1200 CE

Cities of Dali

Bagan
To Guangzhou

Furthest extent of
Khmer Empire,
ca. 1200 CE

Vietnamese coastal cities

South China Sea

Angkor
Andaman Sea

Srivijaya cities
To Malaysia and India

12.1 Southeast Asia, ca. 1200 CE 12.2 Vrah Vishnulok (Angkor Wat), near Siem Reap, Cambodia

Vrah Vishnulok (Angkor Wat)

The Song dynasty (960–1279) in China rice produces in all of Asia. By the 11th added new palaces to the north and a vast
and the Chola in India (847–1249) exerted century, Yasodharapura, the Khmer capital new baray some 7 by 2 kilometers to the
powerful economic influences in Southeast located just north of the Tonle Sap Lake, had west. He also created a large new temple,
Asia, even though it was India that won out grown into a major city with about a million Baphuon (ca. 1060), just outside the gates
from a cultural point of view, with its variants inhabitants; it was certainly the largest city of Yasodharapura. Baphuon became the
of Buddhism and Hinduism spreading in South or Southeast Asia, and maybe the center of a new square city, about as big
throughout the region. Another factor in the second or third largest in the world. as, and overlapping, Yasodharapura. But
area’s geopolitics was the Dali kingdom in The reason for its success was a baray all these temples paled in comparison to
southern China’s Yunnan Province. From system; its controlled release of water for the one now known as Angkor Wat, built
900 CE until 1253, when it was conquered irrigation increased rice production. King by King Suryavarman II (1113–50). For its
by the Mongolians and brought back into Rajendravarman (r. 944–68 CE) extended the construction, a large part of Yasodharapura
the fold of the Chinese empire, it was an city to the east with the construction of new had to be cleared. The temple’s probable
autonomous Buddhist state and served as temples. King Suryavarman I (r. 1001–50) original name, Vrah Vishnulok, was dedicated
an overland passageway to southern China.
Its primary city, Kunming, had long been the
main stopping point along the route to India
by way of Burma. The disruptions of the Silk
Route that were the result of the Mongolian
expansion into Asia made this alternative
route especially important. In the 9th century,
Dali, a nearby city, took control of Kunming Preah Khan
and unified the area, building new temples Royal palace
and palaces.
Angkor Thom East baray
A more distant development was the
Baphuon
integration of the East African coast into the
circuits of Arab and Indian traders, which West baray
created a continuous fabric of ocean ports
Bakheng
from Africa to China. These regional and
global events were highly advantageous to
the Khmer, who were now at their height Moat
militarily and economically; they sat at the Angkor Wat
center of north-south and east-west trade in
addition to having become one of the great

12.3 Area plan: Vrah Vishnulok (Angkor Wat)

392 ■ Southeast Asia

 1200 CE

to both Vishnu and Suryavarman himself; its

garbha-griha once held a statue of Vishnu
represented as a facsimile of Suryavarman.
There is much that is still unknown about
North gallery
the temple—archaeological work on the
Cruciform galleries Library
Khmer civilization is still in its infancy. The
building’s astrological notations (such as the Cruciform cloister
columns on its balustrade, which equal to the

West gallery

East gallery
number of years in a Hindu age), as well as
its esoteric astronomical measurements, are Causeway
still being decoded. It is therefore generally
assumed that the building is a map of
cosmological space and time as understood Library
by the Khmer. South gallery
The outer surface of the shrine did not
look as it does today. Along with its four
corner towers, it is presumed to have been
gilded and would have shone brightly, First enclosure
especially when illuminated by the western
Second enclosure
sun. The stone would have been covered 0 100 m
with a thin layer of stucco and painted. A Third enclosure

causeway in the form of a raised path 9.4 12.4 Plan: Vrah Vishnulok
meters wide and 350 meters long leads
across the “ocean” and then across an open
field to the front of the temple compound.
The causeway terminates at the bottom of
an elevated cruciform altar in front of the
entrance to the temple. This was as far as
the commoners could go. Both the causeway
and the altar are edged by a balustrade
designed as long serpents, a reference to
Shesha Naga, the celestial serpent with
Moat
seven heads. A critical role in the story of
the cosmic ocean is played by Shesha, for
it is on the coiled body of Shesha that the
City precincts
sleeping Vishnu dreams the universe. While
he was dreaming, a lotus on a stalk emerged Temple

from Vishnu’s navel, on which sat the god

Brahma, who actually created the universe.
The word shesha means “remainder,” and
Shesha is supposed to be made of what Causeway
remains after each cosmic cycle comes to an
Enclosure wall
end. The destruction of everything produces
a remainder, which is the critical scaffold
from which the “dream” of life comes into 0 500 m
being. The Shesha Naga was one of the most
prominent symbols of the Khmer. 12.5 City of Vrah Vishnulok

