The record by Chinese envoy, Chou Ta Kuan, of his stay in Cambodia in 1296-1297 is the most detailed accounts we have about everyday life and the appearance of Angkor, Chou's memoir is rich in circumstantial as he was not constrained by the Indian traditions that remove ordinary people from literacy consideration,in his account, for example we see Cambodians Bathing,Selling goods and Marching in processions,from our point of view,it is a shame that Chou devoted so much of his short manuscript to exotic revelations of "Barbarian" life. in fact. although he provided us with a newsreel or perhaps a home movie of stay at Angkor, our appetites are whetted for the feature film he might have made had he known(or cared about) the gaps that have persisted ever since in the historical record.
The account,in translation, runs to fewer than forty pages divided in to forty sections,these page from a short paragraph to several pages and,topically.from Religion,Justice,Kingship,and Agriculture,(to name only four) to birds,Vegetables, Bathing customs,and Slaves, many features of thirteenth century Cambodia life he described including clothing,Tools,Draft animals,and Aspects of rural commerce are still observable 1990s,and other such as slavery,sumptuary Laws,and trail by ordeal endured in modified from until the nineteenth century at least.
Five of Chou's sections deserve detailed attention those dealing with Religion,Slaves,Festivals,Agriculture,and the King's excursions,Chou found three Religions enjoying official status at Angkor,they appear to have been Brahmanism,Theravada Buddhism, and Shaivism,the Brahmans, Chou noted,often attained high position as officials but he could find little else to say about them,I do not know what models they follow,and they have nothing which one could call a school or a place of teaching,it is difficult, also to know what books they read.The Theravada Monks,known colloquially by a Thai phrase(Chao Ku) closely resembled their twentieth century counterparts in Theravada Southeast Asia,they shave their heads,and wear yellow robes,leaving the right shoulder bare,for the lower half of the body,they wear a yellow skirt,they are barefoot.
Like the Palace and the houses of high officials,Chou tell us ,Buddhist monasteries could have tile roofs,but those of ordinary people had to be made of thatch Chou was impressed by the simplicity of the "Wat" noting that (unlike Mahayana Temples in China) they contained no bells,Cymbals.
Flags ,or platform housing only an image of the Buddha made of gilded plaster,finally,
Chou described the method used to inscribe palm leaf manuscripts,which persisted well in to the twentieth century,particularly in the case of religious and historical texts,
The Shaivites,who Chou called "Taoists" inhabited monasteries that were less prosperous than Buddhist ones,in which "the only image which they revers is a block of stone analogous to the stone found in shrines of the God of the soil in China,although monastic Shaivism declined in importance after the abandonment of Angkor and eventually disappeared altogether, Indianized cults,including the use of Linga, continued into modern times, and officials calling themselves Brahmans continued to work at the Cambodian Court,where they were entrusted with the performance of Royal rituals and with maintaining astronomical tables,when monastic Theravada Buddhism is added to these two "Religions"we note that the three categories for religious activity singled out by Chou survived,in modified form into very recent times .Chou account make make it clear that many of the people living at Angkor were slaves for he tells us that" those who have many(Slaves) have more than a hundred those who have only a few have from ten to twenty only the very poor have none at all, he went on to say that slaves are generally taken as captives from Mountain tribes, a practice that persisted into the colonial era,it seem likely in fact that this is the way Cambodia Society built itself up ,overtime gradually absorbing and socializing" Barbarians" who figure in such large numbers in the inscriptions, in Angkorean Times. moreover,slaves were set apart from other people by several prohibitions,they can sit or lie down only underneath a house, for their work,they can ascend into the house but then they must kneel down,join their hands together and prostrate themselves .after that they can move forward,slaves enjoyed no civil privileges their marriages were not even recognized by the state forced to call their Masters "Father" and their mistresses"Mother" they tried frequently to escape and when caught were tattooed mutilated or chained.
Although Chou is informative about people at Court and about the slaves he is vague about about proportion of Society in the 1290s that was neither in bondage nor part of the elite clearly ,the people with "A few" slaves would fall in to this categories so would the private landowners discussed in an earlier context by Merle and so would the Sino Cambodians who were active in international trade Special privileges were extended to the elite and to religious sects,and special prohibitions applied to slaves, but about those in between -the people in fact who probably made the Kingdom prosper -we know far less than we would like.when Chou goes into detail however,his account is often illuminating his description of what he called a new year's festival, which occurred toward the end of November,is a good example of his narrative skill:
" In front of Royal Palace,a great platform is built,capable of holding a thousand people, and decorated with lanterns and flowers, in front of it, at a distance of one hundred and twenty feet ,
another platform is built one hundred and twenty feet high by laying pieces of wood end to end ,
this is done the same way as a scaffolding for Buddhist Stu-pas Each night,three ,four,five,
or six of these are built on top of them,Rockets and Firecrackers are attached the cost of these
are built is met by the provinces and by the Noble Family,when night has fallen ,the King
is asked to watch the spec-table ,the Rockets are released and Fire crackers Lighted the Rockets
can be seen [about a mile] away ,,The festival goes on like this for fifteen days ,
Every month there is a Festival.
This ceremony,probably observed by Chou himself, appears to have been celebrated at the end of rainy season, when the water of the Tonle-Sap begin to subside,setting in motion the first stages of the Agriculture year, after the move to Phnompenh in the fifteenth century,the ceremony became known as the water Festival and was similarly marked by Fireworks,Floats and the Royal patronage until the Monarchy was overthrown in 1970.
