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00:00The following program contains images of violence that some viewers may find distressing.
00:05The year is 1177 AD.
00:09The powerful Khmer Empire has dominated the Southeast Asian mainland for centuries.
00:16A great and sophisticated civilization, they built the largest temple on Earth, the resplendent Angkor Wat.
00:25And their capital is the largest city in the world.
00:31But now, the empire is faltering, and the Khmer suffer a great humiliation at the hands of an invading enemy.
00:41Their only hope lies with an exiled prince.
00:46The future of a great empire rests with one man.
00:50Their own!
01:06Centered in the vast northern plateau of what is now Cambodia, a great kingdom thrived for centuries.
01:14The Khmer were the builders of Angkor Wat, a masterpiece that's still the largest sacred
01:20structure ever built.
01:23Their culture was rich and complex, blending their adopted religion of Hinduism with older
01:29indigenous traditions and beliefs.
01:36Their art and monumental architecture was so impressive and advanced that some local
01:41people still believe they must have been built by gods.
01:50But it was a people of the Khmer Empire who built the great city of Angkor and over six
01:55centuries filled it with nearly 1200 splendid temples carved from stone.
02:04Eventually this great civilization collapsed and its capital city and grand temples were
02:10largely abandoned.
02:13Whatever invasions encroached here, the jungle's assault was the final one, swallowing much
02:18of the empire's former glory.
02:25It's often said that nature is the final conqueror of all things.
02:30Centuries ago, this jungle conquered and concealed a monumental human achievement, the ancient
02:36city of Angkor.
02:37Angkor.
02:38Hi, I'm Yul Kwan.
02:40Cambodians had long whispered of a fabulous lost city in the jungle.
02:44And in 1860, the French botanist Henri Mouot discovered that it was real.
02:49And only now, 150 years later, are we starting to fully appreciate its secrets.
02:54Thanks to decades of painstaking research and restoration, we can travel back in time, recreate
03:02the splendor of ancient Angkor, and begin to understand how its creators lived.
03:18Angkor's lichen-covered temples still hide undiscovered treasures.
03:24This structure has been referred to as a Chamber of Jewels, where some claim glittering gems
03:30once adorned its walls.
03:33In the first half of the 12th century, the Khmer constructed Angkor Wat, the most massive
03:39temple on earth.
03:42The empire at that time dominated Southeast Asia, and was ruled by a powerful and charismatic
03:48king, Suryavarman II.
03:52But after his death, the Khmer empire faltered.
03:56Internal struggles and attacks by bordering empires weakened the Khmer territory.
04:03Then, in 1177, the Champa Kingdom attacked Angkor.
04:14The Champ people ruled what is now Central and South Vietnam.
04:20Their surprise raid on the sacred city was a devastating event.
04:26A Khmer inscription tells a story.
04:31Full of proud confidence, the Sham king invaded our country, a paradise on earth.
04:40The invading king ravaged the city of Angkor and advanced on the Khmer royal palace itself.
04:52A stone sculpture records that, with a powerful fleet, he pillaged it and put the king to death, without
04:59listening to any reason or proposal of peace.
05:05The Khmer king lay dead.
05:12With their king murdered, and their city occupied, the Khmer were deeply humiliated.
05:19To one man, the insults were unbearable.
05:32In Cambodian culture, Jayavarman VII is both a hero and a mystery, with many details of
05:38his life remaining unknown.
05:40He was indeed a royal prince, though he probably didn't have a legitimate claim to the throne.
05:45He is believed to have been out of favor with the Angkor rulers, living with his wife in
05:50voluntary exile to avoid being killed.
05:53When the Cham army attacked, he wasn't in the city of Angkor, and may in fact have been
05:58visiting the Champa empire itself.
06:01Inscriptions carved during his reign describe him as a brave warrior, deeply pained by the
06:07subjugation of his native people.
06:08One account describes the brutal treatment of the Khmer at the hands of the Cham army.
06:17During the Eighth Moon, the king of Champa exacted from the Khmer's thousands of human gallbladders.
