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Angkor Wat

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191-461: Angkor Wat ( / ˌ æ ŋ k ɔːr ˈ w ɒ t / ; Khmer : អង្គរវត្ត , "City/Capital of Temples") is a Hindu-Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia . Located on a site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m; 402 acres) within the ancient Khmer capital city of Angkor , it is considered the largest religious structure in the world by Guinness World Records . Originally constructed in 1150 CE as

382-575: A Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Vishnu , it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the century. Angkor Wat was built at the behest of the Khmer king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture:

573-715: A South Sea slave at the eve of an important ceremonial state sacrifice. The Champa civilization and what would later be the Sultanate of Sulu which was still Hindu at that time and known as Lupah Sug , which is also in the Philippines, engaged in commerce with each other which resulted in merchant Chams settling in Sulu from the 10th-13th centuries, establishing trading centers. There they were called Orang Dampuan and, due to their wealth, many of them were killed by native Sulu Buranuns. The Buranun were then subjected to retaliatory killings by

764-646: A minor (fully unstressed) syllable. Such words have been described as sesquisyllabic (i.e. as having one-and-a-half syllables). There are also some disyllabic words in which the first syllable does not behave as a minor syllable, but takes secondary stress . Most such words are compounds , but some are single morphemes (generally loanwords). An example is ភាសា ('language'), pronounced [ˌpʰiəˈsaː] . Words with three or more syllables, if they are not compounds, are mostly loanwords, usually derived from Pali, Sanskrit, or more recently, French. They are nonetheless adapted to Khmer stress patterns. Primary stress falls on

955-622: A Buddhist center till the present day. Historical records show that Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan and traveller Zheng He visited the Angkor Wat in the 13-14th centuries. Zheng He studied the temple architecture which was later incorporated in the Dabaoen Temple and Galazed Pagoda. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was largely neglected after the 16th century, it was never completely abandoned. Fourteen inscriptions dated from

1146-657: A Cham Bani cleric – which was more successful and even briefly reestablished a Cham state for a short period of time, before being crushed by Minh Mang's forces. The unfortunate defeat of the people of Panduranga in their struggle against Vietnamese oppression also sealed their and remnant of Champa's fate. A large chunk of the Cham in Panduranga were subjected to forced assimilation by the Vietnamese, while many Cham, including indigenous highland peoples, were indiscriminately killed by

1337-495: A Cham king named Jaya Prakāśadharma who ascended the throne of Champa as Vikrantavarman I (r. 653–686). Prakāśadharma had thorough knowledge of Sanskrit learning, Sanskrit literature, and Indian cosmology. He authorized many constructions of religious sanctuaries at My Son and several building projects throughout the kingdom, laying down the foundations for the Champa art and architectural styles. He also sent many embassies regularly to

1528-399: A Vietnamese invasion in 982 led by king Le Hoan of Dai Viet , followed by Lưu Kế Tông (r. 986–989), a fanatical Vietnamese usurper who took the throne of Champa in 983, brought mass destruction to Northern Champa. Indrapura was still one of the major centers of Champa until being surpassed by Vijaya in the 12th century. The History of Song notes that to the east of Champa through

1719-467: A canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 km (22 mi) crossing the lake, and finally 15 km (9 mi) against the current along Siem Reap River , making a total journey of 90 km (55 mi). In 2011, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo discovered a shorter 35 km (22 mi) canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery and believe that

1910-465: A classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity, and style." Architect Jacques Dumarçay believes the layout of Angkor Wat borrows Chinese influence in its system of galleries which join at right angles to form courtyards. However, the axial pattern embedded in the plan of Angkor Wat may be derived from Southeast Asian cosmology in combination with

2101-542: A confederation of kingdom(s) and individual city-states for most of its history. For several periods from the 700s to 1471, there was the king of kings or the overlord based out of the most significant powerful cities like Indrapura and Vijaya , who wielded more power, influence, and sense of unity over the other Cham kings and princes, and perhaps those minor local kings and princes (Yuvarāja – not necessary mean crown prince) or regional military commander/warlords (senāpati) were from local associates that had no connection with

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2292-469: A dialect. Western Khmer , also called Cardamom Khmer or Chanthaburi Khmer, is spoken by a very small, isolated population in the Cardamom mountain range extending from western Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand . Although little studied, this variety is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer. Phnom Penh Khmer

2483-471: A direct effect on the underground water table, subsequently straining the structural stability of the temples at Angkor Wat. Locals of Siem Reap have also voiced concern that the atmosphere of their town have been compromised to entertain tourism. Since this local atmosphere is the key component to projects like Angkor Tourist City, the local officials continue to discuss how to successfully incorporate future tourism without sacrificing local values and culture. At

2674-654: A final consonant. All consonant sounds except /b/, /d/, /r/, /s/ and the aspirates can appear as the coda (although final /r/ is heard in some dialects, most notably in Northern Khmer ). A minor syllable (unstressed syllable preceding the main syllable of a word) has a structure of CV-, CrV-, CVN- or CrVN- (where C is a consonant, V a vowel, and N a nasal consonant). The vowels in such syllables are usually short; in conversation they may be reduced to [ə] , although in careful or formal speech, including on television and radio, they are clearly articulated. An example of such

2865-509: A four-year trip to Southeast Asia and his account of this trip titled The People of East Asia, ran to six volumes and was published in 1868. The books detailed the Angkor monuments but lacked drawings of the Angkorian sites. France adopted Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 partly due to the artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region and invaded Siam . This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in

3056-639: A guerrilla resistance against the Yuan for two years, together with Dai Viet , eventually repelling the Mongols back to China by June 1285. After the Yuan wars ended decisively in 1288, Dai Viet king Trần Nhân Tông spent his retirement years in Northern Champa, and arranged a marriage between his daughter, Princess Huyền Trân , and Prince Harijit – now reigning as Jaya Simhavarman III (r. 1288–1307) - in 1306 in exchange for peace and territory. From 1307 to 1401, not even

3247-458: A historical and trans-cultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride by itself but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage productions. Angkor Wat caught the attention and imagination of a wider audience in Europe when the pavilion of French protectorate of Cambodia , as part of French Indochina , recreated

3438-481: A linga called Bhadresvara, whose name was a combination of the king's own name and that of the Hindu god of gods Shiva . The worship of the original god-king under the name Bhadresvara and other names continued through the centuries that followed. Being famously known as skillful sailors and navigators, as early as the 5th century CE, the Cham might have reached India by themselves. King Gangaraja (r. 413–?) of Champa

3629-477: A long time by scholars until Po Dharma . Cham literature also have been greatly preserved in approximately more than 3,000 Cham manuscripts and printed books dating from the 16th to 20th centuries. The Southeast Asia Digital Library (SEADL) at Northern Illinois University currently contains an extensive collection of 977 digitized Cham manuscripts, totaling more than 57,800 pages of multigenre content. Modern scholarship has been guided by two competing theories in

3820-601: A million in 2007 and over two million by 2012. Angkor Wat received over two million foreign tourists in 2013 and 2.6 million by 2018. The site was managed by the private SOKIMEX group between 1990 and 2016, which rented it from the Cambodian government . The influx of tourists has caused damage such as graffiti on the walls. Ropes and wooden steps have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively. Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance—as of 2000 approximately 28% of ticket revenues across

4011-521: A mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock , that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco . The oldest surviving plan of Angkor Wat dates to 1715 and is credited to Fujiwara Tadayoshi. The plan is stored in the Suifu Meitoku-kai Shokokan Museum in Mito , Japan. Angkor Wat is

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4202-649: A mobile secretariat ( xingsheng ) in Champa for the purpose of dominating the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean trade networks. It demonstrated the strategic importance of Champa as a naval juggernaut of medieval maritime Eurasia. The Yuan campaign led by General Sogetu against the Cham began in February 1283 with their initial capture of Vijaya forcing the Cham king Indravarman V (r. 1258–1287) and Prince Harijit to wage

4393-519: A new Buddhist dynasty founded by Indravarman II (r. ? – 893) moved the capital or the major center of Champa to the north again. Indravarman II established the city of Indrapura , near My Son and ancient Simhapura . Mahayana Buddhism eclipsed Hinduism, becoming the state religion. Art historians often attribute the period between 875 and 982 as the Golden Age of Champa art and Champa culture (distinguish with modern Cham culture). Unfortunately,