Southeast Asia ■ 393

1200 CE
12.6 Cruciform courtyard, Vrah Vishnulok
After the Naga altar is a three-portaled gate
that gives access to the third enclosure. The
spaces beyond this were reserved for royalty.
Along the walls of this enclosure, facing
outward and protected by a colonnade, bas-
reliefs tell of the various manifestations of
Vishnu; they are interspersed with illustrations
of the life and family of Suryavarman II. This
is where the primary symbolic message of the
temple—Suryavarman II as a manifestation
of Vishnu—is made clear. Unlike Buddhist
structures, in which one moves clockwise,
the narrative works counterclockwise, starting
from the northwest corner. The bas-reliefs
were painted in strong hues and would have
been visible from the ground below through
the colonnade.
From here one moves up through the
different levels, each a smaller version of the
cosmic order of ocean and island precinct,
one “world” resting on another. Unlike
Bakong (see “800 CE”), which consisted
of a series of terraces, the vertical scale of
Vrah Vishnulok escalates and intensifies
as it nears the central precinct in the final
level, which looms above and is accessible
only by a long and very steep flight of steps.
It contains the central shrine, the climax of
the whole arrangement: a tower that rises
43 meters above the floor of its gallery (that
is itself 23 meters higher than the level of
394 ■ Southeast Asia
12.7 Third enclosure gallery, Vrah Vishnulok
the moat). It is surrounded by four smaller
corner towers. The main garbha-griha, with
its statue of Vishu/Suryavarman II, was
originally accessible from all directions. There
was also a 23-meter-deep well at its center
into which offerings could be thrown. Wells,
found in most Khmer temples, are not only
a connection to the water-based authority of
the Khmer rulers but also an inverted mirror
of the cosmic mountain symbolized by the
tower.
The influences of the 9th-century Temple
of Prambanam are obvious, except here
the various peaks are tied into a single,
extraordinarily complex composition.
Furthermore, movement into the structure
is not only axial but also from the corners,
which gives Vrah Vishnulok a more
multidimensional aspect than earlier temples.
But the use of square piers and Greek and
Persian decorative motifs in the galleries
indicate that Vrah Vishnulok’s details might
also be viewed from within the sphere of
Hellenism. The cruciform structures known
as libraries that flank the causeway seem
particularly Hellenistic, right down to their
use of attached pilasters on the entrance
porches. A good deal of scholarly work still
needs to be done to properly understand this
building’s importance as it relates to the flow
of architectural thought through South and
Southeast Asia.
Angkor Thom and Preah Khan
In 1181, King Jayavarman VII converted to
Buddhism and embarked on a rebuilding of
Yasodharapura. He relocated its center from
Bekong to a new temple called Indrapattha,
known today as the Bayon, located just
outside the old city walls. Instead of the
whole body, only the face of the Buddha
was graphed onto the many towers of the
temple, a reinterpretation of Mahayana
Buddhist practice. The gigantic face
sculptures give Bayon a unique, enigmatic
character. Jayavarman VII’s new city, known
today as Angkor Thom, was smaller than
Yasodharapura—3 kilometers square instead
of 4—and it probably served primarily as a
palace compound, since it incorporated the
palaces that had been built there by previous
kings. Among the other astonishing buildings
erected by Jayavarman VII is a Buddhist
university to the north of the city, originally
called Lokesvara but known today as Preah
Khan. At its height, the Lokesvara temple
complex had one thousand students and
teachers. Surrounded by a moat, this huge
complex comprises a vast axial network of
corridors, chapels, libraries, and pavilions,
unified by the two axes that lead through
numerous thresholds to the central sanctuary.
The principal inner surfaces were covered
with stucco (some traces still remain) and