06:29They would confront people, throw a hood over their heads, then they would stab them in the
06:34side with a dagger, and remove the gallbladder.
06:44This barbaric practice came from an ancient belief that the gallbladder contains a person's
06:49courage, and that by consuming the gall of one's enemies, a warrior would grow more brave
06:55and powerful.
06:57When Jaya Varman VII heard of the brutal treatment of his people, he returned home to see for himself.
07:08Violence and chaos reigned in the occupied Khmer empire.
07:14Jaya Varman VII was already more than 40 years old when he learned the Khmer king had been
07:19killed.
07:24When he saw what was happening, he felt called to defend his homeland.
07:34The Khmer needed a hero and a galvanizing leader.
07:40But defeating the Sham would be no easy taps.
07:54Jaya Varman VII was born in Kampang Swai, more than 60 miles to the east of Angkor.
08:02Thanks to rich deposits of iron ore, the region was a major producer of weaponry.
08:09Jaya Varman VII made this his home base as he worked to consolidate his power.
08:16He was able to raise a sizeable army and began training, preparing his forces for war with
08:23the Sham.
08:31The Sham had invaded by water, bringing their fleet to the Mekong River, reaching Angkor
08:37from the giant lake Tonle Sap.
08:41Jaya Varman VII's forces pushed the invaders back to the lake and eventually farther south.
08:49Then in 1178, the Khmer hero and the Sham king clashed in a fierce battle.
08:57The Battle of Tonle Sap is perhaps the most famous in the history of ancient Cambodia.
09:07Khmer ships were almost 90 feet long and carried some 45 men.
09:11The Sham vessels were closely matched.
09:20The warriors fought with bows, arrows and spears.
09:24The battle was long and bloody and the forces fought hand to hand.
09:38Both Jaya Varman VII and the Sham king fought alongside their men.
09:45An inscription reveals the outcome.
09:50Jaya Varman VII slaughtered the Sham king and protected this land.
10:11In the Angkor Temple of Bayon, built later by Jaya Varman VII, there's a vivid depiction
10:17of the day's fighting.
10:21The relief shows Sham soldiers shot by arrows, floating in the water and torn to pieces by
10:29crocodiles.
10:36That old saying, history is written by the victors, was certainly true in the late 12th century.
10:41Almost everything we know about Jaya Varman VII comes from inscriptions written during his reign.
10:47The passages are likely propaganda, but they do tell us a lot about life at that time.
10:53For example, we know that Jaya Varman VII was a powerful king who broke with tradition in
10:58many ways.
10:59He became a devout Buddhist and was a compassionate ruler who put the needs and comfort of his
11:05people first.
11:08In 1181 AD, three years after the defeat of the Sham, Jaya Varman VII was crowned king.
11:16He was likely accompanied by his queen, said to be as wise as greatest learned men.
11:28When Jaya Varman VII took the crown, his subjects swore an oath of loyalty to him.
11:42So began the reign of Jaya Varman VII, considered one of the greatest rulers in the history of
11:49the Khmer Empire.
11:53But when Jaya Varman VII ascended the throne, his people were in despair and his kingdom lay
11:59in ruins.
12:02The new king quickly undertook a series of massive projects to restore and rebuild the capital
12:07city.
12:10First, he built a substantial defensive wall around the heart of the city, replacing a wooden
12:16parapet.
12:17Then, he restored the moat surrounding the city and made it deeper.
12:24The enormous moat measured 400 feet across and was connected to the complex system of Angkor's
12:30waterways.
12:32By restoring the moat and installing the massive 30-foot-high wall, he made a city into an impregnable
12:38fortress which no invader could breach.
12:43This new wall defined Angkor Thom, Jaya Varman's royal city built within the ancient Angkor region.
12:54Angkor Thom means great city.
12:56And even now, its parameters are distinctly outlined in the Cambodian jungle.
13:06The walls enclosed the city four miles square, enormous by 12th century standards, and roughly
13:12four times the size of Paris at that time.
13:17To enter the city, then as now, visitors had to cross a wide bridge.
