Angkor

Author: Laxman Burdak IFS (R)

Location of Ankor on Map of Taungoo Empire (1580)

Angkor (Hindi:अंगकोर, Khmer: យសោធរបុរ) was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, which also recognized as Yasodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ ;Sanskrit: यशोधरपुर) and flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries.

Variants of name

• Angkor Wat/Angakorwat (अंगकोरवाट) (AS, p.3)
• Angkor Thom/Angakorthom (अंगकोरथोम) (AS, p.3)
• Angkorian
• Yashodharapura/ Yasodharapura/ Yaśodharapura (यशोधरपुर)
• Yashodharapura (यशोधरपुर) = Kambupuri (कम्बुपुरी) (AS, p.771)
• Kambupuri (कम्बुपुरी) (AS, p.123)

Origin of name

The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara (नगर), meaning "city".

Location

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern-day Siem Reap city (13°24′N, 103°51′E), in Siem Reap Province. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. Visitors approach two million annually, and the entire expanse, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom is collectively protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The popularity of the site among tourists presents multiple challenges to the preservation of the ruins.

History

The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayutthayan suzerainty in 1351. A Khmer rebellion against Siamese authority resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.

In 2007, an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world, with an elaborate infrastructure system connecting an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometres to the well-known temples at its core. Angkor is considered to be a "hydraulic city" because it had a complicated water management network, which was used for systematically stabilizing, storing, and dispersing water throughout the area. This network is believed to have been used for irrigation in order to offset the unpredictable monsoon season and to also support the increasing population. Although the size of its population remains a topic of research and debate, newly identified agricultural systems in the Angkor area may have supported up to[weasel words] one million people.

अंगकोरथोम

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...अंगकोरथोम (AS, p.3) प्राचीन कंबुज (कंबोडिया) का सबसे अधिक प्रसिद्ध नगर है, जहाँ बारहवीं शती ई. के बने अनेक विख्यात स्मारक हैं, जिन्हें कंबोडिया के हिंदू-नरेशों ने बनवाया था। अंगकोरथोम की अधिकांश महान् शिल्पकृतियों के निर्माण का श्रेय राजा जयवर्मन् सप्तम (राज्याभिषेक 1181 ई.) को दिया जाता है।

अंकोरवाट

Angkor Wat Temple Complex, Cambodia

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...अंकोरवाट (AS, p.3) कम्बोडिया, जिसे पुराने लेखों में कम्बुज भी कहा गया है। यहाँ भारत के प्राचीन और शानदार स्मारक हैं। यहाँ संसार-प्रसिद्ध विशाल विष्णुमंदिर है। अंकोरवाट मन्दिर अंकोरथोम नामक नगर में स्थित है, जिसे प्राचीन काल में यशोधरपुर कहा जाता था। अंकोरवाट जयवर्मा द्वितीय के शासनकाल (1181-1205 ई.) में कम्बोडिया की राजधानी था। यह अपने समय में संसार के महान् नगरों में गिना जाता था और इसका विशाल भव्य मन्दिर अंकोरवाट के नाम से आज भी विख्यात है। अंकोरवाट का निर्माण कम्बुज के राजा सूर्यवर्मा द्वितीय (1049-66 ई.) ने कराया था और यह मन्दिर विष्णु को समर्पित है।

वास्तुकला विशेषताएँ: वास्तुकला के आश्चर्य, इस देवालय के चारों ओर एक गहरी खाई है जिसकी लंबाई ढाई मील और चौड़ाई 650 फुट है। खाई पर पश्चिम की ओर एक पत्थर का पुल है। मंदिर के पश्चिमी द्वार के समीप से पहली वीथि तक बना हुआ मार्ग 1560 फुट लंबा है और भूमितल से सात फुट ऊंचा है। पहली वीथि पूर्व से पश्चिम 800 फुट और उत्तर से दक्षिण 675 फुट लंबी है। मंदिर के मध्यवर्ती शिखर की ऊंचाई भूमितल से 210 फुट से भी अधिक है। अंकोरवाट की भव्यता तो उल्लेखनीय है ही, इसके शिल्प की सूक्ष्म विदग्धता, नक्शे की सममिति, यथार्थ अनुपात तथा सुंदर अलंकृत मूर्तिकारी भी उत्कृष्ट कला की दृष्टि से कम प्रशंसनीय नहीं है।