4584-589: A new dynasty of Jaya Simhavarman VI (r. 1390–1400). His successor Indravarman VI (r. 1400–1441) reigned for the next 41 years, expanding Champa's territory to the Mekong Delta amidst the decline of the Angkorian Empire . One of Indravarman's nephews, Prince Śrīndra-Viṣṇukīrti Virabhadravarman , became king of Champa in 1441. By the mid 15th century, Champa might have been suffering a steady dooming decline. No inscription survived after 1456. The Vietnamese under

4775-399: A predecessor state in the region, began its existence in 192 CE. In the 4th century CE, wars with the neighbouring Kingdom of Funan in Cambodia and the acquisition of Funanese territory led to the infusion of Indian culture into Cham society. Sanskrit was adopted as a scholarly language, and Hinduism , especially Shaivism , became the state religion. Starting from the 10th century CE,

4966-446: A quasi-registral, incipiently tonal system . After the fall of Vijaya Champa in 1471, another group of Cham and Chamic might have moved west, forming Haroi , which has reversal Bahnaric linguistic influences. According to Cham folk legends, Champa was founded by Lady Po Nagar –the divine mother goddess of the kingdom. She came from the Moon, arrived in modern Central Vietnam and founded

5157-587: A single surviving indigenous source exists in Champa, and almost all of its 14th-century history has to rely on Chinese and Vietnamese sources. Engraving Sanskrit inscription, the prestige language of religious and political elites in Champa, stopped in 1253. No other grand temple or other construction project was built after 1300. These facts marked the beginning of Champa's decline. From 1367 to 1390, according to Chinese and Vietnamese sources, Che Bong Nga , who ruled as king of Champa from 1360 to 1390, had restored Champa. He launched six invasions of Dai Viet during

5348-494: A small fraction, or about 40,000 Cham people in the old Panduranga remained in 1885 when the French completed their acquisition of Vietnam . The French colonial administration prohibited Kinh discrimination and prejudice against Cham and indigenous highland peoples, putting an end to Vietnamese cultural genocide of the Cham. But French colonialists also exploited the ethnic hatred in situ between Vietnamese and Cham to deal with remnant of

5539-462: A species of flowering tree known for its fragrant flowers. Rolf Stein proposed that Champa might have been inspired when Austronesian sailors originating from Central Vietnam arrived in present-day Eastern India around the area of Champapuri , an ancient sacred city in Buddhism , for trade, then adopted the name for their people back in their homeland. While Louis Finot argued that the name Champa

5730-412: A strong monarch, the territories of the kingdom stretch from present-day Quảng Bình to Khánh Hòa . An internal division called viṣaya (district) was first introduced. There were at least two viṣaya: Caum and Midit. Each of them has a handful number of local koṣṭhāgāras –known as 'source of stable income to upkeep the worship of three gods. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, northern Champa

5921-628: A two-day journey lay the country of Ma-i at Mindoro, Philippines; which Champa had trade relations with. Afterwards, during the 1000s, Rajah Kiling, the Hindu king of the Philippine Rajahnate of Butuan instigated a commercial rivalry with the Champa Civilization by requesting diplomatic equality in court protocol towards his Rajahnate, from the Chinese Empire , which was later denied by

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6112-492: A typical Khmer declarative phrase is a steady rise throughout followed by an abrupt drop on the last syllable. Other intonation contours signify a different type of phrase such as the "full doubt" interrogative, similar to yes–no questions in English. Full doubt interrogatives remain fairly even in tone throughout, but rise sharply towards the end. Exclamatory phrases follow the typical steadily rising pattern, but rise sharply on

6303-400: A word is មនុស្ស mɔnuh, mɔnɨh, mĕəʾnuh ('person'), pronounced [mɔˈnuh] , or more casually [məˈnuh] . Stress in Khmer falls on the final syllable of a word. Because of this predictable pattern, stress is non- phonemic in Khmer (it does not distinguish different meanings). Most Khmer words consist of either one or two syllables. In most native disyllabic words, the first syllable is

6494-700: Is culturally insensitive . Khmer language Khmer ( / k ə ˈ m ɛər / kə- MAIR ; ខ្មែរ , UNGEGN : Khmêr [kʰmae] ) is an Austroasiatic language spoken natively by the Khmer people . This language is an official language and national language of Cambodia . The language is also widely spoken by Khmer people in Eastern Thailand and Isan , Thailand , also in Southeast and Mekong Delta of Vietnam . Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali especially in

6685-493: Is subject–verb–object , and modifiers follow the word they modify. Classifiers appear after numbers when used to count nouns, though not always so consistently as in languages like Chinese . In spoken Khmer, topic-comment structure is common, and the perceived social relation between participants determines which sets of vocabulary, such as pronouns and honorifics, are proper. Khmer differs from neighboring languages such as Burmese , Thai , Lao , and Vietnamese in that it

6876-549: Is a Hindu-Buddhist temple complex. Located on a site measuring 162.6 ha (1,626,000 m; 402 acres) within the ancient Khmer capital city of Angkor , it is considered as the largest religious structure in the world by Guinness World Records . Angkor Wat is a unique combination of the temple mountain (the standard design for the empire's state temples) and the later plan of concentric galleries , most of which were originally derived from religious beliefs of Hinduism . The construction of Angkor Wat suggests that there

7067-429: Is a zero copula language, instead preferring predicative adjectives (and even predicative nouns) unless using a copula for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity in more complex sentences. Basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), although subjects are often dropped ; prepositions are used rather than postpositions. Topic-Comment constructions are common and the language is generally head-initial (modifiers follow

7258-632: Is a classification scheme showing the development of the modern Khmer dialects. Standard Khmer , or Central Khmer , the language as taught in Cambodian schools and used by the media, is based on the dialect spoken throughout the Central Plain , a region encompassed by the northwest and central provinces. Northern Khmer (called Khmer Surin in Khmer) refers to the dialects spoken by many in several border provinces of present-day northeast Thailand. After

7449-495: Is a vernacular form of the word nokor ( នគរ nôkôr ), which comes from the Sanskrit / Pali word nagara ( Devanāgarī : नगर). Wat ( វត្ត vôtt ) is the word for "temple grounds", also derived from Sanskrit/Pali vāṭa ( Devanāgarī : वाट), meaning "enclosure". The original name of the temple was Vrah Viṣṇuloka or Parama Viṣṇuloka meaning "the sacred dwelling of Vishnu". The term might also mean "The king who has gone to

7640-620: Is also worshiped by the Vietnamese, a tradition that dates back to the 11th century during the Ly dynasty period. The Chams descended from seafaring settlers who reached the Southeast Asian mainland from Borneo about the time of the Sa Huỳnh culture between 1000 BCE and 200 CE, the predecessor of the Cham kingdom. The Cham language is part of the Austronesian family. According to one study, Cham

7831-401: Is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors. The temple has drawn praise for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, the temple "attains

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8022-423: Is contrastive before a vowel. However, the aspirated sounds in that position may be analyzed as sequences of two phonemes : /ph/, /th/, /ch/, /kh/ . This analysis is supported by the fact that infixes can be inserted between the stop and the aspiration; for example [tʰom] ('big') becomes [tumhum] ('size') with a nominalizing infix. When one of these plosives occurs initially before another consonant, aspiration

8213-535: Is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome , and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged. Mouhot's work was published posthumously in 1864 through the Royal Geographical Society with descriptions of Angkor under the title Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, Siam, Cambodia and Laos . In 1861, German anthropologist Adolf Bastian undertook

8404-404: Is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. The two inner galleries each have four large towers at their ordinal corners (that is, North-west, North-east, South-east, and South-west) surrounding a higher fifth tower. This pattern is sometimes called a quincunx and is believed to represent the mountains of Meru. Because the temple faces west,

8595-586: Is no longer contrastive and can be regarded as mere phonetic detail: slight aspiration is expected when the following consonant is not one of /ʔ/, /b/, /d/, /r/, /s/, /h/ (or /ŋ/ if the initial plosive is /k/ ). The voiced plosives are pronounced as implosives [ɓ, ɗ] by most speakers, but this feature is weak in educated speech, where they become [b, d] . In syllable-final position, /h/ and /ʋ/ approach [ç] and [w] respectively. The stops /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/ are unaspirated and have no audible release when occurring as syllable finals. In addition,

