The largest change affecting,Cambodia in the thirteenth century was the conversion of most of its people to the Theravada variant of Buddhism, discussed below,and what role Jayavarman VII played in this conversation is impossible to Judge ,the history of his Reign is the story of the imposition of one man's will on a population,a landscape,and a part of Asia,ostensibly in the service of an Ideal, Mahayana Buddhism,which in its allegedly"Liberating" fashion bears an ominous resemblance to the ideology of Democratic Of Kampuchea , which was also imposed from above, it is very doubtful that JayavarmanVII saw the Cambodian elite as his enemies ,as Pol Pot did,or preferred, " Forest people"to those living at Angkor,but his break with the past,his obsession with punitive expeditions,the impetuous grandeur of his building program,and his position of a national religion rather than his patronage of a Royal cult all have parallels with recent historical events,interestingly, the only feature of Angkorean life singled out for Praise by the Democratic Kampuchea was precisely the full scale mobilization of the people that JayavarmanVII,but very few other Kings,managed to carry out.
Some writers have connected Cambodia's coversation to Theravada Buddhism to the upheaval that affected Southeast Asia in wake of the Mongol invasions of China,others have seen it as evidence of the growing influence of Mon and Thai speaking people,who were already Theravada Buddhism, on the people of the Angkor,we know that wandering missionaries from the Mon language part of Siam,
from Burma ,and from Ceylon played an important part in the process and that Cambodian pilgrims visited Ceylon to learn about Theravada Buddhism and to obtain clerical credentials, we know some of the agents of the change, but it is difficult to say why conversion was so rapid and so widespread,some scholars argue that the Theravada variant,unlike Brahmanism or Mahayana Buddhism,was oriented toward ordinary people, other have seen the conversion as rejection of the personalized megalomania of Jayavarman VII,perhaps the most likely explanation,advanced by Brigg is that the increasing interaction between Khmer ,and Mon speaking residents of the Thai central plain, with the Mon being devotees of Theravada Buddhism,led gradually.over half a century or so.to the conversion of Khmer- speaking further East,we have no way of telling what aspects of the sect were more attractive than others, or which segments of Society were drawn most rapidly to it,the conversion in any case was by no means total, for Chou Ta Kuan, at the end of the thirteenth century, noted that Brahmanism and Shaivism,as well as Theravada Buddhism, still enjoyed the status of approved religions at Angkor, nor was it entirely peaceful,for it seem to have come after some sort of rebellion against Jayavarman VII's brand of Buddhism- exemplified by defacement of Buddha images at Bayon and elsewhere and by clumsy attempts to change some of the images , ethnographically,to Hindu ones.
In other words,it is likely that the thirteenth century the least recorded of the Angkorean centuries in terms of datable inscriptions was marked at Angkor by a serious religious upheaval or by succession
of upheaval,which had political causes and effects as well. The end of Jayavarman's Reign and the Reign of his successor, Indravarman II ,are both obscure, inscriptions found at the Bayon have little to say about this last phase of Jayavarman's life those at the four corners of his City,apparently all inscribed at the time of his Death,however provide helpful reference to Jayavarman's wars against the Chams and the Viet namese,these inscription are written, Coedes contended, in execrable Sanskrit, several of them ( like some of the bas-reliefs at the Bayon) are unfinished,almost as if the workmen had dropped their chisels on receiving news of the King's Death,this hypothetical scene is brought to life by the Swedist author Jan Myrdal writing about Angkor :
" The craftsmen were at work while the old master sat in the shade talking
Now and then they came over, to keep an eye on they work,then one of
The apprentice's comes running ,He shouts , Now he Death ,At this the
Craftsmen stopped hacking at the stone wall and put down their tools and
Went off home "
because of the grandeur of beginning of Jayavarman's Reign and the obscurity of its closing years,
some Authors have argued that he Died of leprosy after many years of isolation,evidence to support the argument springs from Cambodian oral tradition,already active by the end of thirteenth century,
that a leper King had Reigned at Angkor,and also from the absence of data concerning, the last years of his life . Although the contention that Jayavarman VII was a leper fits some of the evidence ,it is also possible that the "Leper King" was his successor, Indravarman II ,whose Reign is mentioned in only on inscription,which provides us with the date of his Death. there some evidence to connect his Monarch with the abortive Hindu revival alluded to above, but whether his Leprosy was real or invented by his enemies to describe serious failures of Kingship (Connected,perhaps,with defeats at the hands of Thai Armies in the Mid thirteenth century) we know almost nothing about events inside Cambodia between Jayavarman's Death, perhaps around 1220 ,and the arrival of Chinese Embassy,sent by the Yuan emperor at Angkor in 1296.
The Dearth of information coincides with a critical period of Cambodian history ,the thirteenth century as a whole was a period of crisis throughout mainland and insular Southeast Asia ,a time of rapid change, significant movements of population,foreign invasions,altered patterns of trade, the appearance of new religions,and shifts in the balance of Power,in Burma,Siam,Lao and Cambodia ,the major change was the growth of Theravada Buddhism at the expense of state-sponsored and caste-enhancing Hindu cult,in the long run,this change had several ramifications, Brahmans retained their positions at Court for ceremonial purposes but otherwise diminished in importance the rich mythical and literary bases of Indian literature and iconography, reflected up to now in bas- reliefs ,Sculpture,Architecture, and inscriptions,narrowed perceptibly to satisfy the more austere requirements of Theravada Aesthetics,and Cambodia literature,like the local version of the Ramayana,came to be suffused with Buddhist values.
In term of foreign relations, the most important development affecting Cambodia at this time was the weakening of control over the people to the Northwest of Angkor, in present day Thailand although Cambodia cultural influence remained strong in the central plain (Where the Thai Capital of Ayudhya was to be founded in fourteenth century) Cambodian Political control diminished, Principalities that formerly sent tribute to Angkor,like Sukot' Ai and Louvo, now declared their independence,so did principalities in Laos, and others to South,Angkor was one again vulnerable to invasion from every direction but the East, as Champa was no longer a power to be reckoned with,a major Thai invasion,in fact,occurred toward the end of the thirteenth century.
The End of Theravada Buddhism and the Crisis of the thirteenth Century,