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यह मन्दिर एक ऊँचे चबूतरे पर स्थित है। इसमें तीन खण्ड हैं, जिसमें प्रत्येक में सुन्दर मूर्तियाँ हैं और प्रत्येक खण्ड से ऊपर के खण्ड तक पहुँचने के लिए सीढ़ियाँ हैं। प्रत्येक खण्ड में आठ गुम्बज हैं, जिनमें से प्रत्येक 180 फ़ुट ऊँची है। मुख्य मन्दिर तीसरे खण्ड की चौड़ी छत पर है। उसका शिखर 213 फ़ुट ऊँचा है और यह पूरे क्षेत्र को गरिमा मंडित किये हुए है। मन्दिर के चारों ओर पत्थर की दीवार का घेरा है जो पूर्व से पश्चिम की ओर दो-तिहाई मील और उत्तर से दक्षिण की ओर आधे मील लम्बा है। इस दीवार के बाद 700 फ़ुट चौड़ी खाई है, जिस पर एक स्थान पर 36 फ़ुट चौड़ा पुल है। इस पुल से पक्की सड़क मन्दिर के पहले खण्ड द्वार तक चली गयी है। इस प्रकार की भव्य इमारत संसार के किसी अन्य स्थान पर नहीं मिलती है। भारत से सम्पर्क के बाद दक्षिण-पूर्वी एशिया में कला, वास्तुकला तथा स्थापत्यकला का जो विकास हुआ, उसका यह मन्दिर चरमोत्कृष्ट उदाहरण है।

संदर्भ: भारतकोश-अंकोरवाट

कम्बुपुरी

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...कम्बुपुरी (AS, p.123) - कंबुज (Kambuja) या कंबोडिया (Cambodia)(दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया) की एक नगरी जो 889 ई. में अभिषिक्त हिंदू राजा यशोवर्मन् (Yashovarman) की राजधानी थी. यशोवर्मन् ने इस नगरी का नाम बदलकर यह यशोधरपुर (Yashodharapura) कर दिया था. नगरी के निकट यशोधरगिरि (Yashodharagiri) - वर्तमान फनोमबाखेन (Phnom Bakheng) के शिखर पर राजप्रासाद बनवाया गया था. यह नगरी अंगकोर सभ्यता के पूरे उत्कर्ष काल में कंबोज देश की राजधानी बनी रही.

कुटी

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...2. कुटी (AS, p.200): प्राचीन कंबुज देश (कंबोडिया: दक्षिण-पूर्व एशिया) का एक नगर जहाँ 9वीं सदी के हिंदू राजा जयवर्मन् II की राजधानी कुछ समय तक रही थी. इसकी स्थिति अंगकोरथोम के पूर्व में बांटेकिडी निकट थी.

Seat of the Khmer Empire

The Angkorian period may have begun shortly after 800 AD, when the Khmer King Jayavarman II announced the independence of Kambujadesa (Cambodia) from Java and established his capital of Hariharalaya (now known as Roluos) at the northern end of Tonlé Sap. Through a program of military campaigns, alliances, marriages and land grants, he achieved a unification of the country bordered by China to the north, Champa (now Central Vietnam) to the east, the ocean to the south and a place identified by a stone inscription as "the land of cardamoms and mangoes" to the west. In 802, Jayavarman articulated his new status by declaring himself "universal monarch" (chakravartin) and, in a move that was to be imitated by his successors and that linked him to the cult of Siva, taking on the epithet of "god-king" (devaraja). Before Jayavarman, Cambodia had consisted of a number of politically independent principalities collectively known to the Chinese by the names Funan and Chenla.