8786-449: Is not a tonal language . Words are stressed on the final syllable, hence many words conform to the typical Mon–Khmer pattern of a stressed syllable preceded by a minor syllable . The language has been written in the Khmer script , an abugida descended from the Brahmi script via the southern Indian Pallava script , since at least the 7th century. The script's form and use has evolved over

8977-429: Is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of. There are many smaller towers of similar style, in the same stone, which are gilded. The temple is surrounded by a moat, and access is by a single bridge, protected by two stone tigers so grand and fearsome as to strike terror into

9168-432: Is oriented to the west with scholars divided as to the significance of this. The temple complex fell into disuse before being restored in the 20th century with various international agencies involved in the project. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and devatas adorning its walls. The Angkor area was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. It

9359-399: Is provided by the bas-reliefs , which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction— prasavya in Hindu terminology—as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services. Archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container that may have been a funerary jar that was recovered from the central tower. It has been nominated by some as

9550-402: Is regarded as one of the best examples of Khmer architecture and a symbol of Cambodia, depicted as a part of the Cambodian national flag . The Angkor Wat is a major tourist attraction and attracts more than 2.5 million visitors every year. The modern name Angkor Wat , means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer language . Angkor ( អង្គរ ângkôr ), meaning "city" or "capital city",

9741-675: Is related most closely to modern Acehnese in northern Sumatra. The Sa Huỳnh culture was an Austronesian seafaring culture that centered around present-day Central Vietnam coastal region. During its heyday, the culture distributed across the Central Vietnam coast and had commercial links across the South China Sea with the Philippine archipelago and even with Taiwan (through Maritime Jade Road , Sa Huynh-Kalanay Interaction Sphere ), which now most archaeologists and scholars have consentient determined and are no longer hesitant in linking with

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9932-400: Is richest for Indrapura ; in the 12th century CE, it is richest for Vijaya ; following the 15th century CE, it is richest for Panduranga . Some scholars have taken these shifts in the historical record to reflect the movement of the Cham capital from one location to another. According to such scholars, if the 10th-century record is richest for Indrapura, it is so because at that time Indrapura

10123-566: Is spoken in the Se San , Srepok and Sekong river valleys of Sesan and Siem Pang districts in Stung Treng Province . Following the decline of Angkor, the Khmer abandoned their northern territories, which the Lao then settled. In the 17th century, Chey Chetha XI led a Khmer force into Stung Treng to retake the area. The Khmer Khe living in this area of Stung Treng in modern times are presumed to be

10314-421: Is spoken in the capital and surrounding areas. This dialect is characterized by merging or complete elision of syllables, which speakers from other regions consider a "relaxed" pronunciation. For instance, "Phnom Penh" is sometimes shortened to "m'Penh". Another characteristic of Phnom Penh speech is observed in words with an "r" either as an initial consonant or as the second member of a consonant cluster (as in

10505-475: Is spoken throughout maritime Southeast Asia. Although Cham culture is usually intertwined with the broader culture of Champa, the kingdom had a multiethnic population, which consisted of Austronesian Chamic-speaking peoples that made up the majority of its demographics. The people who used to inhabit the region are the present-day Chamic-speaking Cham , Rade and Jarai peoples in South and Central Vietnam and Cambodia;

10696-632: The Sakkarai dak rai patao , was a 5227-pages collection of Cham veritable records, documenting a history range from early legendary kings of 11th–13th century to the deposition of Po Thak The , the last king of Panduranga in 1832, reckoning in total 39 rulers of Panduranga, the tales of spread of Islam to Champa in 1000 CE, to Po Thak The . The annals were written in Akhar Thrah (traditional) Cham script with collection of Cham and Vietnamese seals imprinted by Vietnamese rulers. However, it had been dismissed for

10887-596: The ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012, it was agreed that Borobudur and Angkor Wat would become sister sites and the provinces sister provinces. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to travel restrictions being introduced across the world, which had a severe impact on Cambodia's tourism sector. As a result, visitors to Angkor Wat plummeted, leaving the usually crowded complex almost deserted. Cambodia, including Angkor Wat, reopened to international visitors in late 2021, but as of

11078-490: The Acehnese from Northern Sumatra , Indonesia , along with elements of Austroasiatic Bahnaric and Katuic -speaking peoples in Central Vietnam. Champa was preceded in the region by a kingdom called Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese), or Linyi ( 林邑 , Middle Chinese ( ZS ): * liɪm ʔˠiɪp̚ ), that was in existence since 192 AD; although the historical relationship between Linyi and Champa is not clear. Champa reached its apogee in

11269-571: The Arab maritime routes in Mainland Southeast Asia as a supplier of aloe . Despite the frequent wars between the Cham and the Khmer , the two nations also traded and their cultural influences moved in the same directions. Since royal families of the two countries intermarried frequently. Champa also had close trade and cultural relations with the powerful maritime empire of Srivijaya and later with

11460-450: The Bakan , is a 60 m (200 ft) square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas . Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and the shrines. The tower above

11651-576: The Can Vuong movement in Binh Thuan. The King of Champa is the title ruler of Champa. Champa rulers often use two Hinduist style titles: raja-di-raja ( राजाधिराजः " raja of rajas" or king of kings : written here in Devanagari since the Cham used their own Cham script ) or pu po tana raya ("lord of all territories"). They would be addressed by style ganreh patrai (his Majesty). Officially,

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11842-460: The Cham–Vietnamese War (1471) , Champa suffered serious defeats at the hands of the Vietnamese, in which 120,000 people were either captured or killed. 50 members of the Cham royal family and some 20–30,000 were taken prisoners and deported, including the king of Champa Tra Toan , who died along his way to the north in captivity. Contemporary reports from China record a Cham envoy telling to

12033-587: The Eastern Han dynasty of China in Xianglin who rebelled against Chinese rule in 192. Around the 4th century CE, Cham polities began to absorb much of Indic influences , probably through its neighbor, Funan . Hinduism was established as Champa began to create Sanskrit stone inscriptions and erect red brick Hindu temples . The first king acknowledged in the inscriptions is Bhadravarman , who reigned from 380 to 413 CE. At Mỹ Sơn , King Bhadravarman established

12224-631: The Majapahit of the Malay Archipelago , its easternmost trade relations being with the kingdoms of Ma-i . Butuan , and Sulu in the Philippines. Evidence gathered from linguistic studies around Aceh confirms that a very strong Chamic cultural influence existed in Indonesia; this is indicated by the use of the Chamic language Acehnese as the main language in the coastal regions of Aceh. Linguists believe

12415-647: The Rade , Jarai , Chru , Roglai peoples call the Cham by similar lexemes which likely derived from Čaṃ. Vietnamese historical accounts also have the Cham named as Chiêm. Most importantly, the official designation of Champa in Chinese historical texts was Zhànchéng –meaning "the city of the Cham," "why not city of the Champa?," Vickery doubts. The historiography of Champa relies upon four types of sources: Approximately four hundred Champa inscriptions have been found. Around 250 of them were deciphered and studied throughout

12606-634: The Tang Empire and neighboring Khmer. The Chinese reckoned Champa during the 7th century as the chief tributary state of the South, on par with the Korean kingdoms of Koguryŏ in the Northeast and Baekje in the East — "though the latter was rivaled by Japan." Between the 7th to 10th centuries CE, the Cham polities rose to become a naval power; as Cham ports attracted local and foreign traders, Cham fleets also controlled

12797-416: The [r] is dropped and the vowel begins by dipping much lower in tone than standard speech and then rises, effectively doubling its length. Another example is the word រៀន [riən] ('study'), which is pronounced [ʀiən] , with the uvular "r" and the same intonation described above. Khmer Krom or Southern Khmer is spoken by the indigenous Khmer population of the Mekong Delta , formerly controlled by

12988-421: The elision of /r/ . Intonation often conveys semantic context in Khmer, as in distinguishing declarative statements , questions and exclamations. The available grammatical means of making such distinctions are not always used, or may be ambiguous; for example, the final interrogative particle ទេ /teː/ can also serve as an emphasizing (or in some cases negating) particle. The intonation pattern of