13:24Called the Naga, or Serpent Bridge, the South Gate Causeway is guarded on the left side by
13:3054 evil spirits holding onto a giant snake.
13:35On the right side, 54 divas, or benevolent gods, do the same.
13:41This serpent bridge is an echo of the famous Hindu legend of the churning of the Sea of Milk.
13:49At the end of the bridge is a 75-foot-high tower called a Gopura.
13:54This traditional gate signifies the entrance to a holy city.
14:02Inside the gate lay a sprawling metropolis with great temples and public squares, as well as the ornate royal palace.
14:16This is the Terrace of the Elephants, the entrance to the royal palace.
14:21Though only the foundation remains, the impressive stone terrace once served as the royal reviewing stand for public ceremonies.
14:31Life-sized statues and release of elephants grace both sides of the central terrace.
14:38The images are appropriate because the square was also used to train comet elephants for battle.
14:48The king presided over public events from here, at the center of the terrace.
14:56Statues of a lion and the Naga, a mythical serpent, stand on either side of the king's platform.
15:06mythical birds called garudas support the terrace from beneath.
15:15On the north side of the terrace is a carving associated with a well-known legend.
15:21Called the terrace of the leper king, some believe it depicts a king who beheaded a subject for refusing to
15:28kneel before him.
15:30Infected by a subject's blood, the legendary king became a leper himself.
15:38On the other side of the square stand 12 stone towers called Prusat-sur-Prat.
15:46This area may have been used as a court for judging those accused of wrongdoing.
15:55The terrace was once a splendid public space, ringed with covered galleries gleaming in the sun.
16:05Jayarvaman VII restored the palace within Angkor Thom.
16:10The palace was originally built in the 9th century, but burned down during the war.
16:17Until recently, the original appearance of the palace was a mystery.
16:21Aside from the grepura leading to the main entranceway and the 13-foot-high surrounding wall,
16:27the palace itself no longer stands.
16:30To learn more, French archaeologists drilled thousands of holes in the ground
16:35and analyzed the soil samples from here.
16:38We now know that the palace was built on top of a large wooden foundation, only fragments of which survive.
16:49This piece was 40 to 50 centimeters wide, 13 to 16 feet in length, about 8 inches in thickness and
16:58very sturdy.
17:01This was used as a foundation, and structures were built on top of this platform.
17:09The entire palace covered 37 acres.
17:13Its wooden columns are long gone, but it's often possible to see where they once stood.
17:22Other evidence of the placement of these columns is found throughout this area, indicated by stone foundations and indentations.
17:33All the buildings here, the palace was built in wooden construction,
17:37and maybe they copied the techniques of bonding of pieces of stone from the wood construction.
17:44The buildings of the palace would have been connected by splendid high-ceiling galleries supported by the columns.
17:52A row of columns 31 inches in diameter once stood on top of this stone platform.
18:01These columns were built with local trees called slurong and coqui, which are so dense, they sink in water.
18:12These sturdy supports held up a gallery roof, which did not survive.
18:18But history left us an invaluable description of the palace's facade.
18:25Near the end of the 13th century, a Chinese diplomat named Zhou Daguan was sent to the Khmer Empire and
18:31ended up staying for 11 months.
18:35The memoir he wrote about life in Angkor Thom is still a valuable resource for historians.
18:42In his book, The Customs of Cambodia, Zhou writes,
18:46The main hall of the palace was covered with lead tiles.
18:51The rest had stone tiles, while the columns were engraved with images of the Buddha.
19:01This building had a two-layered roof, which was covered in shingles.
19:07As you can see here, most of the shingles were glazed.
19:11They were painted yellow or a greenish yellow.
19:15And along with porcelain, this was often used in the 10th century.
19:18This is a huge piece of wood for the famous city, even for the utilitarian ceramics.
19:32Zhou Daguan's account reveals that the inside rooms of the palace were so heavily guarded, he could not set foot
19:39in them.
19:39He could only glimpse a king from outside.
19:44But there are clues and a relief carved on the eastern side of the Bayon Temple, which records a lifestyle
19:50of the royal family.