In 889, Yasovarman ascended to the throne. A great king and an accomplished builder, he was celebrated by one inscription as "a lion-man; he tore the enemy with the claws of his grandeur; his teeth were his policies; his eyes were the Veda." Near the old capital of Hariharalaya, Yasovarman constructed a new city, called Yaśodharapura. In the tradition of his predecessors, he also constructed a massive reservoir called baray. The significance of such reservoirs has been debated by modern scholars, some of whom have seen in them a means of irrigating rice fields, and others of whom have regarded them as religiously charged symbols of the great mythological oceans surrounding Mount Meru, the abode of the gods. The mountain, in turn, was represented by an elevated temple, in which the "god-king" was represented by a lingam. In accordance with this cosmic symbolism, Yasovarman built his central temple on a low hill known as Phnom Bakheng, surrounding it with a moat fed from the baray. He also built numerous other Hindu temples and ashrams, or retreats for ascetics.

Over the next 300 years, between 900 and 1200, the Khmer Empire produced some of the world's most magnificent architectural masterpieces in the area known as Angkor. Most are concentrated in an area approximately 15 miles (24 km) east to west and 5 miles (8.0 km) north to south, although the Angkor Archaeological Park, which administers the area, includes sites as far away as Kbal Spean, about 30 miles (48 km) to the north. Some 72 major temples or other buildings are found within this area, and the remains of several hundred additional minor temple sites are scattered throughout the landscape beyond. Because of the low-density and dispersed nature of the medieval Khmer settlement pattern, Angkor lacks a formal boundary, and its extent is therefore difficult to determine. However, a specific area of at least 1,000 km2 (390 sq mi) beyond the major temples is defined by a complex system of infrastructure, including roads and canals that indicate a high degree of connectivity and functional integration with the urban core. In terms of spatial extent (although not in terms of population), this makes it the largest urban agglomeration in recorded history prior to the Industrial Revolution, easily surpassing the nearest claim by the Mayan city of Tikal. At its peak, the city occupied an area greater than modern Paris, and its buildings use far more stone than all of the Egyptian structures combined.

Construction of Angkor Wat

The principal temple of the Angkorian region, Angkor Wat, was built between 1113 and 1150 by King Suryavarman II. Suryavarman ascended to the throne after prevailing in a battle with a rival prince. An inscription says that, in the course of combat, Suryavarman leapt onto his rival's war elephant and killed him, just as the mythical bird-man Garuda slays a serpent.

After consolidating his political position through military campaigns, diplomacy, and a firm domestic administration, Suryavarman launched into the construction of Angkor Wat as his personal temple mausoleum. Breaking with the tradition of the Khmer kings, and influenced perhaps by the concurrent rise of Vaisnavism in India, he dedicated the temple to Vishnu rather than to Siva. With walls nearly half a mile long on each side, Angkor Wat grandly portrays the Hindu cosmology, with the central towers representing Mount Meru, home of the gods; the outer walls, the mountains enclosing the world; and the moat, the oceans beyond. The traditional theme of identifying the Khmer devaraja with the gods, and his residence with that of the celestials, is very much in evidence. The measurements themselves of the temple and its parts in relation to one another have cosmological significance. Suryavarman had the walls of the temple decorated with bas reliefs depicting not only scenes from mythology, but also from the life of his own imperial court. In one of the scenes, the king himself is portrayed as larger in size than his subjects, sitting cross-legged on an elevated throne and holding court, while a bevy of attendants make him comfortable with the aid of parasols and fans.

Following the death of Suryavarman around 1150 AD, the kingdom fell into a period of internal strife. Its neighbors to the east, the Cham of what is now southern Vietnam, took advantage of the situation in 1177 to launch a water-borne invasion up the Mekong River and across Tonlé Sap. The Cham forces were successful in sacking the Khmer capital of Yaśodharapura and in killing the reigning king. However, a Khmer prince who was to become King Jayavarman VII rallied his people and defeated the Cham in battles on the lake and on the land. In 1181, Jayavarman assumed the throne. He was to be the greatest of the Angkorian kings.

