Other religious houses · The Khmer empire of Jayavarman VII · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Hospital chapels

The hospital chapels (arogyasala) are the king's best-known public work: small laterite chapels with a stone edict (stele) setting out the staff and the yearly issue of medicines.

The total of 102 is the king's own claim and is attributed to different steles by different accounts. Fewer than half have been found. The identified ones show how far the king's writ ran, since a hospital needs a yearly issue of rice and medicine from somewhere: Ta Prohm Kel on the road between Angkor Wat and the south gate of Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm of Tonle Bati in the far south, Prasat Andong Kuk and Prasat Leung Bon at Koh Ker, Ta Muen on the Dangrek pass, the chapel at Phanom Rung, Ku Santarat in the middle Chi, Prang Ku in Chaiyaphum, Sai Fong by Vientiane, and the temple city of Banteay Chhmar as part of the network.

The healing island of Neak Pean is read as part of the same programme.

Who holds it

Title
The king's physicians and the chapel staffs (not named)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
medium for the programme, low for the number

English Wikipedia (Arogyasala; Phimai Historical Park): 102 hospital chapels are claimed for the reign (the English Arogyasala page ties the figure to the Ta Prohm stele; the campaign board and other accounts to the Preah Khan stele of 1191; we do not pin which); seven Sanskrit steles of Saka 1108 (1186) record hospital foundations, five from the Nakhon Ratchasima region, another at Sai Fong near Vientiane; fewer than half of the hospitals have been identified on the ground.

Overlord

Jayavarman VII, the founder.

What it holds

  • Chapels, their staff and their endowed villages (not located)

How things stand that morning

In service across the kingdom; the steles of 1186 are fourteen years old.

Wealth

A yearly issue of rice and medicine for each chapel (the edicts; no figure given here).

Places of note

  • Ta Prohm Kel: Hospital chapel of the capital.
  • Prasat Andong Kuk (Koh Ker): Hospital chapel in the north-east.
  • Ta Muen (Dangrek pass): Hospital chapel with temple and rest house at the pass.
  • Ku Santarat: Hospital chapel in the middle Chi.
  • Ta Prohm of Tonle Bati: Hospital chapel in the far south.
  • Sai Fong: Hospital stele of 1186 near Vientiane (find-spot not checked).

Where the sources disagree

  • The figure 102: the English Wikipedia Arogyasala page ties it to the Ta Prohm stele (1186); the campaign board ties it to the Preah Khan stele (1191). Not pinned.
  • The campaign board entry ta-prohm-kel: 'one of the four hospital chapels of the capital'; not confirmed in what we read.

Evidence: Stele counts via Wikipedia; identified sites on the ground.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Points only; the network has no outline.

Primary sources for Khmer empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Abridged History of Viet, Anonymous (attributed by some to Su Hy Nhan) (about 1377, probably as an abridgement of Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272). The oldest surviving Vietnamese history, a century older than the Complete Annals and in places fuller for the Ly dynasty, which fills its second and third books.
  • The Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. Read online
  • The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
  • History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
  • History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
  • Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campa (EFEO and ISAW), Various (the Cham kings and their officers), edited by Arlo Griffiths, Amandine Lepoutre, William Southworth and Thanh Phan (inscriptions of the 4th to 15th centuries; the online corpus from 2012). The online edition of the Cham inscriptions, with photographs, texts and translations, keyed to the C. numbers. Read online
  • The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
  • The Sanskrit inscriptions of Cambodia and Champa (ISCC), Various (Khmer and Cham kings), edited by Auguste Barth and Abel Bergaigne (inscriptions of the 7th to 12th centuries; edited 1885 to 1893). The founding edition of Khmer and Cham Sanskrit epigraphy, public domain and online, which Coedes's later corpus supersedes but does not replace. Read online

5 more in the sources library for Mainland Southeast Asia.

Sources and studies

  1. English Wikipedia, Arogyasala
  2. English Wikipedia, Phimai Historical Park
  3. English Wikipedia, Koh Ker
  4. OMNIA board notes for the Khmer and Lao area (a lead, not a source)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.