Sour Stomach And Dark Stool

Ancient History of Cambodia: The Khmer kingdom

Illustrated view general reliefs of Angkor Wat and Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom, Cambodia.

From Chinese testimonies of the Three Kingdoms period, in the third century, we know of the presence in the Mekong Delta without borders established political units, bringing together people vassals or dependents should be accountable to a village leader, known as mandala. Relatively well known mandala of Funan and Angkor Chenla. The first was an important trading center it had contact with the Indian subcontinent, where the devotionism proceeded to Vishnu and Shiva Hinduism, Buddhism and the use of Sanskrit. In the sixth century, and until the eighth, the mandala of Chenla the center of power moved into the territory. At this time, still deep exchanges with India, highlighted the King Jayavarman I. In the early ninth century, the king Jayavarman II reunified the kingdom Chenla anarchy and carries out the conquest of certain territories to set up the Khmer kingdom or empire, establishing his court and capital in the Angkor area, in an area called in the language Khmer Tonle Sap or Great Lake, very suitable for fishing and rice cultivation. The new monarchy of Angkor, which is closely linked with Shiva had its period of greatest prominence in the twelfth century, at which time King Suryavarman II (1113-1150), annexed territories Thailand and Laos, and it built around 1140, the temple walls of Angkor Wat. With Jayavarman VII, the first Buddhist monarchs in the region, who reigned from 1180 to 1218, founded the magnificent Angkor Thom, after the sack by Champa (kingdom that lived in the central Vietnam), and prompted the need to change the based court. In the late thirteenth century, Angkor testimonies are becoming scarcer and building activity is interrupted in the capital. The beginning of the decline, perhaps motivated largely by inheritance conflicts and wars against other nearby mandalas (Dvaravati, Sukhothai, Ayuthaya), was consummated during the first third of the next century. By 1431 the army Ayuthaya, a kingdom that had its territory in what is now Thailand, sacked the capital and from that moment, the magnificent and legendary Angkor Thom, which had more than one hundred thousand inhabitants and is the main benchmark for outstanding urban society, was abandoned forever.

Prof. Dr. Julio Lopez-Saco

UCAB UCV, Caracas

January 6, 2011

Publ.JLS