Jayavarman VII.

Portrait head of Jayavarman VII.

South gate to the new capital built under Jayavarman VII

Bayon

Jayavarman VII (* 12th century; † after 1206, possibly 1220) was king of the Khmer empire Kambuja , known as the empire of Angkor , from 1181 to after 1206 or 1220 .

He was the son of Dharanindravarman II , who presumably never ruled, and his wife Cūdāmani, the daughter of King Harshavarman III. (ruled from around 1067 until at least 1071/72). As a military leader he learned during a campaign (against whom, it is not clear) of the accession to the throne by Yaśovarman II and then (around 1165) of his overthrow and death by the rebellion of Bhārata Rāhus . As a result of this turmoil, Tribhuvanādityavarman ascended the throne around 1165 . Jayavarman said he wanted to come to the aid of Yaśovarman II, but did not reach the capital in time and withdrew with his soldiers to an unknown place during the following years.

On June 14, 1177, the Cham , surprisingly with ships coming from the east across the Tonle Sap Sea , conquered the capital of the Khmer, where Tribhuvanādityavarman also met his death. Jayavarman finally managed to defeat the invaders. In 1181, he ascended the throne as Jayavarman VII. As a result, he continued campaigns against the Cham, pushed them back further and further, finally conquered their capital Vijaya with the help of the allied Cham Prince Vidyānandana and set his brother-in-law, Prince In, as King Sūryajayavarmadeva . At the same time, Vidyānandana also set up her own empire in the south of Champa and took the royal name Suryavarmadeva. Around 1193 he took power over the entire Empire of Champa and rebelled against the supremacy of Jayavarman VII. Until 1203 they waged war against each other again, which ended with Jayavarman VII forcing his adversary to flee to Dai Viet (see History of Vietnam ). As a result, Champa remained as a province under the rule of the Khmer until around 1220.

Jayavarman VII is considered one of the most important and last of the great kings of Angkor. During his long reign, a new capital was established about 1.5 km north of Angkor Wat : the "big city", Angkor Thom . In contrast to his Hindu predecessors, the king was a Buddhist . A large number of Buddhist temples were built on his behalf - including Bayon, known for its meter-high face towers as the new main temple - as well as monasteries and universities such as Ta Prohm .

According to various inscriptions from that time, the Khmer empire reached its greatest expansion under Jayavarman VII. In addition to Champa, the king also ruled over large parts of the Malay Peninsula , southern Laos and areas of later Thailand .

In today's Cambodia he is revered as a promoter of Buddhism. A statue in the National Museum of Phnom Penh shows him meditating - there are many copies of him across the country.

literature

• David Chandler : A History of Cambodia . Westview Press, Oxford ISBN 0-8133-3511-6
• Michael Freeman , Claude Jacques : Ancient Angkor , Asia Books, ISBN 974-8225-27-5
• Karl-Heinz Golzio : History of Cambodia , Becksche series, ISBN 3-406-49435-8
• William Aelred Southworth : Chinese and Vietnamese Accounts of Cambodia during the 12th Century ; in: Power and Splendor of Old Cambodia, ed. v. K.-H. Golzio & A, Heitmann, themed issue Orientierungen 2007, Munich 2007, pp. 90–125.

Web links

Commons : Jayavarman VII.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Tribhuvanāditya	King of the Khmer 1181 - 1206 or later	unknown; in 1243 King Indravarman II died.