13179-468: The mandala represented by the main temple. The temple complex is surrounded by an outer wall, 1,024 m (3,360 ft) by 802 m (2,631 ft) and 4.5 m (15 ft) high. It is encircled by a 30 m (98 ft) apron of open ground and a moat 190 m (620 ft) wide and over 5 km (3.1 mi) in perimeter. The moat extends 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from east to west and 1.3 km (0.81 mi) from north to south. Access to

13370-606: The matrilocal structure of Cham families. And compared to other Vietnamese ethnic groups, the Cham do not share ancestry with southern Han Chinese, along with Austronesian-speaking Mang. Champa was known to the Chinese as 林邑 Linyi in Mandarin, Lam Yap in Cantonese and to the Vietnamese, Lâm Ấp (which is the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of 林邑). The state of Champa was founded in 192 CE by Khu Liên (Ou Lian), an official of

13561-429: The temple-mountain and the later galleried temple . It is designed to represent Mount Meru , home of the devas in Hindu mythology and is surrounded by a moat more than 5 km (3.1 mi). Enclosed within an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat

13752-440: The Đông Yên Châu inscription , the oldest known native Southeast Asian literature written in a native Southeast Asian language dating to around c. 350 CE, predating first Khmer , Mon , Malay texts by centuries. Scholarly consensus has shifted several times as to what degree Champa functioned as a unified entity. Originally being viewed as a unified kingdom throughout most of its history, later authors suggested that Champa

13943-569: The 17th century, discovered in the Angkor area, state that Japanese Buddhist pilgrims had established small settlements alongside Khmer locals. The inscription also tells of Ukondayu Kazufusa , who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632. In the 16th century, Portuguese traders and missionaries discovered a vast stone city hidden in the northern Cambodian forests, abandoned for over 150 years. This city contained temples, including Angkor Wat—the largest religious monument—which dominated

14134-496: The 9th and 10th centuries CE. Thereafter, it began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt , the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern Hanoi . In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mạng annexed the remaining Cham territories. Hinduism , adopted through conflicts and conquest of territory from neighboring Funan in the 4th century CE, shaped the art and culture of the Cham Kingdom for centuries, as testified by

14325-451: The 9th century until the 13th century. The following centuries saw changes in morphology , phonology and lexicon . The language of this transition period, from about the 14th to 18th centuries, is referred to as Middle Khmer and saw borrowings from Thai in the literary register. Modern Khmer is dated from the 19th century to today. The following table shows the conventionally accepted historical stages of Khmer. Just as modern Khmer

14516-980: The Acehnese language, a descendant of the Proto-Chamic language, separated from the Chamic tongue sometime in the 1st millennium BCE. However, scholarly views on the precise nature of Aceh-Chamic relations vary. Tsat , a northern Chamic language spoken by the Utsul on the Hainan Island, is speculated to be separated from Cham at the time when contact between Champa and Islam had grown considerably, but precise details remain inadequate. Under Chinese language influence over Hainan, Tsat has become fully monosyllabic, while some certain shifts to monosyllabicity can be observed in Eastern Cham (in contact with Vietnamese). Eastern Cham has developed

14707-471: The Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets which were highly prized in ancient times and were prime targets for robbers. Based on experiments, the labour force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone probably ran into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artefacts that have been dated to

14898-547: The Arab maritime trade introduces Islamic cultural and religious influences to the region. Although Hinduism was the predominant religion among the Cham people until the 16th century, Islam began to attract large numbers of Chams, when some members of the Cham royalty converted to Islam in the 17th century. Champa came to serve as an important link in the spice trade , which stretched from the Persian Gulf to South China , and later in

15089-610: The Bacam ( Bacham , Chiêm tục) who still retain and preserve their Hindu faith, rituals, and festivals. The Bacam is one of only two surviving non- Indic indigenous Hindu peoples in the world, with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other being the Balinese Hindus of the Balinese people of Indonesia . The name Champa derived from the Sanskrit word campaka (pronounced /tʃampaka/ ), which refers to Magnolia champaca ,

15280-407: The Cham of Panduranga a Tân Dân (new people), denoting the imposed mundanity that nothing to ever differentiate them with other Vietnamese. Minh Mang's son and successor Thiệu Trị , however, reverted most of his father's strict policies against Catholic Christians and ethnic minorities. Under Thiệu Trị and Tu Duc , the Cham were reallowed to practice their religions with little prohibition. Only

15471-409: The Cham subjects. Cham culture and Cham identity were rapidly, systematically destroyed. Vietnamese settlers seized most of Cham farmlands and commodity productions, pushing the Cham to far-inland arid highlands, and the Cham were subjected to heavy taxations and mandated conscriptions. Two widespread Cham revolts against Minh Mang's oppression arose in 1833–1835, the latter led by khatib Ja Thak Wa -

15662-488: The Champa Alliance. Started from the 17th century, Champa kings used title Paduka Seri Sultan in some occasions, a borrowed honorific from Muslim Malay rulers. The 13th-century Chinese gazetteer account Zhu Fan Zhi (c. 1225) describes the Cham king 'wears a headdress of gold and adorns his body with strings of jewels' and either rides on an elephant or is lifted on a 'cloth hammock by four men' when he goes outside

15853-458: The Champa rulers originated from the Hindu tradition, often consisting of titles and aliases. Titles (prefix) like: Jaya ( जय "victory"), Maha ( महा "great"), Sri ( श्री "glory"). Aliases (stem) like: Bhadravarman, Vikrantavarman, Rudravarman, Simhavarman, Indravarman, Paramesvaravarman, Harivarman... Among them, the suffix -varman belongs to the Kshatriya class and is only for those leaders of

16044-530: The Chinese Imperial court, mainly because of favoritism for the Champa civilization. However, the future Rajah of Butuan, Sri Bata Shaja later succeeded in attaining diplomatic equality with Champa by sending the flamboyant ambassador Likanhsieh. Likanhsieh shocked the Emperor Zhenzong by presenting a memorial engraved on a golden tablet, some white dragon ( Bailong 白龍) camphor , Moluccan cloves, and

16235-403: The Chinese court: "Annam destroyed our country" with additional notes of massive burning and looting, in which 40 to 60,000 people were slaughtered. The kingdom was reduced to a small enclave near Nha Trang and Phan Rang with many Chams fleeing to Cambodia . Champa was reduced to the principalities of Panduranga and Kauthara at the beginning of the 16th century. Kauthara was annexed by

16426-507: The English word "bread"). The "r", trilled or flapped in other dialects, is either pronounced as a uvular trill or not pronounced at all. This alters the quality of any preceding consonant, causing a harder, more emphasized pronunciation. Another unique result is that the syllable is spoken with a low-rising or "dipping" tone much like the "hỏi" tone in Vietnamese . For example, some people pronounce ត្រី [trəj] ('fish') as [tʰəj] :

16617-472: The ICC, claiming that previous tourism developments in the area have neglected construction regulations and that more of these projects have the potential to damage landscape features. Also, the large scale of these projects have begun to threaten the quality of the nearby town's water, sewage, and electricity systems. It has also been noted that such high frequency of tourism and growing demand for infrastructure has had

16808-483: The Khmer Empire but part of Vietnam since 1698. Khmers are persecuted by the Vietnamese government for using their native language and, since the 1950s, have been forced to take Vietnamese names. Consequently, very little research has been published regarding this dialect. It has been generally influenced by Vietnamese for three centuries and accordingly displays a pronounced accent, tendency toward monosyllabic words and lexical differences from Standard Khmer. Khmer Khe

16999-468: The Khmer king, leading to a Cham occupation of Cambodia for the next four years. Jayavarman VII of Angkor launched several counterattack campaigns in the 1190s (1190, 1192, 1194–1195, 1198–1203), conquering Champa and making it a dependency of the Khmer Empire for 30 years. Champa was subjected to a Mongol Yuan invasion in 1283–1285. Before the invasion, Kublai Khan ordered the establishment of

17190-443: The Khmer used this route instead. Most of the surfaces, columns, lintels and roofs are carved with reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots, as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader, and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hairstyles. The gallery wall is decorated with almost 1,000 m (11,000 sq ft) of bas reliefs. Holes on some of