Over the ruins of Yaśodharapura, Jayavarman constructed the walled city of Angkor Thom, as well as its geographic and spiritual center, the temple known as the Bayon. Bas-reliefs at the Bayon depict not only the king's battles with the Cham, but also scenes from the life of Khmer villagers and courtiers. Jayavarman oversaw the period of Angkor's most prolific construction, which included building of the well-known temples of Ta Prohm and Preah Khan, dedicating them to his parents. This massive program of construction coincided with a transition in the state religion from Hinduism to Mahayana Buddhism, since Jayavarman himself had adopted the latter as his personal faith. During Jayavarman's reign, Hindu temples were altered to display images of the Buddha, and Angkor Wat briefly became a Buddhist shrine. Following his death, the revival of Hinduism as the state religion included a large-scale campaign of desecrating Buddhist images, and continued until Theravada Buddhism became established as the land's dominant religion from the 14th century.

Zhou Daguan: The year 1296 marked the arrival at Angkor of the Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan representing the Yuan dynasty. Zhou's one-year sojourn in the Khmer capital during the reign of King Indravarman III is historically significant, because he penned a still-surviving account, The Customs of Cambodia, of approximately forty pages detailing his observations of Khmer society. Some of the topics he addressed in the account were those of religion, justice, kingship, agriculture, slavery, birds, vegetables, bathing, clothing, tools, draft animals, and commerce. In one passage, he described a royal procession consisting of soldiers, numerous servant women and concubines, ministers and princes, and finally, "the sovereign, standing on an elephant, holding his sacred sword in his hand." Together with the inscriptions that have been found on Angkorian stelae, temples and other monuments, and with the bas-reliefs at the Bayon and Angkor Wat, Zhou's journal is the most important source of information about everyday life at Angkor. Filled with vivid anecdotes and sometimes incredulous observations of a civilization that struck Zhou as colorful and exotic, it is an entertaining travel memoir as well.

End of the Angkorian period

The end of the Angkorian period is generally set as 1431, the year Angkor was sacked and looted by Ayutthaya invaders, though the civilization already had been in decline in the 13th and 14th centuries.. During the course of the 15th century, nearly all of Angkor was abandoned, except for Angkor Wat, which remained a Buddhist shrine. Several theories have been advanced to account for the decline and abandonment of Angkor:

It is widely believed that the abandonment of the Khmer capital occurred as a result of Ayutthaya invasions. Ongoing wars with the Siamese were already sapping the strength of Angkor at the time of Zhou Daguan toward the end of the 13th century. In his memoirs, Zhou reported that the country had been completely devastated by such a war, in which the entire population had been obligated to participate. After the collapse of Angkor in 1431, many statues were taken to the Ayutthaya capital of Ayutthaya in the west, while others departed for the new center of Khmer society at Longvek further south, though the official capital later moved, first to Oudong around 45 kilometres from Phnom Penh in Ponhea Leu District, and then to the present site of Phnom Penh.

Erosion of the state religion: Some scholars have connected the decline of Angkor with the conversion of the Khmer Empire to Theravada Buddhism following the reign of Jayavarman VII, arguing that this religious transition eroded the Hindu conception of kingship that undergirded the Angkorian civilization. According to Angkor scholar George Coedès, Theravada Buddhism's denial of the ultimate reality of the individual served to sap the vitality of the royal personality cult which had provided the inspiration for the grand monuments of Angkor. The vast expanse of temples required an equally large body of workers to maintain them; at Ta Prohm, a stone carving states that 12,640 people serviced that single temple complex. Not only could the spread of Buddhism have eroded this workforce, but it could have also affected the estimated 300,000 agricultural workers required to feed them all.

