The Angkorian World

A few decades ago, one would have expected under such an ambitious title (‘The Angkorian World’) no less than a re-creation of said world, part speculative history, part popularization, part ​‘National-Geographic-meets-Edward-Gibbon’. What this impressive tome is attempting to define, however, is more ​‘The World of Angkor Studies Today’: a multidisciplinary, minitiously encompassing synthesis of (almost) all what contemporary archaeologists, historians of art and of material culture, anthropologists, have discovered or fine-tuned in the last fifteen years.

While several chapters are informed and smart exercises in vivid depictions of daily life, material culture and cultural representations during Angkor’s heyday — in particular Chapters 8, 13, 27 and 28 –, the main angle is to summarize scholarly discussions on important yet still uncompletely solved questions. The following topics seem to us of particular relevance:

A Khmer ​“Empire”, ​“Nation”, or a political, religious and social space we are still struggling to comprehend?

“Angkor’s success and emergence as Southeast Asia’s largest empire were based in large part on the successful operationalisation of a complex and Indic-tinged system of statecraft”, remark the editors in their preamble; ​“Unravelling the intricate genealogies of Khmer kings and locating their religious, art historical, and architectural legacies in time and space have long been mainstays of the literature on the Angkorian World; instead, our volume focuses on selected social processes that force new understandings of Khmer agency and power. How kings became fully legitimate kings rested on systems of bureaucracy and ritual.”

“As the final arbiter and overseer of land ownership, the king sat at the head of Angkorian legal institutions. Physical representations of Brahmanic and Buddhist deities in the state temples of Angkor were central to the reproduction of royal power; we also see that, beyond the capital, local deities became intertwined with Brahmanical practices across the diverse landscapes of the Angkorian World. Part IV: Economies In this section, our contributors focus on the myriad activities and structures that facilitated the rise and functioning of the Angkorian state. Greater Angkor’s geographic location was instrumental to its deep occupational history and helps to explain its huge population. […] New approaches to the study of sandstone, the building material of choice for the Khmers from the 11^th century onwards, also reveal the complex and dynamic interplay between resource availability, architectural transformations, and the historical trajectory of the Khmer Empire.”

Further on, they note that ​“conventional Angkorian scholarship emphasises a syncretic fusion of Hindu/​Buddhist and local beliefs as a form of ​‘Hindicisation’. More recent research instead emphasises pluralism, and a kind of ​‘indigenization’ in which Khmer elites selected key foreign elements that supported their political goals and Worldview. The beautiful statues that served as foci for religious veneration in the Pre-Angkor and Angkor Periods are now counted among Southeast Asia’s greatest artistic achievements.” 

Focusing on the grey areas in our understanding of the size and structuration of the Khmer Empire, the authors of Chap. 28 quote ​“O.W. Wolters’ influential definition of a maṇḍala as a kingdom in pursuit of quasi-universal authority which in practice presided over an ​‘often unstable political situation in a vaguely definable geographical area without fixed boundaries’ (1999, 28). However, Wolters insists that Angkor was ​‘the single exception’ to the overall pattern in early Southeast Asia. ​‘The Khmer elite’, Wolters asserts, ​‘had a vested interest in the territorial integrity of metropolitan Cambodia’ (1999, 36). By ​‘metropolitan Cambodia’, Wolters implies the existence of a territorial state and identity that was differentiated from ​‘the otherwise ephemeral’ political situation of Angkor’s more remote imperial claims.’ ”.

Purposes and Uses of Monuments

The authors of stimulating chapter 15 open their study with a reference to Philippe Stern​’s article ​‘Diversité et Rythme des Fondations Royales’ (1951), in which he ​“argued that the reigns of Angkorian rulers were legitimated by the sponsorship of three types of ​‘major royal projects’, always implemented in the same chronological order: The first included ​‘foundations of public interest’, followed by a temple dedicated to the king’s ancestors and then by the construction of a state mountain temple. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence strongly supports this sequence of foundation, especially for a number of the most important reigns in Angkorian history. For instance, this sequence of foundation characterises the reign of Indravarman I at Hariharālaya (Roluos). At the time of his coronation in 877 CE, he founded the Indrataṭāka, a reservoir measuring 3800 m long and 800 m wide, known today as the Lolei Baray. Subsequently, in 879, he dedicated the Preah Ko (Parameśvara) temple to his parents and grandparents. Finally, he founded his mountain temple.”