19:53Splendid beams ornamented with flames decorate the eaves and the shingled roof, and the pattern is likely repeated inside the
20:00palace.
20:05Zhou Daguan also recorded what he saw of the king's chamber from far away.
20:10There is a golden window there, and below the window is the image of an elephant.
20:18For the first time ever, all these clues allow us to recreate what the palace may have looked like at
20:24the height of the Khmer Empire.
20:28The palace had many luxuries.
20:31Though it's now a children's swimming pool, this was once a royal outdoor bath, 50 yards wide and 100 yards
20:38long.
20:50Wooden galleries surrounded the bath on all sides, and connected it to the other buildings.
20:58And Zhou Daguan mentioned what he saw here.
21:03There are 3,005 concubines and ladies-in-waiting living inside the palace.
21:09They bathed completely nude.
21:12And unlike most other people here, their skin is as pale as white jade.
21:24In the 13th century, the Angkor area supported a large population.
21:31Zhou Daguan writes that the people spent their leisure time watching cockfights and other entertainments.
21:38And, he said, they had plenty to eat.
21:43Zhou also wrote that in the countryside and rice fields were herds of thousands of wild water buffalo.
22:06And Zhou retold an interesting old legend about a mystical snake called a naga, which figures heavily in Khmer mythology.
22:19This story is set in the 10th century in the temple of Pimianacus, which means Palace of the Heavens.
22:27Inside the soaring palace is a secret temple.
22:35There are many wonderful places within the palace, Zhou wrote.
22:39And at night time, the king would always visit the tower.
22:55In the middle of the tower lived the spirit of a snake with nine heads.
22:59And every night, this snake would turn into a beautiful woman.
23:06The king would bed this woman each night.
23:10And during this time, even the queen was forbidden to enter.
23:17And if the king neglected to visit this woman, even for a single night, a calamity would befall the kingdom
23:23without question.
23:27Joy of Armand VII would have known this old tale, as well as others from Khmer mythology.
23:33But he differed from nearly every previous Khmer king because he was a Buddhist.
23:39Together with his queen, he performed a sacred ritual every May called Bathing the Buddha.
23:59Jaya of Armand VII very much admired an earlier Khmer king, Surya of Armand II, who ruled 80 years previously.
24:07This was the revered Khmer ruler who ushered in a Golan age and built the great temple, Angkor Wat.
24:15Surya of Armand II began work on the enormous temple after he took the throne in 1113.
24:22Completed in just 40 years, this temple was designed as a Hindu shrine devoted to the god Vishnu.
24:31Inside, the central sanctuary featured a great ghoul statue of Vishnu.
24:44Jayavarama VII admired his predecessor's great temple, and he resolved to build his own.
24:53But his masterpiece would be a Buddhist temple in the center of Angkor Thom, his great walled city.
25:06Jayavarama VII's masterpiece is the Bayan, which still stands today.
25:21This dramatic temple is a rectangular structure 750 feet east to west by 500 feet north to south.
25:30No fewer than 52 towers rise to the sky, including the 140 foot high central tower.
25:39And gazing impassively from the sides of these towers are the carved reliefs of 173 faces.
25:57The outer galleries of the Bayan are carved with more than 2,000 feet of reliefs, revealing rich details of
26:03everyday life at the time.
26:06There are images of men enjoying dog fights,
26:11and foreign buyers harassing topless Khmer women who are selling items on the street.
26:20A woman points an accusing finger as she cooks.
26:23Her finger is directed at her son, who is wasting valuable time watching a cockfight.
26:30There's an image of a valiant Khmer warrior as he skewers an enemy sham soldier with a spear.
26:37There's also a detailed scene of the sham in their boats on Lake Tonli Sap as they invade Angkor.
26:46In the eastern gallery of the temple, the reliefs celebrate the life and reign of Jayavarman VII.
26:59There's a scene in which commanders mounted on elephants march toward the enemy at the king's orders.
27:07The Chinese soldiers with spears who follow the elephants on foot are believed to be mercenaries.
27:16In the reliefs of the Bayan, as well as the structure's mountainous shape, there are echoes of earlier Khmer temples.