Neglect of public works: According to George Coedès, the weakening of Angkor's royal government by ongoing war and the erosion of the cult of the devaraja undermined the government's ability to engage in important public works, such as the construction and maintenance of the waterways essential for irrigation of the rice fields upon which Angkor's large population depended for its sustenance. As a result, Angkorian civilization suffered from a reduced economic base, and the population was forced to scatter.

Natural disaster

Other scholars attempting to account for the rapid decline and abandonment of Angkor have hypothesized natural disasters such as disease (Bubonic Plague), earthquakes, inundations, or drastic climate changes as the relevant agents of destruction. A study of tree rings in Vietnam, produced a record of early monsoons that passed through this area. From this study, we can tell that during the 14th–15th centuries monsoons were weakened and eventually followed by extreme flooding. Their inability to adapt their flooding infrastructure may have led to its eventual decline. Recent research by Australian archaeologists suggests that the decline may have been due to a shortage of water caused by the transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age. LDEO dendrochronological research has established tree-ring chronologies indicating severe periods of drought across mainland Southeast Asia in the early 15th century, raising the possibility that Angkor's canals and reservoirs ran dry and ended expansion of available farmland.

Religious history

Historical Angkor was more than a site for religious art and architecture. It was the site of vast cities that served all the needs of the Khmer people. Aside from a few old bridges, however, all of the remaining monuments are religious edifices. In Angkorian times, all non-religious buildings, including the residence of the king himself, were constructed of perishable materials, such as wood, "because only the gods had a right to residences made of stone." Similarly, the vast majority of the surviving stone inscriptions are about the religious foundations of kings and other potentates. As a result, it is easier to write the history of Angkorian state religion than it is to write that of just about any other aspect of Angkorian society.

Several religious movements contributed to the historical development of religion at Angkor:

Indigenous religious cults mixed with Shaivism, including those centered on worship of the ancestors and of the lingam;

A royal cult of personality, identifying the king with the deity, characteristic not only of Angkor, but of other Hindu civilizations in southeast Asia, such as Champa and Java;

Hinduism, especially Shaivism, the form of Hinduism focused on the worship of Shiva and the lingam as the symbol of Shiva, but also Vaishnavism, the form of Hinduism focussed on the worship of Vishnu;

Buddhism, in both its Mahayana and Theravada varieties.

Pre-Angkorian religion: Dedicated by Rajendravarman in 948 A.D., Baksei Chamkrong is a temple-pyramid that housed a statue of Shiva

The religion of pre-Angkorian Cambodia, known to the Chinese as Funan (1st century AD to ca. 550) and Chenla (ca. 550 – ca. 800 AD), included elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and indigenous ancestor cults.

Temples from the period of Chenla bear stone inscriptions, in both Sanskrit and Khmer, naming both Hindu and local ancestral deities, with Shiva supreme among the former. The cult of Harihara was prominent; Buddhism was not, because, as reported by the Chinese pilgrim Yi Jing, a "wicked king" had destroyed it. Characteristic of the religion of Chenla also was the cult of the lingam, or stone phallus that patronized and guaranteed fertility to the community in which it was located.

Shiva and the lingam: The Khmer king Jayavarman II, whose assumption of power around 800 AD marks the beginning of the Angkorian period, established his capital at a place called Hariharalaya (today known as Roluos), at the northern end of the great lake, Tonlé Sap. Harihara is the name of a deity that combines the essence of Vishnu (Hari) with that of Shiva (Hara) and that was much favored by the Khmer kings. Jayavarman II's adoption of the epithet "devaraja" (god-king) signified the monarch's special connection with Shiva.

The beginning of the Angkorian period was also marked by changes in religious architecture. During the reign of Jayavarman II, the single-chambered sanctuaries typical of Chenla gave way to temples constructed as a series of raised platforms bearing multiple towers. Increasingly impressive temple pyramids came to represent Mount Meru, the home of the Hindu gods, with the moats surrounding the temples representing the mythological oceans.