17381-678: The Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java). In 767, the Tonkin coast was raided by a Javanese fleet (Daba) and Kunlun pirates, Champa was subsequently assaulted by Javanese or Kunlun vessels in 774 and 787. In 774 an assault was launched on Po-Nagar in Nha Trang where the pirates demolished temples, while in 787 an assault was launched on Virapura, near Phan Rang . The Javanese invaders continued to occupy southern Champa coastline until being driven off by Indravarman I (r. 787–801) in 799. In 875,

17572-696: The Mon-Khmer sub-grouping and place the Khmer language as its own branch of Austroasiatic equidistant from the other 12 branches of the family. Khmer is spoken by some 13 million people in Cambodia , where it is the official language. It is also a second language for most of the minority groups and indigenous hill tribes there. Additionally there are a million speakers of Khmer native to southern Vietnam (1999 census) and 1.4 million in northeast Thailand (2006). Khmer dialects , although mutually intelligible, are sometimes quite marked. Notable variations are found in speakers from Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city),

17763-638: The Orang Dampuan. Harmonious commerce between Sulu and the Orang Dampuan was later restored. The Yakans were descendants of the Taguima-based Orang Dampuan who came to Sulu from Champa. The twelfth century in Champa is defined by constant social upheavals and warfare, Khmer invasions were frequent. The Khmer Empire conquered Northern Champa in 1145, but were quickly repulsed by king Jaya Harivarman I (r. 1148–1167). Another Angkorian invasion of Champa led by Suryavarman II in summer 1150 also

17954-464: The Region of Siem Reap (APSARA) was established in 1995 to protect and manage the area, and a law to protect Cambodian heritage was passed in 1996. In the 21st century, teams from several countries including France, India, Japan and China are involved in Angkor Wat conservation projects. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) was launched to protect the devatas , and other bas-reliefs that decorate

18145-740: The Royal Government and APSARA, organised seminars to discuss the concept of "cultural tourism", emphasising the importance of providing high-quality accommodation and services to the tourists and for the Cambodian government to benefit economically, while also incorporating the richness of Cambodian culture. In 2001, this incentive resulted in the concept of the "Angkor Tourist City" which would be developed about traditional Khmer architecture, contain leisure and tourist facilities, and provide luxurious hotels capable of accommodating large numbers of tourists. The prospect of developing such large tourist accommodations has encountered concerns from both APSARA and

18336-614: The Standard Khmer system and that of the Battambang dialect on which the standard is based. In addition, some diphthongs and triphthongs are analyzed as a vowel nucleus plus a semivowel ( /j/ or /w/ ) coda because they cannot be followed by a final consonant. These include: (with short monophthongs) /ɨw/ , /əw/ , /aj/ , /aw/ , /uj/ ; (with long monophthongs) /əːj/ , /aːj/ ; (with long diphthongs) /iəj/ , /iəw/ , /ɨəj/ , /aoj/ , /aəj/ and /uəj/ . The independent vowels are

18527-403: The Vietnamese in 1471, Kauthara and Pāṇḍuraṅga persisted existing untouched. Kauthara fell to the Vietnamese 200 years later in 1653, while Panduranga was annexed in 1832. Pāṇḍuraṅga had its full list of kings ruled from the 13th century until 1832, which both Vietnamese and European sources had verified. So Pāṇḍuraṅga remained autonomous and could conduct its foreign affairs without permission from

18718-479: The Vietnamese in 1653. From 1799 to 1832, Panduranga lost its hereditary monarchy status, with kings selected and appointed by the Vietnamese court in Huế . The last remaining principality of Champa, Panduranga, survived until August 1832, when Minh Mang of Vietnam began his purge against rival Le Van Duyet 's faction, and accused the Cham leaders of supporting Duyet. Minh Mang ordered the last Cham king Po Phaok The and

18909-493: The Vietnamese in massacres, particularly from 1832 to 1836, during the Sumat and Ja Thak Wa uprisings. Bani mosques were razed to the ground. Temples were set on fire. Cham villages and their aquatic livelihoods were annihilated. By that time, the Cham totally lost their ancestors' seafaring and shipbuilding traditions. After finalizing these heavy-handed pacifications of Cham rebels and assimilation policies, emperor Minh Mang declared

19100-499: The ancestors of the Austronesian Cham and Chamic -speaking peoples. While Northern Vietnam Kinh people assimilated Han Chinese immigrants into their population, have a sinicized culture, Cham people carry the patrilineal R-M17 haplogroup of South Asian Indian origin from South Asian merchants spreading Hinduism to Champa and marrying Cham females since Chams have no matrilineal South Asian mtDNA , and this fits with

19291-438: The asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox , and from the equinox to the summer solstice . It is followed by reliefs showing Vishnu defeating asuras , which was a 16th-century addition. The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana . Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devatas with more than 1,796 documented depictions of devatas in

19482-408: The central shrine rises 43 m (141 ft) to a height of 65 m (213 ft) above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism , the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934,

19673-511: The centuries; its modern features include subscripted versions of consonants used to write clusters and a division of consonants into two series with different inherent vowels . Khmer is a member of the Austroasiatic language family, the autochthonous family in an area that stretches from the Malay Peninsula through Southeast Asia to East India. Austroasiatic, which also includes Mon , Vietnamese and Munda , has been studied since 1856 and

19864-441: The city and the royal palace to the north of the temple. Similar to other secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outline of some of the streets with most of the area now covered by vegetation. A 350 m (1,150 ft) causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga shaped balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to

20055-414: The clusters consisting of a plosive followed by /ʔ/, /b/, /d/ , in those beginning /ʔ/, /m/, /l/ , and in the cluster /kŋ-/ . After the initial consonant or consonant cluster comes the syllabic nucleus , which is one of the vowels listed above. This vowel may end the syllable or may be followed by a coda , which is a single consonant. If the syllable is stressed and the vowel is short, there must be

20246-436: The conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level. Integrated with the architecture of the building, one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of

20437-527: The consonants /ɡ/ , /f/ , /ʃ/ and /z/ occur occasionally in recent loan words in the speech of Cambodians familiar with French and other languages. Various authors have proposed slightly different analyses of the Khmer vowel system. This may be in part because of the wide degree of variation in pronunciation between individual speakers, even within a dialectal region. The description below follows Huffman (1970). The number of vowel nuclei and their values vary between dialects; differences exist even between

20628-424: The construction of Angkor Wat, as well as a massive structure, with wooden fortifications, of unknown purpose on its south side. The findings included evidence of low-density residential occupation, a road grid, ponds and mounds in the region. These discoveries indicated that the temple precinct, bounded by a moat and wall, may not have been used exclusively by the priestly elite, as was previously thought. Angkor Wat

20819-443: The corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (meaning "The Thousand Buddhas" gallery). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating to

21010-463: The deadly Champa–Đại Việt War (1367–1390) , sacking its capital in 1371, 1377, 1378, and 1383, nearly bringing the Dai Viet to its collapse. Che Bong Nga was only stopped in 1390 on a naval battle in which the Vietnamese deployed firearms for the first time, and miraculously killed the king of Champa, ending the devastating war. After Che Bong Nga , Champa seemingly rebounced to its status quo under

21201-463: The descendants of this group. Their dialect is thought to resemble that of pre-modern Siem Reap. Linguistic study of the Khmer language divides its history into four periods one of which, the Old Khmer period, is subdivided into pre-Angkorian and Angkorian. Pre-Angkorian Khmer is the Old Khmer language from 600 CE through 800. Angkorian Khmer is the language as it was spoken in the Khmer Empire from

21392-424: The dominant ruling dynasty or could be a member of that royal lineage within the perimeter of the mandala. Mandala is the term coined by O. W. Wolters describing the distribution of state power among small states within large kingdoms in premodern Southeast Asia. Two notable examples of this multi-centric nature of Champa were the principalities of Kauthara and Pāṇḍuraṅga . When Northern Champa and Vijaya fell to

21583-410: The early East Asia–South Asian subcontinent maritime route, could have visited and made communications with local Chamic communities along the coast of Central Vietnam. They played some roles in disseminating Indian culture and Buddhism. But that was not sustained and decisive as active "Indianized native societies," he argues, or Southeast Asian kingdoms that had already been "Indianized" like Funan, were

21774-412: The early Southeast Asian peoples, Hinduism was somewhat similar to their original beliefs. This resulted in peaceful conversions to Hinduism and Buddhism in Champa with little resistance. Rudravarman I of Champa (r. 529–572), a descendant of Gangaraja through maternal line, became king of Champa in 529 CE. During his reign, the temple complex of Bhadresvara was destroyed by a great fire in 535/536. He

