Angkor Wat - a brief history

Thursday 5 July

The main reason most tourists come to Siem Reap is to see the abandoned city(ies) and abandoned temples of Angkor; there are many ancient and beautiful temples to see, the most majestic, and most famous of which is Angkor Wat.   For those interested, before describing our own visit to Angkor Wat in the next blog, below is an extremely concise overview of the history of Angkor, without delving into names and descriptions of  individual temples. Source: The Siem Reap Angkor Visitors' Guide.

"Angkor" means capital city or holy city;

The temples in this area vary in date from 9th - 12th centuries AD;

The temples are the remnants of the Angkorian capital cities;

More than 1 million people lived in the Angkor "kingdom" in ancient times;

Angkor had military, economic and cultural dominance over Cambodia, much of Thailand, and Laos.

In the 1st century AD, Indian and Chinese traders arriving in great numbers laid the foundation for the Angkor empire; the Indian civilisation dominated at that time, and Hinduism was the main religion;

In 802 AD, the 1st king of the Angkorian era came to the throne; 3 things were central to Angkorian tradition: the royal linga-worshipping cult (for the uninitiated this means worshipping a penis or penises!!), construction of temple monuments, and water projects - one or two  of the ancient temples here have picturesque moat-type features.

In 893 AD Angkor became a capital city, and stayed that way for 500 years, with one short interruption;

In the early 12th century, a king called Suryavarman produced Angkor's most spectacular architectural creation, Angkor Wat, which was the king's state temple;

By the late 12th century AD, the influence of the great Angkor empire was weakened; Buddhism became the state religion. With the advent of Buddhism, a frenetic and prolific programme of building began in the Angkor kingdom, and hundreds of monuments were constructed in less than 40 years.

After 1220AD, no further grand monuments were constructed (King Jayavarman VII died).

In the late 13th century, Hinduism made a comeback under Jayavarman VIII, and thousands of the beautifully carved Buddhist images were defaced or destroyed;

After Jayavarman VIII's death, Buddhism returned, and is the main religion of the Khmer (Cambodian people) today.

During 13th and 14th centuries, the influence of the Angkor kingdom declined;

In early 1432, after more than 600 years, the capital city moved from Angkor to Phnom Penh; there is much academic debate as to why.  It was initially thought to be due to constant attacks from Siam (now Thailand).  It is now thought that the capital city may have moved because of climate change - that it possibly had to move because of shortage of water and failure of irrigation systems at Angkor.  From Phnom Penh, the capital city then moved to Lovek, then Oudong, then back to Phnom Penh in 1866.

The temples of Angkor Wat remained active for many years;

In 16th- 19th centuries various explorers and missionaries visited the Angkor area;

In 1860, French  explorer Henri Mouhot rediscovered the ancient temples of Angkor.  He wrote a book which sparked a tourist boom in the late 19th century.

Today, the money made from tourists visiting the ancient Angkor monuments, (a 3 day pass costs US$40 per person) and from those visiting the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, has become the major source of income for the Cambodian tourist industry.