Typically, a lingam served as the central religious image of the Angkorian temple-mountain. The temple-mountain was the center of the city, and the lingam in the main sanctuary was the focus of the temple. The name of the central lingam was the name of the king himself, combined with the suffix -esvara, which designated Shiva. Through the worship of the lingam, the king was identified with Shiva, and Shaivism became the state religion. Thus, an inscription dated 881 AD indicates that king Indravarman I erected a lingam named Indresvara. Another inscription tells us that Indravarman erected eight lingams in his courts and that they were named for the "eight elements of Shiva". Similarly, Rajendravarman, whose reign began in 944 AD, constructed the temple of Pre Rup, the central tower of which housed the royal lingam called Rajendrabhadresvara.

Vaishnavism: In the early days of Angkor, the worship of Vishnu was secondary to that of Shiva. The relationship seems to have changed with the construction of Angkor Wat by King Suryavarman II as his personal mausoleum at the beginning of the 12th century. The central religious image of Angkor Wat was an image of Vishnu, and an inscription identifies Suryavarman as "Paramavishnuloka," or "he who enters the heavenly world of Vishnu." Religious syncretism, however, remained thoroughgoing in Khmer society: the state religion of Shaivism was not necessarily abrogated by Suryavarman's turn to Vishnu, and the temple may well have housed a royal lingam. Furthermore, the turn to Vaishnavism did not abrogate the royal personality cult of Angkor. by which the reigning king was identified with the deity. According to Angkor scholar Georges Coedès, "Angkor Wat is, if you like, a vaishnavite sanctuary, but the Vishnu venerated there was not the ancient Hindu deity nor even one of the deity's traditional incarnations, but the king Suryavarman II posthumously identified with Vishnu, consubstantial with him, residing in a mausoleum decorated with the graceful figures of apsaras just like Vishnu in his celestial palace." Suryavarman proclaimed his identity with Vishnu, just as his predecessors had claimed consubstantiation with Shiva.

Mahayana Buddhism: In the last quarter of the 12th century, King Jayavarman VII departed radically from the tradition of his predecessors when he adopted Mahayana Buddhism as his personal faith. Jayavarman also made Buddhism the state religion of his kingdom when he constructed the Buddhist temple known as the Bayon at the heart of his new capital city of Angkor Thom. In the famous face towers of the Bayon, the king represented himself as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara moved by compassion for his subjects. Thus, Jayavarman was able to perpetuate the royal personality cult of Angkor, while identifying the divine component of the cult with the bodhisattva rather than with Shiva.

Hindu restoration: The Hindu restoration began around 1243 AD, with the death of Jayavarman VII's successor, Indravarman II. The next king, Jayavarman VIII, was a Shaivite iconoclast who specialized in destroying Buddhist images and in reestablishing the Hindu shrines that his illustrious predecessor had converted to Buddhism. During the restoration, the Bayon was made a temple to Shiva, and its central 3.6 meter tall statue of the Buddha was cast to the bottom of a nearby well. Everywhere, cultist statues of the Buddha were replaced by lingams.

Religious pluralism: When Chinese traveller Zhou Daguan came to Angkor in AD 1296, he found what he took to be three separate religious groups. The dominant religion was that of Theravada Buddhism. Zhou observed that the monks had shaven heads and wore yellow robes. The Buddhist temples impressed Zhou with their simplicity. He noted that the images of Buddha were made of gilded plaster. The other two groups identified by Zhou appear to have been those of the Brahmans and of the Shaivites. About the Brahmans, Zhou had little to say, except that they were often employed as high officials. Of the Shaivites, whom he called "Taoists", Zhou wrote, "the only image which they revere is a block of stone analogous to the stone found in shrines of the god of the soil in China."

Theravada Buddhism: During the course of the 13th century, Theravada Buddhism transmitted through the Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati and Haripunchai made its appearance at Angkor. Gradually, it became the dominant religion of Cambodia, displacing both Mahayana Buddhism and Shaivism. The practice of Theravada Buddhism at Angkor continues until this day.