As for agriculture, Chou noted that three or even four rice harvests a yea were possible-a statistic singled out by Democratic Kampuchea in its efforts to revolutionize production, it is unlikely that this abundance applied throughout the country,for Angkor. several harvests were possible only because of the concentration of manpower there.the rich alluvial soil.and the water storage system perfected in the region over several hundred years,Another factor was the peculiarly helpful conduct of the Tonle Sap, and according to Chou's comments on the agricultural cycle's relationship to this beneficent body of water,
"In the country it rains for half of the year in other half,it hardly rains at all ,from the fourth to the
ninth month,it rains every afternoon,and the water level of the Great Lake can reach seven or eight
fathoms[approximately 50 feet],The big tree are drowned,only their tops can be seen,People who live
on the shores all go away to the mountains later,from the tenth month to the third [of the following year] not a drop of rain falls ,and the Great Lake can be navigated only by small Boats... the People come back down at this point and plant their Rice"
The"Miracle" of the Tonle Sap amazed many subsequent travelers to Angkor ,as long as the region supported a large population,the deposits left by receding water provided useful nutrients for soil,
even after Angkor was abandoned, the lake remained the most densely populated natural fishbowl in the world,providing generations of Cambodians with much of protein for their diet.
We would welcome the chance to interrogate Chou about the working of Agriculture at this time,for example how was the rice surplus of handled?were cultivators for the most part free people or some kind of slaves? Did agriculture differ markedly at Angkor from that in other parts of the Kingdom? How much land was in the hands of members of Royal Family and how much was controlled by Buddhist Wats?What did this control imply?
=As we have no answers to these questions, we must be Grateful to Chou for what he gives us, His description of rural marketing,for example,could easily have been written about Cambodia in the 1990s.
In this country,it is the women are who are concerned with commerce,Everyday,market takes place which begins at six in the morning and ends at noon,there is no market made up for shops where people live,instead, people use a piece of matting,which they spread out onto the Earth ,each of them has her own location,and I believe that fees are charged for these locations.
It seem likely,in view of Cambodia's trade in China, that many Chinese had by this time settled in Cambodia to engage in commerce according to Chou, the products exported by Cambodia in the thirteenth century were those that had been exported since the time of "Funan" they were to form the Bulk of Cambodia exports until the twentieth century,these were such High-Value, low bulk items as Rhinoceros horns.Ivory.Beeswax.Lacquer.Pepper.and Cardamom imported products included Paper and Metal goods .Porcelain.Silk.and Wicker.It is unclear from Chou's account how products were paid for,but it seems likely that some form of Barter took place at the rural level,with Chinese Coins and Credit in circulation at Angkor and at the Ports.
Chou was fascinated by the King Reigning at Angkor during his Visit(Indravarman III r 1296-1308) but he seems to observed the King five time.
"Everyday the King hold two audiences to deal with Government affairs there is no set agenda,
Functionaries or common people who want to see him sit on the ground and wait for to appear."
The King had reached the throne,Chou remarked,in a curious manner.
The new King was the Son-in Law of the former one (JayavarmanVII before assuming the throne,he was a general) Now the Father loved his Daughter,but she robbed him of his Golden Sword,an took it to her husband,thus the King's true son was deprived of the succession..[Indravarman]had this Prince's toes cut off and hid him in a cell.
These events, which had taken place just before the Chinese Embassy's arrival, are alluded to discreetly by some inscriptions that date from Indravarman's Reign,one of them refers to the " Old Age" of Jayavarman VII and a "Host of Enemies" inside the Kingdom,another mentions that Indravarman shaded the country with his single umbrella,where no shade had existed before,under, a crowd of such umbrella.
The transition between the Reigns of Jayavarman VII and Indravarman III,in fact,probably marked a sharp transition in Cambodia history, although we do not learn of it from Chou. under Jayavarman VII in 1285,the last temple the Mangalartha was erected in the Angkor Region,we know that Indravarman III was careful to sponsored Theravada Buddhists as well as Brahmans and it is tempting to speculate about a religious ingredient in his apparently nonviolent coup d'e'tat.
The King's procession.like so much else in Chou's Account gains in interest when compare with similar procession with the one Marking Sihanouk's coronation.or other twentieth century procession for which records have survived,that ceremonial Cambodia life and the hier-time and our own era ,in Chou's words.
When the King goes out,troops are at the head of the escort,then come flags Banner and Music,Palace women,numbering from three to five hundred,wearing flowers cloth,with flowers in their hair,hold Candles are Lighted then come other Palace women ,bearing Royal paraphernalia made of Gold and Silver,,then come the Palace women carrying lances and shield. And the King's private guards,,,Carts drawn by Goats and Horses ,all in Gold,come next,Minister and princes are mounted on elephants and in front of them one can see, from afar, their innumerable in red umbrella,after them come the wives and concubines of King in palanquins,carriages,on horse back,and on elephants they have more than hundred parasols flecked with gold,behind them comes the sovereign,standing on an elephants,holding his sacred sword in his hand,the elephant's tusks are encased in Gold.
Chou then described a Royal audience of the sort that Indravarman conducted on daily basis and closed his account by remarking superciliously,one can see by all this that even though it is a Kingdom of Barbarians these people certainly know what a ruler is .
The End of Chou Ta Koun Visit at Angkor.