21965-473: The end of 2022 had only received a fraction of its pre-pandemic traffic: a total of 280,000 tourists visited the complex in 2022, versus 2.6 million in 2018. In 2023, the temple saw an increase in numbers over the previous year, having over 400,000 tourists by late July. Tourists reenacting the 2011 game series Temple Run in mid-2024 for social media have drawn criticism from conservationists who warn that it risks damaging Angkor Wat's structures and carvings and

22156-527: The entire Angkor site was spent on the temples—although most work is carried out by teams sponsored by foreign governments rather than by the Cambodian authorities. Since Angkor Wat has seen significant growth in tourism throughout the years, UNESCO and its International Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), in association with representatives from

22347-566: The fall of the Khmer Empire in the early 15th century, the Dongrek Mountains served as a natural border leaving the Khmer north of the mountains under the sphere of influence of the Kingdom of Lan Xang . The conquests of Cambodia by Naresuan the Great for Ayutthaya furthered their political and economic isolation from Cambodia proper, leading to a dialect that developed relatively independently from

22538-448: The features are set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason, the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides. Mannikka interprets the galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma , the moon , and Vishnu . Each gallery has a gopura with the outer gallery measuring 187 m (614 ft) by 215 m (705 ft), with pavilions at

22729-695: The final remaining principality of Champa was annexed by Emperor Minh Mạng of the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty as part of the expansionist Nam tiến policy. The kingdom was known variously as Nagaracampa ( Sanskrit : नगरचम्प ), Champa (ꨌꩌꨛꨩ) in modern Cham , and Châmpa ( ចាម្ប៉ា ) in the Khmer inscriptions , Chiêm Thành in Vietnamese , Campa in Malay , Zhànchéng ( Mandarin : 占城) in Chinese records, and al-Ṣanf ( Arabic : صَنْف) in Middle Eastern Muslim records. Early Champa evolved from

22920-400: The final syllable, with secondary stress on every second syllable from the end. Thus in a three-syllable word, the first syllable has secondary stress; in a four-syllable word, the second syllable has secondary stress; in a five-syllable word, the first and third syllables have secondary stress, and so on. Long polysyllables are not often used in conversation. Compounds, however, preserve

23111-584: The gods according to Hindu mythology: the central quincunx of towers symbolise the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat symbolise the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level. Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led scholars including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès to hypothesize that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple. Further evidence for this view

23302-482: The good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese . The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water. North and south of the cloister are libraries . Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devata images are abound on

23493-404: The government sponsored Cultural Committee to define and standardize the modern language, they championed Khmerization, purging of foreign elements, reviving affixation, and the use of Old Khmer roots and historical Pali and Sanskrit to coin new words for modern ideas. Opponents, led by Keng Vannsak , who embraced "total Khmerization" by denouncing the reversion to classical languages and favoring

23684-442: The greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu , who was associated with the west. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, researcher Eleanor Mannikka argues that

23875-409: The historiography of Champa. Scholars agree that historically Champa was divided into several regions or principalities spread out from south to north along the coast of modern Vietnam and united by a common language, culture, and heritage. It is acknowledged that the historical record is not equally rich for each of the regions in every historical period. For example, in the 10th century CE, the record

24066-430: The illusion of a unified Champa. Recent revisionist historians in the 1980s, for example Po Dharma and Trần Quốc Vượng , refuted the concept of single Champa. Chinese historical texts, Cham inscriptions, and especially the Cham annals, the Sakkarai dak rai patao , both confirm the existence of multi-Campa scenarios. Po Dharma argues that Champa was not a single kingdom or centralized in the manner of Đại Việt but likely

24257-403: The inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes. The west face of the wall is decorated with dancing figures and the east face of the wall consists of windows with balusters, decorated with dancing figures, animals and devatas . The outer wall encloses a space of 203 acres (82 ha), which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by people from

24448-458: The key factors of the process. On the other hand, Paul Mus suggests the reason for the peaceful acceptance of Hinduism by the Cham elite was likely related to the tropical monsoon climate background shared by areas like the Bay of Bengal , coastal mainland Southeast Asia all the way from Myanmar to Vietnam. Monsoon societies tended to practice animism , most importantly, the creed of earth spirit. To

24639-426: The king was the patron of art and construction. Majestic temples and shrines were built dedicated to the honor of the king of kings, his ancestors, and their beloved gods (usually Śiva). Some charismatic Cham kings declared themselves Protector of Champa in celebrating royal ceremony and coronation ( abhiseka ) which involves supernatural and spiritual rituals to demonstrate the king's authority. The regnal name of

24830-457: The kingdom, but a typhoon drifted her away and left her stranded on the coast of China, where she married a Chinese prince, and returned to Champa. The Po Nagar temple built in Nha Trang during the 8th century, and rebuilt in the 11th century was dedicated to her. Her portrayal image in the temple is said to date from 965 CE, it is of a commanding personage seated cross-legged upon a throne. She

25021-416: The language of higher education and the intellectual class. By 1907, the French had wrested over half of modern-day Cambodia, including the north and northwest where Thai had been the prestige language, back from Thai control and reintegrated it into the country. Many native scholars in the early 20th century, led by a monk named Chuon Nath , resisted the French and Thai influences on their language. Forming

25212-850: The last century. Many Cham inscriptions were destroyed by American bombing during the Vietnam War . Currently, the Project Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campā launched by French School of Asian Studies (EFEO) partnering with the Institute for Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) of New York University is tasked for cataloging, sustaining and preserving ancient Cham inscriptions into an online index library and publications of scholarship's epigraphical studies into English, French, and Vietnamese. The Cham have their written records in form of paper book, known as

25403-511: The last syllable instead of falling. Khmer is primarily an analytic language with no inflection . Syntactic relations are mainly determined by word order. Old and Middle Khmer used particles to mark grammatical categories and many of these have survived in Modern Khmer but are used sparingly, mostly in literary or formal language. Khmer makes extensive use of auxiliary verbs , "directionals" and serial verb construction . Colloquial Khmer

25594-488: The late 1980s and early 1990s, far more damage was done to the reliefs by art thieves working out of Thailand who lopped off many sculptures and other structures, including earlier reconstructions. As with most other ancient temples in Cambodia, Angkor Wat also faced extensive damage and deterioration by a combination of plant overgrowth, fungi, ground movements, war damage, and theft, though the war damage to Angkor Wat's temples

25785-523: The life-size replica of Angkor Wat presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. It was on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from c.1880 to the mid-1920s. According to the 13th-century Chinese traveller Zhou Daguan, some believed that the temple

25976-497: The many Cham Hindu statues and red brick temples that dotted the landscape in Cham lands. Mỹ Sơn , a former religious center, and Hội An , one of Champa's main port cities, are now World Heritage Sites . Today, many Cham people adhere to Islam , a conversion which began in the 10th century, with the ruling dynasty having fully adopted the faith by the 17th century; they are called the Bani ( Ni tục , from Arabic: Bani ). There are, however,

26167-558: The midpoint of the Middle Khmer period. This has resulted in a distinct accent influenced by the surrounding tonal languages Lao and Thai , lexical differences, and phonemic differences in both vowels and distribution of consonants. Syllable-final /r/ , which has become silent in other dialects of Khmer, is still pronounced in Northern Khmer. Some linguists classify Northern Khmer as a separate but closely related language rather than

26358-491: The modern Khmer language dictionary that is still in use today, helping preserve Khmer during the French colonial period. The phonological system described here is the inventory of sounds of the standard spoken language, represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/ may occur with or without aspiration (as [p] vs. [pʰ] , etc.); this difference

26549-615: The mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava armies. On the southern gallery, the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II is depicted along with the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hinduism. On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk , showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea of milk under Vishnu's direction. Mannikka counts only 91 asuras and explains

26740-401: The northwestern corner of the country including Siem Reap , Battambang , and Sisophon which were under Siamese rule from 1795 to 1907. Following excavations at the site, there were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement such as cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. In the 20th century, a considerable effort was launched to clear

26931-736: The outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata . Higham has called these "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving". From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana ; and the Kurukshetra War from the Mahabharata, depicting