New mineralogical findings allow researchers to grasp more precisely the building sequency. For instance, remark the authors of Chap. 20 (‘From Quarries to Temples’), ​“a coarser yellowish to light grey variety with some levels containing pebble-size conglomeratic beds or showing iron-rich Liesegang banding was used for the Wat Ek temple, near Battambang, attributed to Sūryavarman I. The temple of Preah Vihear (11^th c.) was also built with sandstone from this series, while in northeastern Thailand and southern Laos, sandstone from corresponding formations in the Khorat group were used for Angkorian constructions such as the temples of Phimai and Wat Phu.” 

And the same archaeological breakthroughs allow David Brotherson in Chap. 14 to explore one of the most intriguing, and controversed, facette of Angkor Thom: were the outer walls of the large city used as defensive fortifications at some point of the Khmer kingdoms history? 

Angkor Reverb

This Angkorian World is so substantial that we shall return to many topics in the months and years to come. However, it is perhaps the shortest part of the book, ​‘After Angkor’ (Parrt VI), that opens the most numerous and stimulating avenues for future reflections and discussions. First, because it touches to the most enigmatic moment of the Angkorean history, the ​“collapse” or ​“abandonment” or ​“fading-away” of Angkor as a capital city (Chap. 30). But also because the two very last chapters explore what is at the core of Angkor Database endeavor: comprehend the myth and the real in Angkor, marvel at its ongoing inspirational role for artists from all cultures and horizons. How Angkor keeps reverberating through our times.

‘Yama, The God Closest to the Khmers’, anthropologist and leading Cambodian intellectual Ang Choulean​’s contribution (Chap. 34) is a truly fascinating, brilliant, subtle and yet highly readable journey through times, a study in historical anthropology which starts with the few,enigmatic Angkorean representations of Yama, the god of death in the Hindu pantheon but much more in the Khmer symbology. Prof. Ang Choulean is not the first to assume here that the ​‘Leper King’ and Yama are two facets of the same principle, but his deep knowlege of Cambodian traditions and religious practices leads us from these ancient times to the way the ​‘Fortnight of the Dead’ (Pchum Ben) festival is still celebrated nowadays, or to the cremation rites performed today as they were in the ancient times. Even in etymology, the strange ballet of death, rebirth and life takes us into its tempo: ​“Adopted in Khmer vocabulary with no alteration, Sanskrit kāla means both ​‘time’ and ​‘death’. Now, let’s repeat that Yama was at the origin of time, and, time being engendered following Yama’s death, humankind was born from then on”.

The ruler of hell (as depicted in the vast bas-relief of the Southeastern gallery at Angkor Wat), Yama is nevertheless ​“actively sought as a saviour enabling good reincarnation. In cremation ceremonies, as well as in rituals symbolising birth and rebirth (for example, the ​‘age expanding’ rituals and those of the Fortnight of the Dead) Yama appears more as the god of salvation than a strict and righteous supreme judge. If he keeps inspiring fear, he also represents hope. All known rituals in relation to Yama show that the latter dimension is the most valorised. For that reason, and this is the second point, not only is he close to being human, but he is also the closest thing to humans — which is rice.”

As for author Penny Edwards, she devotes her chapter ​“Inarguably Angkor” to the shadow (or ghost, or rememberance?) of Angkor in Cambodian modern literature, focusing on Suttintaprija Ind’s Niras Nokor Vat (Journey to Angkor Wat), ​“the only known published long verse narrative in Khmer by a Cambodian author about Angkor from the early 20^th century.” [1]

“Just as Angkor has eluded capture, so, too, scripts inspired by Angkor have gained lives and afterlives”,” she concludes; ​“Angkor stands as witness and offers solace. And ultimately, it is Angkor that captivates and captures, in a mesh of memory as tenuous and finely wrought as Khmer goldwork. Probing these links, to return to the metaphor of a broken chain (Um 2015, 184) unchains more questions. Is Angkor a mirror or museum? A vessel or vehicle? Chimera or camera, obscura or lucida? Only time, and memories, will tell. Angkor resists arrest.”

[1] In her biography, the authoress refers to a still unpublisher paper, Buakamsri T, 2012: ​‘Niras Nagar Vat: A Journey to Angkor Wat by Oknya suttantaprechea Oen (1859 – 24)’, for which we are currently looking.