The Hydraulic Kingdom

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The Hydraulic Kingdom: A Complete History of the Khmer Empire The Khmer Empire stands as one of the most extraordinary civilizations in human history — a hydraulic state that sustained nearly a million people on the Cambodian plain, built the largest religious monument in the world, and left an architectural, linguistic, and cultural legacy that continues to shape mainland Southeast Asia to the present day. From the founding ceremony on Mount Mahendraparvata in 802 CE through the sack of Angkor in 1431 and the complex transformations of the post-Angkorian world, this comprehensive history traces every dimension of the empire's remarkable story. Drawing on the latest geoarchaeological research, the inscriptional record, the observations of the Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan, and the findings of the Greater Angkor Project, this book examines not only the temple mountains and the divine kings but the hydraulic engineering genius, the social