Jayavarman VIII
| Jayavarman VIII | |
|---|---|
| King of the Khmer Empire | |
| Reign | 1243 – 1295 |
| Predecessor | Indravarman II |
| Successor | Indravarman III |
| Spouse | Chakravartirajadevi |
| Issue | Srindrabhupesvarachuda |
| Religion | Hinduism (Shaivite) |
Jayavarman VIII (Khmer: ជ័យវរ្ម័នទី៨), posthumous name Paramesvarapada, was one of the prominent kings of the Khmer empire. His rule lasted from 1243 until 1295, when he abdicated. One of his wives was Queen Chakravartirajadevi.[1]: 181, 191–192, 211–212 He reverted to Hinduism from his father's religion of Buddhism and attempted to destroy Buddhism while patronizing Hinduism throughout his regime.
It was during the reign of Jayavarman VIII that the Mongol forces under the command of Kublai Khan attacked the Angkor empire in 1283. In 1281, Jayavarman VIII had imprisoned emissaries of the Mongol generalissimo in Champa.[1]: 192 [2] In 1283, he decided to pay tribute and buy peace and thus his rule survived.[3] Chinese annals record that in 1291, "the king of Zhenla / 真臘" [Cambodia] sent a mission who presented "the usual tribute of gold, elephant ivory and other things".[4] In 1290 Lavo ceased to send tribute to the Khmer court, its rulers judging the Khmer king too weak against the Mongols.[5][a]
Jayavarman VIII suffered a devastating war against the Xiān.[1]: 211
Jayavarman VIII was a Shaivite. Many of the Buddhist images were destroyed by him, who re-established previously Hindu shrines that had been converted to Buddhism by his predecessor. Carvings of the Buddha at temples such as Preah Khan were destroyed, and during this period the Bayon Temple was made into a temple of Shiva, and cast the central 3.6-meter-tall (12 ft) statue of the Buddha into the bottom of a nearby well. He also endowed a Hindu shrine Mangalartha in 1295, just before he was overthrown by his son-in-law Indravarman III (Srindravarman), a devout Buddhist and the kingdom reverted to Buddhism.
Mongol-Khmer war (1268)
[edit]In 1268, a Mongol army of approximately 300,000 (300,000) under the leadership of King Kublai Khan launched an invasion of the northern Khmer Empire. The declaration of a large-scale war on the Khmer Empire caused King Jayavarman VIII to gather an army of approximately 100,000 (100,000) elephants to resist the huge army of the Mongol Empire. The war between the two empires broke out in the northern Khmer Empire (now northern Laos). Although the number of the Mongol Empire's troops was large, the Mongol army could not defeat the powerful elephant army of the Khmer Empire. Therefore, the Mongol army decided not to invade the Khmer Empire further, but only provided weapons and artillery to the Siamese Sukhothai to help break up the Khmer Empire's army. Although the Mongol army did not continue to fight the Khmer Empire's army during this time, it did not mean that the Mongol Empire The Khmer Empire would not invade again in the future. Jayavarman VIII's massive elephant collection left so many elephants in the northern Khmer Empire that the Laotians, who declared independence from the Lancang Kingdom, translated it as a million elephants, due to the large number of elephants left behind during the Mongol and Khmer wars.
Battle of Prey Nokor
[edit]In 1283, the Yuan Dynasty of the Mongol Empire launched a second invasion of the Khmer Empire by sea, using 500 small and large warships under the leadership of a general named "Sogatu" who invaded the city of Prey Nokor, located in the southeast of the Khmer Empire. The armies of the two empires fought fiercely, as the Mongols were better equipped with weapons and artillery. Eventually, the Mongols overpowered the Khmer army and captured the city's treasures, including a Cambodian philosopher named "Danha Chey". Although the Mongols were superior to the Khmer army, the Mongols were unable to defeat the Khmer army. Two Mongol generals were captured in the fighting, and a prisoner exchange agreement was made after King Jayavarman VIII agreed to pay tribute to the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan in 1285 AD, after he saw that the cost of the war between the two empires was enormous.
Notes
[edit]- ↑ How far Lavo had stood inside Angkorian authority is disputed. Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit hold that the relationship was probably always somewhat flexible, and David K. Wyatt found no indication of Angkorian political or administrative power in the Lopburi inscriptions of 1168 to 1219, while adding that the absence is not conclusive.[6]: 50–51
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 Coedès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1.
- ↑ Chou Ta-kuan 周達観 (Zhou Daguan, fl.1297), Customs of Cambodia 風土記, transl. Paul Pelliot and J. Gilman d'Arcy Paul, Bangkok, Siam Society, 1993, pp.xviii-xix.
- ↑ Cœdès, George. (1956) The Making of South East Asia, pp.127-128.
- ↑ Twenty-eighth year of Zhi Yuan [1291], tenth month. The king of Lohu sent a mission who presented, with a memorial inscribed in letters of gold, the usual tribute of gold, elephant ivory, a red-crowned crane, five-coloured parrots, kingfisher feathers, rhinoceros horn, dammar resin, Barus camphor (borneol), and other things 嵇璜; Ji Huang, 續文獻通考 Xu Wen Xie Tong Kao (Continuation of the Overall Survey of Literature), Taipei, 臺灣商務印書館 Taiwan shang wu yin shu guan, 1983, 卷二十八 Ch.28.
- ↑ Cœdès, George. (1964) Les États hindouisés d'Indochine et d'Indonésie Paris.
- ↑ David K. Wyatt (2001). "Relics, Oaths and Politics in Thirteenth-Century Siam" (PDF). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 32 (1): 3–65. JSTOR 20072298. Archived from the original on 26 January 2026. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
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