Cambodia touches my heart!

During my short visit to Vietnam and Cambodia, I was quite impressed by both the countries, but there was a perceptible difference between the two. Vietnam is forging ahead in developmental terms, and the place and the people look more prosperous than Cambodia. Not only that, the Vietnamese are more confident and forward looking, but Cambodians on the whole looked placid, submissive and docile. I wanted to probe further.

Then I learned that 90% of the Cambodians were followers of Hinduism up until 15^th century, but by the turn of 17^th century, 90% of the population had become Buddhist! I became further inquisitive. A Hindu kingdom was in place from 9^th century AD onwards, flourishing up to 15^th century AD, for nearly six centuries. I couldn’t contain myself and bought a few books on the history of Cambodia at Siem Reap and started reading these even before landing in Bangalore, in my quest to fathom the historical background of Cambodia and whether any explanation could be found in its history for its present position.

The show piece of Cambodia, the Angkor Wat itself, is a Hindu Vaishnavite Temple and was built by a Hindu King called Suryavarman II in the 12^th century. David Chandler in his “A History of Cambodia,” writes that in the first five centuries of the Christian ere, there was communication between India and Cambodia as Indians went as far as China to trade and used Cambodia as the middle crossover point. India provided Cambodia with a writing system, the alphabet and the script to write on, a Hindu pantheon to worship, temple architecture and a social hierarchy, not dissimilar to the Hindu Caste system. The present day Cambodian script is still that of south Indian, looking more like that of Telugu script. This influence was not forced by India on the Cambodians by colonization or by invasion.

Traditions have that a Brahmana named Kaundinya, from South India, came in a boat to Cambodia, married a dragon prince and started a kingdom called ‘Kambuja,’ which became Cambodia.

The actual rule of Hindu kings commence from 802 AD, with a monarch called Jayavarman II becoming stronger and assuming titles as universal king, united the smaller kingdoms around and the chieftains and extended his borders up to China. This kingdom covered much of Thailand and the southern Vietnam in its hay days. Thus started the Angkorean period of Cambodian history, which will last up to 1431, the 15^th century. It was a period of greatness, with Kambuja–desa ruling high and mighty in South East Asia. Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘nagara’ for town or city.

His successor Yasovarman II chose Angkor as his royal city. These kings built reservoirs to facilitate rice cultivation, built temples as a place of worship of Siva and also monasteries for sects honoring Buddha. They were tolerant of different religious beliefs and brought in legal code and collected taxes in kind. The king was divine and all the land belonged to him alone. 

Society itself was predominantly rural, people depending on rice cultivation, mainly of subsistence nature. A system of reservoirs and canals guaranteed one harvest a year during dry times and two during periods of adequate rains. Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma were worshiped. Nuclear family was the unit of society and people respected hierarchically placed officials and authorities, with patronage networks predominating relationships. The society elite were the Brahmin priests who hung around the king and conducted the temple rituals, also managed the affairs of the kingdom, including taking care of the education of the people. They were quite powerful. The King and his entourage, including the priests, bureaucrats, armies and temple caretakers, were supported by the people, who paid them a portion of the rice they cultivated, in exchange of protection and security, which the King and the gods he proffered promised to offer. The King also distributed patronage to the people around him. Trade was in the hands of foreigners, like Chinese, Vietnamese and the Chams (Muslim traders). Thousands of them settled in and around the capital and carried on trading. 

Utyadityavarman II in 1060s built a massive Siva temple in Bapuon, housing a huge lingam, the phallus symbol of Siva. Ruins of this could be seen today also. Suryavarman II built the Angkor Wat, but the work itself was completed only by 1150 AD, much after the death of the king. It occupied 500 acres of land with large moots all around with thick tree cover. This is the only temple for Vishnu, with a central idol standing in the centre, which is not there any longer; it is peculiar in the sense it opens to the West; its bas-reliefs are sculptured from counter-clock direction, reverse of normal temples and might indicate it dealt with the dead. It served primarily as a tomb for the king and also as an observatory. The bas-reliefs depict stories from Mahabharata and Ramayana, Indian epics, which are clearly visible even today. This is any day a grand architecture to behold. No wonder it is world famous and modern day Cambodians are naturally proud of this temple and the period when it was built.   

The king Jayavarman VII who ascended the throne in 1182 AD was a Buddhist of Mahayana tradition. Though he brought in Buddhist type of kingship, where the king was not held as divine and worked along with the people for salvation, he was tolerant of Hinduism. The religions underwent syncretism with Buddhism showing many features of Hinduism and vice versa.

By 13^th century, Angkor was well established and was collecting tribute from Thailand, Southern Laos and Champa-central Vietnam. It had 54 provinces, corresponding to the 54 gigantic half smiling faces in the Temple Bayon, each carved in a set of four faces, looking majestically on all the four sides. This is a sight to behold. The bas-reliefs showed the everyday life of the common people of Cambodia, especially in the country side. The same activities could still be found in the lives of the ordinary people in Cambodia. The central image was a Buddha, his head being sheltered by a huge hooded snake (naga). Looks as if Buddha had almost won over the Hindu gods and the population!

Wandering monks and Buddhist missionaries from neighboring Siam, Burma, Ceylon, etc., came and succeeded in converting the populace to Theravada Buddhism by the end of 13^th century. Though Brahminism and Shaivism were given the status of approved religions, they were on the decline. The Brahmins and priests were still in the royal courts, but with diminished importance. The rich mythological literary bases of Indian Hindu literature and iconography declined and very soon Angkor itself was abandoned as the capital city by 1560s. Inscriptions, stone temples, Hindu-oriented royal family, extensive hydraulic works, all faded very soon from the memory of the people and the elite. 

Thai successfully attacked and captured Angkor in 1431 and Cambodians took up Phenom Penh as their capital, which was on the confluence of Mekong River and Tonle Sap River. Maritime trade picked up with China, Laos, Malay, Champs, Indonesian islands and Chinese merchants were primarily involved in such trade.

By the 15^th century the glory of Khmer Raj or Angkor Kingdom was gone and it became weak and exposed to incursions from Thai first and later Vietnam. The idea of Greater Cambodia was no longer in existence. Angkor and its Hindu traditions were no longer strong or relevant. Instead of looking to their Hindu past, Cambodians looked to Thailand for mutual blending of same Theravada Buddhism and culture.

In India itself this was a troubled time. By the 10^th century the strong Hindu kingdoms were almost gone, and the then existing principalities were subjected to repeated attacks by Muslim invaders and marauders, some of whom succeeded in establishing their own kingdoms in India. I suppose India was in no position to support or revive Hindu religion or culture in Cambodia.

The history of Cambodia explained the Hindu influence and its architecture and also the glory of Angkor kingdom and its gradual demise and replacement of Hinduism by Theravada Buddhism. Still I am not done with Cambodia. There was to come a horrible phase in the history of Cambodia, the Pol Pot regime, heinous communist regime, wrecking terrible havoc on the population. More of this I will write in my next blog.