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

Rest houses

Houses with fire (vahnigrha, dharmasala), laterite rest houses with a hearth, strung along the roads about a day's walk apart for travellers and for the relays that carried the king's orders.

The stele of 1191 counts 121 in all: seventeen on the road to Phimai, fifty-seven on the roads to Champa, and none on the western road to Lavo, which the campaign board reconstructs from small Bayon-style shrines (inference only). On the road north the temple at the Ta Muen pass has a house with fire and a hospital chapel within a few hundred metres of each other. The count is the king's claim.

Who holds it

Title
The king's officers of the roads and the keepers of each house
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
medium for the programme, low for the number

English Wikipedia (Phimai Historical Park): the Preah Khan inscription of 1191 counts seventeen rest houses with hearths on the road to Vimaya, fifty-seven on the roads to Champa and 121 in all, and names none on a road running west. Board: Prasat Ban Bu lies on the road to Phimai (eight of the seventeen found so far); on the eastern road six rest houses and seven staging temples are identified (Toap Chey, Ta En, Banteay Ampil, Chau Srei Vibol, Spean Ta Ong and others).

Overlord

Jayavarman VII.

What it holds

  • Rest houses and their keepers (the stele's total)
  • Staging temples and bridges on the roads

How things stand that morning

In service; the stele of 1191 is nine years old.

Places of note

  • Prasat Ban Bu: Rest house on the Phimai road (placed in the district).
  • Toap Chey: House with fire on the eastern road (placed on the road).
  • Ta En: House with fire before Bakan (placed on the road).

Where the sources disagree

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

On the map: Points only; the roads are in the royal works record.

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, Phimai Historical Park
  2. English Wikipedia, Ancient Khmer Highway
  3. 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.