27122-423: The outside on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure. The temple stands on a raised terrace within the walled enclosure. It

27313-410: The palace. When the king attends the court audience, he is encircled by 'thirty female attendants who carry swords and shields or betel nuts'. Court officials would make reports to the king, then make one prostration before leaving. The last king of Champa, Po Phaok The , was deposed by Minh Mạng in 1832. During the reign of the king Prakasadharma (r. 653–686 AD), when Champa was briefly ruled by

27504-490: The plant overgrowth and restore the temple complex. Conservation d'Angkor (Angkor Conservancy) was established by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1908. The Conservation d'Angkor was responsible for the research, conservation, and restoration activities carried out at Angkor until the early 1970s with major restoration works undertaken in the 1960s. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since then. Restoration work

27695-495: The presiding deity. The work on the temple ceased after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished. In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams , the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter, the Khmer empire was restored by Jayavarman VII , who established a new capital at Angkor Thom and the Bayon as

27886-546: The prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture —the Angkor Wat style—to which it has given its name. Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include the ogival , redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half- galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras) , bas-reliefs , pediments , extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat

28077-431: The remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewellery, and decorative flowers depicted in the reliefs, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period. By the 12th century, Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone rather than brick or laterite as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are sandstone blocks, while laterite

28268-416: The research inventory. The architects also used small apsara images (30–40 cm or 12–16 in) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110 cm or 37–43 in) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging

28459-431: The royal and religious registers , through Hinduism and Buddhism , due to Old Khmer being the language of the historical empires of Chenla and Angkor . The vast majority of Khmer speakers speak Central Khmer , the dialect of the central plain where the Khmer are most heavily concentrated. Within Cambodia, regional accents exist in remote areas but these are regarded as varieties of Central Khmer. Two exceptions are

28650-565: The rural Battambang area, the areas of Northeast Thailand adjacent to Cambodia such as Surin province , the Cardamom Mountains , and southern Vietnam. The dialects form a continuum running roughly north to south. Standard Cambodian Khmer is mutually intelligible with the others but a Khmer Krom speaker from Vietnam, for instance, may have great difficulty communicating with a Khmer native of Sisaket Province in Thailand. The following

28841-481: The seafaring Austronesian Chamic Sa Huỳnh culture off the coast of modern-day Vietnam. Its emergence in the late 2nd century CE exemplifies early Southeast Asian statecraft at a crucial stage of the making of Southeast Asia . The peoples of Champa maintained a system of lucrative trade networks across the region, connecting the Indian Ocean and Eastern Asia , until the 17th century. In Champa, historians also found

29032-411: The seventh century, before the Khmer came to power. Due to the global attention that it has received and the millions of visitors it attracts, the Angkor Wat has become a prominent image that is associated with Cambodia, and in this way has become a symbol of Cambodia itself. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flag since the introduction of the first version in 1863. From

29223-571: The site was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Simultaneously, Angkor Wat was listed in UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger (later removed in 2004) following an appeal for help by Norodom Sihanouk together with an appeal by UNESCO to the international community to save Angkor. Zoning of the area was designated to protect the Angkor site in 1994, Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and

29414-478: The site. One of the first recorded visitors was António da Madalena, a Capuchin friar who explored the ruins in 1586. Three years later, he relayed his observations to Diogo do Couto, the official historian of the Portuguese Indies. Do Couto documented the friar’s account in his historical writings as follows: Half a league from this city is a temple called Angar. It is of such extraordinary construction that it

29605-616: The southern regions of Northeast Thailand and is treated by some linguists as a separate language. Khmer Krom, or Southern Khmer, is the first language of the Khmer of Vietnam , while the Khmer living in the remote Cardamom Mountains speak a very conservative dialect that still displays features of the Middle Khmer language. Khmer is primarily an analytic , isolating language . There are no inflections , conjugations or case endings. Instead, particles and auxiliary words are used to indicate grammatical relationships. General word order

29796-404: The southern tower is a statue known as Ta Reach , originally an eight-armed statue of Vishnu that may have occupied the temple's central shrine. Galleries run between the towers and two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on

29987-513: The speech of the capital, Phnom Penh , and that of the Khmer Khe in Stung Treng province , both of which differ sufficiently enough from Central Khmer to be considered separate dialects of Khmer. Outside of Cambodia, three distinct dialects are spoken by ethnic Khmers native to areas that were historically part of the Khmer Empire . The Northern Khmer dialect is spoken by over a million Khmers in

30178-417: The start of a syllable are /str/, /skr/ , and (with aspirated consonants analyzed as two-consonant sequences) /sth/, /lkh/ . There are 85 possible two-consonant clusters (including [pʰ] etc. analyzed as /ph/ etc.). All the clusters are shown in the following table, phonetically, i.e. superscript ʰ can mark either contrastive or non-contrastive aspiration (see above ). Slight vowel epenthesis occurs in

30369-432: The state temple, situated to the north. The temple was dedicated to Buddhism as the king's wife Indratevi was a devout Mahayana Buddhist who encouraged him to convert. Angkor Wat was therefore also gradually converted into a Buddhist site with many Hindu sculptures replaced by Buddhist art. After the transformation from a Hindu centre of worship to Buddhism towards the end of the 12th century, Angkor Wat continues to be

30560-628: The stress patterns of the constituent words. Thus សំបុកចាប , the name of a kind of cookie (literally 'bird's nest'), is pronounced [sɑmˌbok ˈcaːp] , with secondary stress on the second rather than the first syllable, because it is composed of the words [sɑmˈbok] ('nest') and [caːp] ('bird'). Khmer once had a phonation distinction in its vowels, but this now survives only in the most archaic dialect ( Western Khmer ). The distinction arose historically when vowels after Old Khmer voiced consonants became breathy voiced and diphthongized; for example *kaa, *ɡaa became *kaa, *ɡe̤a . When consonant voicing

30751-523: The strong king Le Thanh Tong launched an invasion of Champa in early 1471 , decimating the capital of Vijaya and most of northern Champa. For early historians like Georges Maspero , "the 1471 conquest had concluded the end of the Champa Kingdom." Maspero, like other early orientalist scholars, by his logics, arbitrated the history of Champa as becoming a "worthy" subject for their study when it adapted and maintained "superior" Indian civilization. In

30942-413: The structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II : "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honour and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above." Mannikka's suggestions have been received with

31133-418: The supreme world of Vishnu", referring to Suryavarman II posthumously and intended to venerate his glory and memory. Angkor Wat was commissioned by the Khmer king Suryavarman II (ruled 1113– c.  1150 ) in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura (present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire. The construction of the temple commenced in 1122 CE and was completed in 1150 CE. The temple complex

31324-422: The temple from further damage when the organization's survey found that around 20% of the reliefs were in very poor condition mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone, but also in part also due to earlier restoration efforts. Microbial biofilms degraded sandstone at Angkor Wat. Other work involved the repair of collapsed sections of the structure and prevention of further collapse. For example,

31515-400: The temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points with the western one being the largest and consisting of three partially ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper. Under

31706-687: The temple was the location of the famed Jetavana garden of the Buddha , which was originally located in the kingdom of Magadha , India. According to another myth, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to serve as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea. Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 1993, there were only 7,650 visitors to the site and by 2004, government figures show that 561,000 foreign visitors had arrived in Siem Reap province that year, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia. The number reached over

31897-602: The trade in spices and silk in the South China Sea , between China, the Indonesian archipelago and India . They supplemented their income from the trade routes not only by exporting ivory and aloe, but also by engaging in piracy and raiding. However, the rising influence of Champa caught the attention of a neighbouring thalassocracy that considered Champa as a rival, the Javanese ( Javaka , probably refers to Srivijaya , ruler of

32088-463: The use of contemporary colloquial Khmer for neologisms, and Ieu Koeus , who favored borrowing from Thai, were also influential. Koeus later joined the Cultural Committee and supported Nath. Nath's views and prolific work won out and he is credited with cultivating modern Khmer-language identity and culture, overseeing the translation of the entire Pali Buddhist canon into Khmer. He also created

