The text brings back to live the history and the present of Khmer civilization. It gives an entertaining introduction to the history of Angkor, and it may deepen our insights.

Holy Ground Contested, the presentation of the Preah Vihear border conflict is by far the best I know. So is Dates Confused, the history of the inquiry about the location of the ‘Central Mountain’ in Yasodharapura/Angkor.

Let me try to cast a light to some of the enigma: The Great Conqueror (p. 65-71) and Dates Confused (p. 81-89).

The Great Conqueror

Trudy Jacobsen, having studied contemporary inscriptions, is ‘Deconstructing Jayavarman’ … Jayavarman II is usually credited with single-handedly ‘liberating’ Cambodia from ‘Java’ and unifying a fragmented Cambodia. It is true that between 780 and 824 Jayavarman II established his position as sovereign in the polities of Indrapura, Vyadhapura, Malyang, Hariharalaya (Roluos), Amarendrapura, and on Mount Mahendra (Phnom Kulen). He also married at least six other women.

Much is made of Jayavarman II’s courage in taking on the rest of the country in order to unite the land under one king. In fact he seems to have accomplished this remarkable feat relatively bloodlessly through marriage with women who symbolised the land in the places. (Trudy Jacobsen, Lost goddesses: the denial of female power in Cambodian history, Copenhagen, 2008, p. 28-31)

Dates Confused

Why was the Phnom Bakheng recognized so late as the central temple of Angkor?

The pyramid of the temple was crowned by five sandstone towers in a quincunx – four towers in the corners of the square, and one bigger tower in the centre. Here this ingenious creation of Khmer architecture was realised for the first time.

But, Henri Mouhot, the first to describe the site in his report, published 1864:

This building belongs to a period much anterior to that of many of the other monuments. Art, like science, was in its infancy. Taste was of a grand description, but genius was not in proportion The centre of the terrace formed by the last story is only a confused mass of ruins from the fallen towers.

What had happened?

Before clearing the upper terrace [1919-1930], it was covered with a considerable pile of stones, which were found to be the base of an enormous Buddha statue, probably dating from the end of the fifteenth century… … two of [the towers] were entirely destroyed when the statue was built, and only parts of the other three allow for the reconstitution of the core of the central building but its upper part cannot be reconstituted. (Jacques Dumarçay, & Pascale Royère, Cambodian Architecture: Eighth to Thirteenth Century, Leiden, 2001, p. 57.)

Indeed, what has happened here is unbelievable!

Again: A great book, an absorbing and a stimulating reading!

Johann Reinhart Zieger – angkorguide.net