27:25But the Bayan was built as a Buddhist shrine, not a Hindu temple.
27:30At its very center, Jayavarman VII placed a statue of Buddha.
27:35Though this sculpture is from a later period, the original statue was removed after Jayavarman's death,
27:41when the empire reverted to Hinduism for a time.
27:46The original was later discovered by a French excavation team and is now displayed on the palace square.
28:01The construction of the Bayan posed many challenges to its ancient builders.
28:09Interestingly, there is a scene in the gallery relief of the temple which depicts how the temple was constructed.
28:16It shows how the foundations were built.
28:19They used sand inside wooden frames in order to accomplish this.
28:24The release depicts how the foundations were built, how the stones were moved, and how they were stacked.
28:35Workers had to compact the soil in order to prepare the swampy building site.
28:40Then some 420,000 stone blocks were needed for the temple's construction.
28:49The stones came from a quarry at Phnom Kulen, 25 miles from the construction site.
28:55Using bamboo rafts, the stones were floated down the river toward Angkor Thom.
29:03From the size of the Buddha statue, we can tell that it was carved from a single block of sandstone.
29:09We think they built the central tower where the statue was enshrined first,
29:13and then the stone structures were built around that.
29:19Starting with the Buddha statue, construction progressed from the center outward,
29:24with the central tower going up first.
29:29Eventually, more towers were erected, and finally, the tower took its current form when the outer galleries and walls were
29:36built.
29:41Though now only columns remain, it's believed they once supported a wooden structure.
29:52Inside Bayon, there was a wooden structure built on top of a stone framework.
29:57Today, only fragments remain from where this structure was secured.
30:01This was a common architectural element often used in monuments during the time of Jayabaman VII.
30:06That is, from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th.
30:13This sturdy stone wall and door frame suggests there was once a door here.
30:19And there are other clues to how the temple once looked.
30:25Joe Daguan's memoir describes the exterior of the Bayon.
30:30There is a golden tower at the center of the complex,
30:33and there are 20 stone towers surrounding it.
30:36In addition, there are some 100 stone chambers.
30:42The records of a Chinese diplomat who visited in the late 13th century are quite interesting.
30:47They contain information about the design of Angkor and its population.
30:53Unfortunately, some of the information is either erroneous or unverifiable.
30:57The records mention golden towers in Bayon.
31:00But we could not find traces of gold in Bayon.
31:04It's similar to a mention of bronze towers in Papuan,
31:07but no traces of bronze were found there either.
31:11We think this may be because they painted the towers to resemble gold or bronze.
31:17But from an archaeological point of view, we can't prove it.
31:24Based on evidence and expert opinions, these computer images reveal the probable appearance of the Bayon when it was completed.
31:36In the exact center of Angkor Thom, Jayavarman VII built the splendid Bayon in honor of the Buddha.
31:43The most striking feature of the Bayon is also the most mysterious,
31:46the eerie faces gazing out from the temple.
31:51More than 200 of them hold your gaze wherever you look.
31:55Some are more than 25 feet high, and no two are exactly alike.
32:00But what do the faces mean?
32:02Are they meant to be gods or people?
32:05Were they sculpted as portraits, and if so, of whom?
32:09The answers are as fascinating and varied as they are controversial.
32:18One of the first modern scholars to study the Bayon was Georges Seydes,
32:22director of the French School of the Far East for 18 years.
32:27Seydes claimed that the faces on the towers were that of Jayavarman VII himself,
32:31portrayed in the form of the Buddha.
32:36This theory was accepted as fact for many years.
32:39But recently, prominent Japanese scholars have proposed an entirely different explanation.
32:45They claim the round faces with almond-shaped eyes are in fact divas,
32:50benevolent Hindu gods,
32:52while faces with angular features and protruding eyes are asuras,
32:56evil Hindu deities.
33:01These scholars believe the faces were re-carved after the time of Jayavarman VII,
33:06when the empire reverted back to Hinduism.
33:12And in fact, many Buddhist artworks were defaced or destroyed during this era.