32279-737: The vice-king Po Dhar Kaok to be arrested in Hue, while incorporating the last remnants of Champa into what are the Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces . To enforce his finger grip, Minh Mang appointed Vietnamese bureaucrats from Hue to govern the Cham directly in phủ Ninh Thuan while removing the traditional Cham customary laws. Administratively, Panduranga was integrated into Vietnam proper with harsh measures. These reforms were known as cải thổ quy lưu ("replacing thổ [aboriginal] chieftains by circulating bureaucratic system"). Speaking Vietnamese and following Vietnamese customs became strictly mandatory for

32470-499: The visitor. In 1860, the temple was effectively rediscovered by French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot with the help of French missionary Father Charles-Émile Bouillevaux. Mouhot popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote: One of these temples, a rival to that of Solomon , and erected by some ancient Michelangelo , might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It

32661-470: The vowels that can exist without a preceding or trailing consonant. The independent vowels may be used as monosyllabic words, or as the initial syllables in longer words. Khmer words never begin with regular vowels; they can, however, begin with independent vowels. Example: ឰដ៏, ឧទាហរណ៍, ឧត្តម, ឱកាស...។ A Khmer syllable begins with a single consonant, or else with a cluster of two, or rarely three, consonants. The only possible clusters of three consonants at

32852-425: The walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 m (330 ft) by 115 m (377 ft), and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru . Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The steep stairways may represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called

33043-475: The west facade of the upper level was buttressed by scaffolding in 2002. A Japanese team completed the restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure in 2005. Replicas have been made to replace some of the lost or damaged sculptures. In December 2015, it was announced that a research team from the University of Sydney found a previously unseen ensemble of buried towers that were built and demolished during

33234-500: The words they modify). Some grammatical processes are still not fully understood by western scholars. For example, it is not clear if certain features of Khmer grammar, such as actor nominalization , should be treated as a morphological process or a purely syntactic device, and some derivational morphology seems "purely decorative" and performs no known syntactic work. Champa Champa ( Cham : ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چامفا; Khmer : ចាម្ប៉ា ; Vietnamese : Chiêm Thành 占城 or Chiêm Bá 占婆)

33425-404: Was a celestial significance with certain features of the temple. This is observed in the temple's east–west orientation, and lines of sight from terraces within the temple that show specific towers to be at the precise location of the solstice at sunrise. The Angkor Wat temple's main tower aligns with the morning sun of the spring equinox . The temple is a representation of Mount Meru , the home of

33616-452: Was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century CE until 1832. According to earliest historical references found in ancient sources, the first Cham polities were established around the 2nd to 3rd centuries CE, in the wake of Khu Liên 's rebellion against the rule of China's Eastern Han dynasty , and lasted until when

33807-462: Was better considered to be a federation of independent states. A number of modern scholars have suggested that Champa did form a unified kingdom in some periods but was disunified in others. The Chams of modern Vietnam and Cambodia are the major remnants of this former kingdom. They speak Chamic languages, a subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian closely related to the Malayic and Bali–Sasak languages that

33998-558: Was brought by Indians to Central Vietnam. Recent academics however dispute the Indic origin explanation, which was conceived by Louis Finot , a colonial-era board director of the École française d'Extrême-Orient . In his 2005 Champa revised, Michael Vickery challenges Finot's idea. He argues that the Cham people always refer themselves as Čaṃ rather than Champa (pa–abbreviation of peśvara , Campādeśa , Campānagara ). Most indigenous Austronesian ethnic groups in Central Vietnam such as

34189-403: Was consisted by several known districts (viṣaya, zhou 洲): Amaravati ( Quảng Ngãi ), Ulik ( Thừa Thiên–Huế ), Vvyar ( Quảng Trị ), Jriy (southern Quảng Bình ), and Traik (northern Quảng Bình ). Other junctions like Panduranga remained quietly autonomous. The classical narrative of 'the Champa Kingdom' brought by earlier generations of scholarship, Georges Maspero and George Coedes , created

34380-456: Was constructed in a single night by a divine architect. In 1622, The Poem of Angkor Wat composed in Khmer language describes the beauty of Angkor Wat and propagates a legend around the construction of the complex, supposedly a divine castle built for legendary Khmer king Preah Ket Mealea by Hindu god Preah Pisnukar (or Braḥ Bisṇukār, Vishvakarman ). In the 17th century, the Japanese believed that

34571-460: Was constructed on the suggestion of Divākarapaṇḍita (1040– c.  1120 ). The temple was dedicated to Hindu god Vishnu and the original religious motifs were derived from Hinduism . It was built as the king's state temple in the capital city. While there are no foundation stela or any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple's name that have been found, its original name is unknown and it may have been known as Vrah Viṣṇuloka after

34762-438: Was emerging from the transitional period represented by Middle Khmer, Cambodia fell under the influence of French colonialism . Thailand, which had for centuries claimed suzerainty over Cambodia and controlled succession to the Cambodian throne, began losing its influence on the language. In 1887 Cambodia was fully integrated into French Indochina , which brought in a French -speaking aristocracy. This led to French becoming

34953-507: Was first proposed as a language family in 1907. Despite the amount of research, there is still doubt about the internal relationship of the languages of Austroasiatic. Diffloth places Khmer in an eastern branch of the Mon-Khmer languages . In these classification schemes Khmer's closest genetic relatives are the Bahnaric and Pearic languages . More recent classifications doubt the validity of

35144-656: Was interrupted by the Cambodian Civil War when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s. Work on Angkor was abandoned during the Khmer Rouge era and the Conservation d'Angkor was disbanded in 1975. Camping Khmer Rouge forces used whatever wood remained in the building structures for firewood, and a shoot-out between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese forces caused a few bullet holes in bas reliefs. In

35335-446: Was limited compared to the rest of Cambodia's temple ruins. Between 1986 and 1992, the Archaeological Survey of India carried out restoration work on the temple as France did not recognise the Cambodian government at the time. Criticisms have been raised about both the early French restoration attempts and the later Indian work, with concerns over the damage done to the stone surface by the use of various chemicals and cement. In 1992,

35526-407: Was lost, the distinction was maintained by the vowel ( *kaa, *ke̤a ); later the phonation disappeared as well ( [kaː], [kiə] ). These processes explain the origin of what are now called a-series and o-series consonants in the Khmer script . Although most Cambodian dialects are not tonal , the colloquial Phnom Penh dialect has developed a tonal contrast (level versus peaking tone) as a by-product of

35717-399: Was perhaps the only known Southeast Asian ruler who traveled all the way to India shortly after his abdication. He personally went on pilgrimage in the Ganges River , Northeast India . His itinerary was confirmed by both indigenous Cham sources and Chinese chronicles. George Coedès notes that during the 2nd and 3rd century, an influx of Indian traders, priests, and scholars travelled along

35908-414: Was quickly stalled, and Suryavarman died en route. Champa then plummeted into an eleven-year civil war between Jaya Harivarman and his oppositions, which resulted in Champa reunifying under Jaya Harivarman by 1161. After having restored the kingdom and its prosperity, in June 1177 Jaya Indravarman IV (r. 1167–1192) launched a surprise naval assault on Angkor , capital of Cambodia, plundering it, slaying

36099-548: Was succeeded by his son Sambhuvarman (r. 572–629). He reconstructed the temple of Bhadravarman and renamed it Shambhu-bhadreshvara. In 605, the Sui Empire launched an invasion of Lam Ap , overrunning Sambhuvarman's resistance, and sacked the Cham capital at Tra Kieu . He died in 629 and was succeeded by his son, Kandarpadharma , who died in 630–31. Kandarpadharma was succeeded by his son, Prabhasadharma , who died in 645. Several granite tablets and inscriptions from My Son , Tra Kieu , Hue , Khanh Hoa dated 653–687 report

36290-581: Was the capital of Champa. Other scholars have disputed this contention, holding that Champa was never a united country, and arguing that the presence of a particularly rich historical record for a given region in a given period is no basis for claiming that the region functioned as the capital of a united Champa during that period. Through the centuries, Cham culture and society were influenced by forces emanating from Cambodia , China, Java and India amongst others. An official successfully revolted against Chinese rule in modern central Vietnam, and Lâm Ấp ,

36481-476: Was used for the outer wall and hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested. The monument was made of five to ten million sandstone blocks with a maximum weight of 1.5 tons each. The sandstone was quarried and transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 40 km (25 mi) northeast. The route has been suggested to span 35 km (22 mi) along

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