HISTORY Of KHMER TEMPLES
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Stele with
13th century inscription, from Samnak Nangkhao,Mahasarakham
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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". |