The Angkor Kingdom

A symbiotic relationship between religion and politics emerged early on as a hallmark of Cambodian culture. The Khmer people were strongly influenced by Indian Hinduism alongside their own ancestral deities from the earliest times. Theravada Buddhism took root by the 4th century CE and Mahayana Buddhism in the 8th, but Cambodia remained predominantly Hindu, though tolerant toward Buddhists. Around the turn of the 9th century, Jayavarman II unified the Khmer people, and the Angkor Kingdom he established dominated Cambodian society for over half a millennium. Khmer kings established Shaivism – a form of Hinduism focusing on the worship of Shiva – as the official religion and identified themselves with the god. In the first half of the 12th century, Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world, to bring Vishnu worship, known as Vaishnavism, to the fore, though Shaivism was tolerated and remained influential. Toward the end of the 12th century, Jayavarman VII further broke from tradition and patronized Mahayana Buddhism, declaring himself a Bodhisattva and ordering the construction of temples, rest houses, hospitals, and roads. However, after an aggressive return of Shaivism, the 13th century saw the resurgence of Theravada Buddhism into Cambodia from Sri Lanka, along with its quick spread and adoption as the Kingdom’s official religion. Whereas Khmer monarchs had long identified themselves with Hindu gods or as Mahayana Bodhisattvas, Theravada Buddhism’s stress on individual responsibility for one’s own salvation challenged Angkor’s traditional religious practices, and the Kingdom gradually lost territory to neighboring powers.