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In a Khmer Buddhist monk's vision, the Khmer have inhabited the land of Kampuchea Krom since it first emerged from the ocean thousands of years ago as a fragrant and glowing land that attracted the teovada, celestial beings who ate the sweet earth and were subsequently unable to fly back to their world, thus staying on earth as the first humans. [1]
The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to Indian civilization. [1] [2] Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries.
The Khmer Empire was a Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia, centered around hydraulic cities in what is now northern Cambodia. Known as Kambuja ( Old Khmer : កម្វុជ ; Khmer : កម្ពុជ ) by its inhabitants, it grew out of the former civilization of Chenla and lasted from 802 to 1431.
The name Mahendraparvata means "Mountain of the Great Indra". It is derived from the Sanskrit words महेन्द्र (Great Indra, a title of the Hindu god Indra) and पर्वत (mountain) and is a reference to the sacred hill top site commonly known as "Phnom Kulen" today where Jayavarman II was consecrated as the first king of the Khmer Empire in 802.
In the 12th century, the Chams fought a series of wars with the Khmer Empire to the west. In 1177, the Chams and their allies launched an attack from the lake Tonlé Sap and managed to sack the Khmer capital of Angkor. In 1181, however, they were defeated by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII.
In 1951, historian Lawrence Palmer Briggs published The Ancient Khmer Empire, which was the first book to be assembled, compiled, and available in the English language about the Angkor Empire. She tried to identify Baksei Chamkrong with Suryavarman 's son, who presumably ruled from 1028 A.D. to 1070 A.D. and married Preah Neang Poeu Pisei. [ 4 ]
While Jayavarman II was credited for the founding of the Khmer Empire ca. 800 AD, Indravarman I was credited for an extensive building program. He set the foundations for the future Angkorian kings to follow. The king's first act was to perform a public service for his subjects by building an irrigation network for the rice fields.
According to Vietnamese history books, Khmer planned to invade Dai Viet one more time in 1150. But while Khmer troops gathered in Nghe An (in southern Dai Viet), they faced widespread diseases and pandemics, and so retreated just before the invasion. [13]