33:19Buddhist statues were removed from temples,
33:21and Hindu statues were often erected in their place.
33:26If the Bayon faces portray the king as the Buddha, they too may have been destroyed.
33:35For the past century, Bayon has been studied and restored by a host of scholars.
33:41But there are still some 60,000 stone blocks, which have not yet found their former places.
33:49So why is Bayon in much worse condition than Angkor Wat, which was constructed just 80 years earlier?
33:58A team of Japanese scholars who have been restoring the temple for 16 years believe it has to do with
34:03the stone itself.
34:07According to recent research, the ancient builders used stones from several different quarries to build the temples in Angkor,
34:13digging new quarries as older ones became depleted or hard to work.
34:22So perhaps by the time the Bayon was constructed, the choice of stone was much more limited.
34:35The temples that were built before the Bayon era were built with high-quality grey sandstone.
34:41But after the late Bayon era, high-quality sandstone disappeared,
34:45and they began using sandstone with yellowish-brown and red mixed in it.
34:50Bayon Temple was built during the late Bayon era,
34:53and the sandstone used in it lacks in quality compared to temples that were built a generation before,
34:58such as Angkor Wat.
35:05Jayavarman VII filled the Angkor region with temples and other structures.
35:10He also devoted considerable resources to expanding the city's water system.
35:20The Khmer's ingenious water management compensated for the extremes of the region's distinct rainy and dry seasons,
35:29using a complex network of canals, waterworks, and reservoirs.
35:36Rainwater was stored in ponds, called berets, then accessed throughout the year via canals.
35:43Although Angkor Thom was located far inland, it was a city on the water.
35:51You could travel by boat through the canals to Tonle Sap Lake,
35:55and then sail the river all the way to the ocean.
36:06The Khmer Empire's success and prosperity depended to a large extent on its irrigation system.
36:13The Chinese diplomat Zhou Daoguan reported that the Khmer could produce three or even four rice harvests a year,
36:19enough to feed a million people.
36:22He also described the wet season, saying that the high-water mark around Lake Tonle Sap could reach 70 or
36:2880 feet,
36:29completely submerging even tall trees.
36:32Modern scholars owe a great deal to Zhou, who wrote about Khmer life in great detail.
36:37His memoirs describe day-to-day city life, the economy, social customs,
36:42and even the king's relationship with his people.
36:48For example, Zhou wrote about the appearance of the king's procession in the year 1296.
36:56When the king went on an outing, he was accompanied by 300 to 500 ladies-in-waiting carrying candles in
37:03the daylight.
37:06He was escorted by a procession of horses, flags, and a band, as well as a retinue of female warriors.
37:19The king, his queen, and his concubines rode palanquins, coaches, horses, and elephants,
37:26and they were sheltered from the sun by a hundred parasols decorated with gold.
37:38The tusks of the king's elephant were ornamented with gold, and the king carried a sacred sword in his hand.
37:46His hands were painted red, and he was surrounded by a battalion of elephants.
37:53There was a group of women who swept the road behind the king to erase any trace of the royal
37:59procession.
38:01If the king's procession was impressive, then his military resources were even more formidable.
38:19The army included a division of 20,000 elephants, plus infantry, cavalry, and a division of archers who could shower
38:27the enemy with arrows.
38:30Each platoon consisted of 30 infantrymen armed with swords, hand weapons, and shields.
38:37Every platoon also had five horses and one well-trained elephant.
38:49Women were also part of the military.
38:55The elite royal guard was entirely female, and women warriors fought beside men in times of war.
39:13At the start of the 13th century, Angkor Thom and its surrounding area was the greatest city of its time.
39:23Jayavama VII had successfully revitalized the Khmer Empire, in part through his impressive building projects.
39:33Besides his temples, he expanded the system of highways, connecting his capital city to many other provinces.
39:40He also built 121 inns, as well as 102 hospitals.
39:48Before Jayavama VII came to power, the region was embroiled in turmoil and strife.
39:57Neighboring kingdoms saw Khmer disorder as an opportunity to expand.
