page_title: Khmer Empire
section_title: Jayavarman II – the founder of Angkor
hierarchical_section_title: Khmer Empire / History / Formation and growth / Jayavarman II – the founder of Angkor
caption_attribution_description: English: Khmer army going to war against the Cham; relief at the Bayon-temple in Angkor, Cambodia (S section, E gallery, late 12th to beginning 13th century) Deutsch: Relief, Kriegszug der Khmer (Bayon) ភាសាខ្មែរ: ចម្លាក់នៅប្រាសាទបាយ័ន តំបន់អង្គរ ខេត្តសៀមរាប បង្ហាញពីចំបាំងរវាងកងទ័ពខ្មែរ និង កងទ័ពចាម។
context_page_description: The Khmer Empire, also known as the Angkor Empire, the predecessor state to modern Cambodia, was a Hindu-Buddhist empire in Southeast Asia. The empire, which grew out of the former kingdoms of Funan and Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalised most of mainland Southeast Asia and parts of Southern China, stretching from the tip of the Indochinese Peninsula northward to modern Yunnan province, China, and from Vietnam westward to Myanmar.
  Its greatest legacy is Angkor, in present-day Cambodia, which was the site of the capital city during the empire's zenith. The majestic monuments of Angkor, such as Angkor Wat and Bayon, bear testimony to the Khmer Empire's immense power and wealth, impressive art and culture, architectural technique, aesthetics achievements, and the variety of belief systems that it patronised over time. Satellite imaging has revealed that Angkor, during its peak in the 11th to 13th centuries, was the largest pre-industrial urban centre in the world.
  The beginning of the era of the Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 when King Jayavarman II declared himself chakravartin on Phnom Kulen. The empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century.
context_section_description: According to Sdok Kok Thom inscription, circa 781 Indrapura was the first capital of Jayavarman II, located in Banteay Prei Nokor, near today's Kompong Cham. After he eventually returned to his home, the former kingdom of Chenla, he quickly built up his influence, conquered a series of competing kings, and in 790 became king of a kingdom called "Kambuja" by the Khmer. He then moved his court northwest to Mahendraparvata, far inland north from the great lake of Tonle Sap.
  Jayavarman II (802–835) is widely regarded as a king who set the foundations of the Angkor period in Cambodian history, beginning with a grandiose consecration ritual that he conducted in 802 on the sacred Mount Mahendraparvata, now known as Phnom Kulen, to celebrate the independence of Kambuja from Javanese dominion. At that ceremony Prince Jayavarman II was proclaimed a universal monarch (Cambodian: Kamraten jagad ta Raja) or God King (Sanskrit: Deva Raja). He declared himself Chakravartin in a ritual taken from the Hindu tradition, thereby not only becoming the divinely appointed and therefore uncontested ruler, but also simultaneously declaring the independence of his kingdom from Java. According to some sources, Jayavarman II had resided for some time in Java during the reign of Sailendras, or "The Lords of Mountains", hence the concept of Deva Raja or God King was ostensibly imported from Java. At that time, Sailendras allegedly ruled over Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and parts of Cambodia, around the Mekong delta.
  The first pieces of information on Jayavarman II came from the K.235 stone inscription on a stele in Sdok Kok Thom temple, Isan region, dating to 1053. It recounts two and a half centuries of service that members of the temple's founding family provided for the Khmer court, mainly as chief chaplains of the Shaivite Hindu religion.
  According to an older established interpretation, Jayavarman II was a prince who lived at the court of Sailendra in Java and brought back to his home the art and culture of the Javanese Sailendran court to Cambodia. This classical theory was revisited by modern scholars such as Claude Jacques and Michael Vickery, who noted that Khmer used the term chvea to describe the Chams, their close neighbours. Moreover, Jayavarman's political career began at Vyadhapura (probably Banteay Prei Nokor) in eastern Cambodia, which makes the scenario of longtime contacts with the Chams (even through skirmishes, as the inscription suggests) more probable than the scenario of a long stay in distant Java. Finally, many early temples on Phnom Kulen show both Cham (e.g. Prasat Damrei Krap) and Javanese influences (e.g. the primitive "temple-mountain" of Aram Rong Cen and Prasat Thmar Dap), even if their asymmetric distribution seems typically Khmer.
  In the following years, he extended his territory and, later in his reign, moved from Mahendraparvata and established his new capital of Hariharalaya near the modern Cambodian town of Rolous. He thereby laid the foundation of Angkor, which was to arise some 15 km to the northwest. Jayavarman II died in the year 835 and he was succeeded by his son Jayavarman III. Jayavarman III died in 877 and was succeeded by Indravarman I.
  The successors of Jayavarman II continually extended the territory of Kambuja. Indravarman I (reigned 877–889) managed to expand the kingdom without wars and initiated extensive building projects, which were enabled by the wealth gained through trade and agriculture. Foremost were the temple of Preah Ko and irrigation works. Indravarman I developed Hariharalaya further by constructing Bakong circa 881. Bakong in particular bears striking similarity to the Borobudur temple in Java, which strongly suggests that it served as the prototype for Bakong. There must have been exchanges of travelers, if not missions, between the Khmer kingdom and the Sailendras in Java, transmitting to Cambodia not only ideas, but also technical and architectural details.
caption: Archers mounted on elephants
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