Archaeological sites

The area of Angkor has many significant archaeological sites, including the following:

• Angkor Thom,
• Angkor Wat,
• Baksei Chamkrong,
• Banteay Kdei,
• Banteay Samré,
• Banteay Srei,
• Baphuon,
• Bayon,
• Chau Say Tevoda,
• East Baray,
• East Mebon,
• Kbal Spean,
• Khleangs,
• Krol Ko,
• Lolei,
• Neak Pean,
• Phimeanakas,
• Phnom Bakheng,
• Phnom Krom,
• Phum Snay,
• Prasat Ak Yum,
• Prasat Kravan,
• Preah Khan,
• Preah Ko,
• Preah Palilay,
• Preah Pithu,
• Pre Rup,
• Spean Thma,
• Srah Srang,
• Ta Nei,
• Ta Prohm,
• Ta Som,
• Ta Keo,
• Terrace of the Elephants,
• Terrace of the Leper King,
• Thommanon,
• West Baray,
• West Mebon.
• Mahendraparvata (discovered in 2013).

Terms and phrases

• Angkor (អង្គរ) is a Khmer word meaning "city". It is a corrupted form of nokor which derives from the Sanskrit nagara. Sanskrit word: अंगकोर

• Angkor Wat (AS, p.3) (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត) means "temple city". Sanskrit word: अंगकोरवाट

• Angkor Thom (अंगकोरथाम) (AS, p.3) (Khmer: អង្គរធំ; literally: "Great City"), (alternative name: Nokor Thom, Khmer: នគរធំ) located in present-day Cambodia, was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire.

• Banteay (បន្ទាយ) is a Khmer term meaning "citadel" or "fortress" that is also applied to walled temples.

• Baray (បារាយណ៍) literally means "open space" or "wide plain" but in Khmer architecture refers to an artificial reservoir.

• Esvara, or Isvara, (ឦស្វរៈ ~ ឥស្សរៈ) is a suffix referring to the god Shiva, especially its omnipotence, freedom and independence.

• Gopura is a Sanskrit term (गोपुर) meaning "entrance pavilion" or "gateway".

• Hariharalaya (Khmer: ហរិហរាល័យ, हरिहरालय) was an ancient city and capital of the Khmer empire located near Siem Reap, Cambodia in an area now called Roluos (Khmer: រលួស). Today, all that remains of the city are the ruins of several royal temples: Preah Ko, the Bakong, Lolei. The name "Hariharalaya" is derived from the name of Harihara, a Hindu deity prominent in pre-Angkorian Cambodia. The name "Harihara" in turn is a composite of "Hari" (Vishnu and "Hara" (Shiva). Hariharalaya हरिहरालय, प्राचीन kambodia कम्बोडिया का एक नगर, (AS, p.1011)

• Indrapura (इंद्रपुर) According to inscription on the stele of Sdok Kok Thom, Indrapura was the first capital of Jayavarman II reign about 781, before the foundation of Khmer Empire in 802. George Coedes and Claude Jacques identified it with Banteay Prei Nokor, near Kompong Cham, Cambodia, while Michael Vickery assumes it was closer to Kompong Thom.

• Ishanapura (ईशानपुर) (AS, p.84) Isanapura (also known as Sambhupura/Shambhupura (शंभुपुर) (AS, p.886), or Sambor/Sambhora (संभोर)(AS, p.929) of St'ung Sen) was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Chenla. It is located in what is now Kampong Thom Province in Cambodia. The city was founded in about 618 at Leek Sambor Kuk by King Isanavarman I. Today, the site of old Isanapura contains the ruins of 150 temples and buildings, which are a few centuries older than that of the Khmer empire around Angkor Wat. During the Vietnam War, some of these temples were completely destroyed by US bombers. Further damage was done by vandals, dealers in old relics, and the Khmer Rouge. Many temples have been overgrown by the jungle.

• Jaya (ជយ ~ ជ័យ) is a prefix derived from Sanskrit meaning "victory".