40:06Once he came to power, Jayavama III strengthened his empire and expanded its reach through a series of military campaigns.
40:16Inscriptions describe his conquest of a neighboring territory.
40:20His army included a cavalry of Chinese horses, a division of elephants, female soldiers, and a full infantry.
40:35The newly improved highways offered more efficient routes for military travel.
40:40Long processions of soldiers and commanders covered great distances by road.
40:45The scene is depicted in a gallery of relief in the Bayon.
40:50These long marches were comprised of more than just soldiers.
40:56Because each campaign lasted years and involved tens of thousands of troops, many soldiers brought along their families.
41:10It wasn't only a military mobilization, but a mass migration.
41:16Jayavama VII's military conquests changed the history of both the Khmer Empire and all of Southeast Asia.
41:26There are few records from late in the king's reign, but histories record that he was a fierce opponent on
41:32the battlefield.
41:35One account states, Jayavama VII swore an oath to take revenge against his enemies.
41:43He bore their impudence for 18 years and finally saw his plans to fruition.
41:51The Khmerer often overwhelmed their enemies with a swift cavalry and a large infantry.
41:57Charging elephants no doubt struck fear in the hearts of the enemy.
42:04Much of the fighting was close, hand-to-hand combat, using a sickle-like weapon called a Pekak.
42:18Khmer troops were renowned as well-trained, determined warriors.
42:34Eventually, the Khmer Empire stretched from what is now Laos and much of Thailand in the north, to the Malay
42:41Peninsula in the south, Burma in the west, to central Vietnam in the east, almost all of mainland Southeast Asia.
42:53Jayavama VII's rule strengthened and expanded the Khmer Empire.
42:58And to this day, Cambodians revere him as one of their greatest rulers.
43:08In the centuries since his reign, nature has obscured his capital city, the proud center of a powerful Khmer Empire.
43:19But the legacy of what he created endures.
43:22The stately terrace of the elephants, the haunting faces of Bayon Temple, and the many symbols of a deep Buddhist
43:31faith all continue to inspire visitors from around the world.
43:36Today, hundreds of monks still make pilgrimages to Angkor Thom, to learn, teach, and worship as their ancestors did.
43:48Though modern conservationists cannot reverse hundreds of years of nature's advances, they can help us imagine how these palaces and
43:56temples once appeared, and how they supported a vibrant and thriving Khmer civilization.
44:11Jayavama VII was one of the greatest conquerors in Khmer history.
44:15He came to power when he was nearly fifty, and ruled for at least three decades.
44:20During his reign, he dramatically strengthened and expanded his empire.
44:24But he's also known in modern Cambodia for another reason.
44:28As a first important Buddhist king, he changed the relationship between ruler and ruled.
44:33Now, like previous Hindu rulers, Jayavama VII was still considered a god-king.
44:38But he also reportedly cared deeply about his people and strived to relieve their suffering.
44:44It was definitely a change in style from earlier Khmer rule.
44:47And eight hundred years later, his influence on history can still be felt.
44:55Today, Buddhists, Hindus, Cambodians, and hundreds of thousands of people worldwide flock from the farthest corners of the globe to
45:03experience the splendor of Angkor.
45:07And though the kings who built these astonishing structures have long since passed,
45:12it is their triumphs that have left a great legacy,
45:17teaching us about the people of this sprawling empire,
45:20and how their early accomplishments helped shape the world.
45:37Follow through certain regulators who eventually left the world from other countries.
45:38So far, what has the rarer of Christmas land,
45:38they have to experience to
45:39Can't you see the fact that we're looking at each other?
45:39If we can see the fact that we continue to record the world from nowhere die to us?
45:39So view that there is a handful of all languages in,
45:42so understand each other'skl intake by A Satish嗎.
45:42So view that there is a card with each other.
45:42If we can assist you all,
45:42For all these kiw Итак do this extreme andOFFeneres Live from anáveisably civilian space.
45:45And this year from all the size of shame that was created as historical markers came across all the rise,
45:51so the fast memory of water that was created for 419 and made us with憶可le published in the boots'
45:56To be continued...
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