Hindu temples and maths · The Khmer empire of Jayavarman VII · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Preah Vihear

A temple laid out along a stair on a cliff at the top of the Dangrek escarpment, 625 metres above the sea and about 140 kilometres from Angkor Wat (English Wikipedia).

It is a way up, and a shrine on a stair at a crossing is also a gate. The sanctuary is the best documented Shaivite place on the edge of the plateau: four inscriptions of the 11th and 12th centuries show a hermitage, an archive and an oath-taking at the shrine, and a Brahmin chaplain of five kings giving it gifts. The kings who built most of it are Suryavarman I and Suryavarman II; the page we read does not mention Jayavarman VII.

The Buddhist use the page mentions followed the decline of Hinduism in the region and is undated. In 1200 it is an old Brahmin place on a Buddhist king's frontier, with a cliff road below it to the Kui country.

Who holds it

Title
Keeper of Sikharesvara (not named)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Preah Vihear Temple): dedicated to Shiva as the mountain gods Sikharesvara and Bhadresvara; first temple in the early 9th century, earliest surviving parts of the early 10th (Koh Ker period); most built under Suryavarman I and Suryavarman II. Inscriptions: K. 381 (1024, Tapasvindra-pandita, head of a hermitage), K. 380 (probably 1038 to 1049, Sukarman, who recorded events in the sanctuary and kept the kingdom's archives, with an oath of allegiance to Shikhareshvara), K.

382 (1047, now in Bangkok), K. 383 (probably 1119 to 1121, Divakara, who served five kings and made gifts here). The page does not mention Jayavarman VII and names no keeper for 1200.

Overlord

The king.

What it holds

  • The sanctuary and its stair
  • The hermitage and the archive of the inscriptions (the last dated text is of about 1119 to 1121)
  • Endowed villages (not located)

How things stand that morning

Presumed in use; no inscription or event of the reign is known here.

Where the sources disagree

  • English Wikipedia gives Suryavarman I's reign as 1006 to 1050 on the Preah Vihear page and 1002 to 1050 on the Phnom Chisor page; we give neither as a fact.
  • The Nataraja of Divakara's gifts is marked 'citation needed' on the page.

Evidence: Four dated inscriptions of the 11th and 12th centuries via English Wikipedia; nothing for 1200.

On the map: A disc round the temple; the villages that kept it are not located.

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, Preah Vihear Temple
  2. 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.