century, the French unearthed chunks of pottery fashioned from both. These archaeological artifacts became crucial in tracing the relationships of the Khmer with the great web of trade networks in Southeast Asia.

Facts about Angkor Wat

As you can see in Figure 3, the temple at Angkor Wat is positioned on the south side of a massive complex in one of the world's most recognizable religious sites. Below you will find a list of facts about this sacred location to which pilgrims of multiple faiths have flocked for centuries.

• The temple at Angkor Wat was dedicated to the Indian god Vishnu.
• The religious site is over one square mile in area.
• The buildings are made of stone, unlike the houses in Angkor, which were made of wood, thatch, and bamboo.
• This also serves as the tomb for Suryavarman ll, the great leader of Angkor.
• It was abandoned in the 16th century and later discovered by the occupying French, who upgraded it.
• It contains stone bas reliefs that depict the life of Yama.
• Includes depictions of both Buddhism and Hinduism.

Fig. 5 - Vishnu and his avatars