• Oudong (Khmer: ឧដុង្គ) (also romanized as Udong or Odong) is a town in Cambodia. The city's name is derived from the Sanskrit word "uttuṅga" (Sanskrit: उत्तुङ्ग), meaning tall, which probably refers to the mountain.

• Phnom (ភ្នំ) is a Khmer word meaning "mountain".

• Prasat (ប្រាសាទ) is a Khmer term derived from Sanskrit prāsāda and usually meaning "monument" or "palace" and, by extension, "ancient temple".

• Preah (ព្រះ) is a Khmer term meaning "God", "King" or "exalted". It can also be a prefix meaning "sacred" or "holy". Derived from Sanskrit vara. (Preah Khan means "sacred sword".)

• Preah Khan Kompong Svay (Khmer: ព្រះខ័ននៅកំពង់ស្វាយ) is located 100 km east of Angkor, in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia. French scholars argued it had been founded in the 11th century, probably by Suryavarman I. It was a royal residence during the kingdom of Suryavarman II and even Jayavarman VII lived here, before recapturing the capital city of Yasodharapura from invading Chams in 1181, and improved the complex.

• Preah Vihear Temple (Khmer: ប្រាសាទព្រះវិហារ Prasat Preah Vihear) is an ancient Hindu temple built during the period of the Khmer Empire, that is situated atop a 525-metre cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, in the Preah Vihear province, Cambodia. Prasat Preah Vihear is the compound of words Prasat, Preah and Vihear, which mean the "religious offering of sacred shrine". In Sanskrit, Prasat (प्रासाद) (ប្រាសាទ) means "religious offering" which could even be taken as synonym of "temple" in this context, Preah (ព្រះ) mean "sacred" or "beloved", and "Vihear" (វិហារ) from the Sanskrit word Vihara (विहार) means "abode" or "shrine" (the central structure of the temple).

• Phnom: In Khmer, "phnom" (ភ្នំ) means mountain, and Cambodians occasionally refer to it as "Phnom Preah Vihear" (ភ្នំព្រះវិហារ).

• Prasat Ta Krabey is a Khmer temple which was built during Angkor period, the golden age of Cambodian history. This 11th century religious site was constructed in order to dedicated to Shiva. Prasat Ta Krabey literally means Grandfather Buffalo temple. Prasat (Khmer: ប្រាសាទ) is a Khmer word, derived from Sanskrit word (prāsāda: प्रासाद), means temple. Ta (Khmer: តា) means grandfather and the word Krabey (Khmer: ក្របី) means buffalo.

• Srei (ស្រី) is a Khmer term with two possible meanings. Derived from Sanskrit strī (ស្រ្តី) it means "woman", derived from Sanskrit sirī (សិរី) it means "beauty", "splendor" or "glory".

• Ta (តា) is a Khmer word meaning "grandfather," or under some circumstances "ancestor." (Ta Prohm means "Ancestor Brahma". Neak ta means "ancestors" or "ancestral spirits".)

• Thom (ធំ) is a Khmer word meaning "large". (Angkor Thom means "large city".)

• Varman (វរ្ម័ន) is a suffix, from Sanskrit varman, meaning "shield" or "protector". (Suryavarman means "protected by Surya, the sun-god".)

• Wat (វត្ត) is a Khmer word, derived from the Pali वत्त, vatta, meaning (Buddhist) "temple". (Angkor Wat means "temple city".)

• Yasodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ; Sanskrit: यशोधरपुर), also known as Angkor (Khmer: អង្គរ), is a city that was the second capital of the Khmer Empire, established by King Yasovarman I in the late 9th century and centred on the temple of Phnom Bakheng. Yasodharapura was referred to in the inscriptions as Phnom Kandal (Central Mountain). Phnom Bakheng was constructed just before the foundation of Yasodharapura due to Yasovarman's belief that the mountain was among the holiest of places to worship the Hindu deities. Yashodharapura was linked to an earlier capital, Hariharalaya, by a causeway. The urban complex included the Yashodharatataka.