Civilizations Around the World: The Khmers

The Khmer empire flourished during the 9^th to the 15^th centuries in Southeast Asia. Kingdoms of the Khmer at times ruled over and/or controlled parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Its greatest legacy is Angkor, the site of the capital city during the empire's zenith. Angkor contains several testimonies to the Khmer empire's immense power and wealth, as well as the variety of belief systems that it patronized over time. The empire's official religions included Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, until Theravada Buddhism prevailed, even among the lower classes, after its introduction from Sri Lanka in the 13th century. Modern researches by satellites have revealed Angkor to be the largest per-industrial urban center in the world.

The end of the Angkor period happened during the 13^th and 14^th centuries. By the 15^th century all of the inhabitants of Angkor had abandoned the kingdom, except Angkor Wat, which is a Buddhist shrine. Some of reasons on why are:

• War with the Ayutthaya kingdom, Khmer capital abandonment was caused because of ongoing   wars with the Ayutthaya invaders. Since the entire population was obligated to participate, the kingdom was completely devastated by such wars.
• Natural disasters such as earthquakes and drastic climate changes caused water shortages 

The great temples of ancient Khmer remained largely cloaked by the forest. The few sites that are exposed are being maintained by archaeologist. Every year tourist come to see the great sites and is good for the economy but a little bothersome for the sites. Tourism to Angkor has increased significantly in recent years, with visitor numbers reaching 900,000 in 2006; this poses additional conservation problems but has also provided financial assistance to the restoration effort:

• Water-table dropping, With the increased growth in tourism at Angkor, new hotels and restaurants are being built to accommodate such growth. Each new construction project drills underground to reach the water table, which has a limited storage capacity. This demand on the water table could undermine the stability of the sandy soils under the monuments at Angkor, leading to cracks, fissures and collapses.
• Looting, Looting has been an ever-growing threat to the Angkor archaeological landscape. According to APSARA, the official Cambodian agency charged with overseeing the management of Angkor, "vandalism has multiplied at a phenomenal rate, employing local populations to carry out the actual thefts, heavily armed intermediaries transport objects, often in tanks or armored personnel carriers, often for sale across the Cambodian border."
• Unsustainable tourism, The increasing number of tourists, which the Cambodian government hopes will reach three million by 2010, exerts pressure on the archaeological sites at Angkor by walking and climbing on the (mostly) sandstone monuments at Angkor. This direct pressure created by unchecked tourism is expected to cause significant damage to the monuments in the future.

The Khmer kingdom lasted for over 500 years and occupied much of modern Cambodia and Vietnam. As the largest pre-industrial urban center in the world, and for its fascinating architecture, it is important that we conserve its remains so future generations can look back and ponder about their ancestors.

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.