HISTORY Of KHMER TEMPLES

Stele with 13th century inscription, from Samnak Nangkhao,Mahasarakham

As a result, the history of the Khmer Empire has been written from the perspective of Angkor. Only now is it becoming clear that this does not completely correspond with the development of Khmer temples beyond the Dongrek range One notable anomaly is The dating of the different Angkor an styles. For obvious reasons, these hove been named after The major locations to have been studied, such as the Bashing, Angkor Wat and Bayon styles, and the models for The lintels, sculptures, architectural methods and so on are, for the most part, temples at Angkor.

Now, according to This system, the style known as Baphuon, named after the colossal temple mountain near the centre of the capital, lasted from about 1010 to 1080 AD. At Angkor, it is represented by the eponymous temple mountain that was the most ambitious structure attempted to that date - but by very little else. On the Khorat Plateau, however, the Baphuon style assume much more importance. It is by for the most common form of architectural decoration and sculpture, despite The foci that the period al Angkor lasted only about 70 years. This suggests that between the capital and the further province the periods may have lasted for different lengths of lime. Perhaps provincial tastes were slower to change.

Not surprisingly, Khmer history beyond Cambodia has largely been relegated to passing references and footnotes Certainly, Angkor has been centre-stage for most of the important centuries of the civilization, from the 9th to the early 15th centuries, yet the artistic and architectural achievements at Phimai and Phnom Rung, among others, show that these provincial centres were extremely- important in their own right. Exceptional finds hove been mode just within the last few years - witness the bronze guardian discovered at Kamphaeng Yai - and with the excavation and reconstruction programme begun in the 1 960s by Thailand's Fine Arts Department, some old assumptions are being challenged end Khmer provincial history is being re-examined.

The history of Khmer civilization in Thailand and Laos is not entirely that of the empire based Angkor. The most influential reigns were those of the three kings responsible for the major territorial conquests - Indravarman I, Suryavarman I and Suryavarman II - end the king who undertook the largest building programme of any, Jayavarman VII.

Even before this, excavations at one particular site, wat Phu in Southern laos, still under archaeological investigation, show it to have been one of the oldest in Indochina. The Khmer Empire was heir to the earlier kingdom now known only by its Chinese name, Funan, founded probably sometime in the 1st century AD and occupying the lower Mekong valley. Funan become The most powerful kingdom in the Indochinese peninsula, until it was conquered by a northern vassal slate, Chenla, at the end of the 6th century. Chenla, by which name the Chinese continued to refer to Cambodia, had its centre at present-day Champasak on the Mekong River. Overlooking the Chenla capital is a mountain with a monolith on its summit - a natural rock lingo that gave it its Sanskrit name Lingaparvata, 'the mountain of the lingo' A 6th century Chinese account records that c temple was constructed on the mountain, and was the site of on annual human sacrifice performed by the king .Wat Phu, the surviving buildings of which date to the 11th and 12th centuries, was built on the lower slopes of this mountain, on a site with even earlier origins. local tradition, backed by epigraphic evidence, suggests that the area around Champasak was originally ruled by the Chams.

Near the beginning of the Angkorean period, Indravarman |(877-889) ruled from Hariharalaya, some 16 km south-east of Angkor, and even in this short reign of 12 years pushed his territory beyond the limits of modern Cambodia, onto the Khorat Plateau. An inscription found north-west of Ubon Ratchathani mentions him in
886. At his capital 879 he had the brick temple of Preah Ko built, giving the name to the style that lasted about 20 years at the end of the century. On the plateau its influence can be seen at the temple of Phnom won, near Khorat.

The second Khmer ruler to make his power felt beyond the lowlands was Suryavarman |(1002-1050). His reign marked the end of a nine-year war, about which little is known, and under his rule Khmer authority was extended into the Chad phraya valley and the uninhabited lowlands west of the Great Lake. Louvo resent-day Lopburi) the former Man centre, became Khmer provincial capita, and later chronicles from the15th and 16th centuries recount a war in this region with the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya (present-day Lamphun). Although these chronicles ore not completely reliable, they give a picture of The expanding Khmer influence in what is now central Thailand, at the expense of The Mons. The Thais themselves had not at this paint settled in the region. An inscription of 1022-25 from Lopburi confirms Suryavarman I's control. The style associated with his reign is that of the Khleangs, marked by the appearance of complete surrounding galleries with vaulted roofs.In Thailand, the temples of Muang Tam and Preah Vihear date partly from this time.

It was another king to take the title "protégé of The sun", Suryavarman II, who pushed the Empire to its furthest limits. Reigning from 1113 to at least 1150 (the exact dote of his death is unknown), Suryavarman II was both the greatest conqueror in Khmer history and the builder of the largest and most famous of all temple-mountains, Angkor Wat. He too was from the dynasty that started in the Mun valley, and came to power as a result of a struggle in which he defeated two other kings (one of them his great-uncle Dharanindravarman I); an inscription found at wat Phu mentions the he had "taken the royalty by unifying a double kingdom".