It was this last King, Jayavarman VII who was most productive
during his 20 year reign. First of all, he repaired and reconstructed
the buildings of his predecessors which had been destroyed in 1177
by a large fleet of Cham vessels sailing up the Tonle Sap via the
Mekong River. The Chams were a mighty people whose capital
was Qui-Nonh on the coast of Vietnam. Next, Jayavarman built
the Bayon, a gigantic edifice I will describe later, and the Prah Khan.
He distinguished himself from many of his forefathers because he
also accomplished much useful work, including construction of
roads, bridges, hospitals and extensive irrigation works.
After his death, the empire crumbled and even though the army
counted several millions, it could not hold out against the Siamese.
As long as enough people were
involved in fisheries and agriculture, all went well; but under
Jayavarman, the burdens became too tough. On the one hand,
the villages had to provide more and more labor to complete
ever growing numbers of uneconomic tasks. On the other hand,
they were charged with providing increasing tributes of rice and
fish required to feed the laborers.
Moreover, there were continuous
wars, so that as the overall results of these problems the irrigation
works fell in disrepair while regular agriculture was displaced by
slashing and burning. In addition, the downfall was promoted by the
change of attitude of the people due to the import of Buddhism,
specifically the Hinayana type. The continuing slackening of
activity through the centuries following Jayavarman makes it very
difficult to understand how the present day Cambodjans could have
ever accomplished such vast projects as Angkor.
Of the various reasons given for the fall of the Khmer, the economic
decay appeals to me most.
As it still does nowadays, the Tonle Sap,
or Great Lake, provided the essentials: first of all copious fish, and, indirectly by means of the annual flooding, the water (and mud)
for irrigation of the rice fields.