Jayavarman vii biography channels
The Story of Jayavarman VII as told by his temples
JVII (Aka Jayavarman VII) with apologies to The Angkorian Empire
It gets confusing, 26 kings all ending in – varman, building thousands of temples and ruling for 500 years. So today’s story is going to concentrate on just one JVII with references to his uncle SII, who was by all accounts also a very great king. And to set the scene we need to mention JII, who started it all on a mountain (so he could throw stones on the Cham who continued to be revolting throughout the Angkorian era).
Thevi I
JVII was born early 12 century into an empire at the peak of its powers. The nephew of SII, who ruled over the Angkorian Empire when it covered most of South East Asia including Champa – home of the revolting Chams – ‘boo’ (now Central Vietnam). As a teenager JVII was sent to Champa to learn it’s ways including military techniques, which as you’ll see comes in useful later in the story. It’s said that a Khmer allied Cham royal family adopted him. His first wife who we’ll call Thevi I, and figures early in the story traveled with him to Champa.
Meanwhile back in Angkor SII, while at the height of his reign was murdered by one of his commanders, who declared himself King. Word reached JVII in Cham that his uncle had been assassinated so he set off with Thevi I to exact revenge on the Usurper but he was too late.
The revolting Cham sensing a weakening of The Empire launched a fleet of boats, sailed up the Mekong and into The Tonle Sap Great Lake to invade, sack and kill the Usurper. JVII realized he wasn’t ready to attack the Cham so he headed into the forest to assemble an army.
Oh and in the mean time got the temple bug and built his first, Preah Khan in Kampong Svay, not to be confused with its namesake in Angkor (more on that later).
Preah Khan – Kampong Svei
Time was ticking and JVII getting on so at the age of 53, which was as long as a lot of Khmers lived for at the time. He marched at th Any time you feel like you’re too old to try something new, just remember that 11th-century Khmer Emperor Jayavarman the Seventh was a larger-than-life Cambodian badass who appeared out of absolutely nowhere at the age of 57, when he came riding out of the jungle on the back of a goddamn war elephant, forged his oppressed people into a massive army of sword-wielding maniacs who liberated his homeland with fire and steel, retook the capital of the Khmer Empire from a brutal invader, avenged his family line against his Empire’s most ancient and hated enemies, then fed his captives to crocodiles or paraded their severed heads around as trophies, then marched to their homeland, captured their King, and forced the complete subjugation of their civilization. Then, when he was done manhandling his ancient enemies, he went home, built a million temples, laid the foundation for the entire history of Traditional Cambodian Medicine, constructed a vast highway system spanning all of Southeast Asia, converted his Kingdom to Buddhism, taught the women of his kingdom to read, carved his own giant face on a couple hundred mountainsides, constructed some of the most iconic structures of the Ancient World, may or may not have had sex with a Goddess (depending on what sources you want to believe), and then died of some kind of crazy disease at the age of 95 (?!) and vanished into history for 700 years, completely forgotten by all of civilization until some archaeologists dug up his works in the early 20th century. Civ Six maxes this dude look like a total goofball, but take a look at this artwork from the Cambodian National History Musuem and tell me you don’t think this guy could fuck some shit up: As with many great Badasses of History, very little is known about Jayavarman VII as a young man. He just kind of materializes out of the forest as a grown-ass man in full battle armor on a mission of vengeance, like some kind of Avenging Spirit of Badass Alexandra Haendel 2004 The thesis is a detailed analysis of the two main temples of King Rajendravarman, consecrated in the mid-tenth century, focusing on their architecture and epigraphy. The background to this study is Philippe Stern's classification of Angkorean temples into ancestor and state temples, which is examined critically. Chapter 2 provides the general background, introducing the Indian religions, both theoretically and as practised in Cambodia. Brahmanical Temple Architecture is briefly presented, followed by a detailed description of the East Mebon and Pre Rup. The methodological background is given in chapter 3. The development of Cambodian studies is examined, most importantly the theories of Ph. Stern. Subsequently, the methodologies utilised for this study are introduced. Chapter 4 analyses in depth the architectural features of the individual buildings within the temple complexes, which has not been done up to now, and formulates an internal building sequence. This is completed in chapter 7 by the application of general architectural theory and the regulations given in the Indian 6astras\.o suggest the function of the individual buildings. In chapter 5 the foundation inscriptions of the two temples are analysed. First a general introduction to the Sanskrit epigraphy of Kambujadesa is given, presenting the most important religious concepts expressed in the inscriptions. The main part of the chapter deals with the three main inscriptions of King Rajendravarman. The analysis of the texts comprises the study of the religious ideas expressed, and of the information regarding the temples themselves contained in the texts. This analysis is refined in chapter 6 to examine whether the images mentioned in the inscriptions were founded, and where they were placed. Overall it is argued that the East Mebon and Pre Rup .The images of Jayavarman VII and his queens
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