Angkor's Climate Collapse: Monsoon Failures and the Khmer Exodus

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how climate change—specifically weakened monsoon rains—contributed to the slow unraveling of the Khmer Empire. Drawing on tree-ring data from the Greater Angkor Project and the work of paleoclimatologist Brendan Buckley, they trace how decades of drought, followed by intense flooding, destabilized Angkor's intricate water management system. The conversation moves beyond simple collapse narratives, considering how the shift from Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism under kings like Indravarman III and Jayavarman IX may have reshaped the court's relationship with the land, and why the city's population gradually drifted toward the Tonle Sap and the new political center at Phnom Penh. They also discuss the environmental pressures that made Angkor increasingly difficult to sustain, and how the city's fall was less a dramatic end than a slow fading, as people and power moved elsewhere. Specifics include the role of the East Baray, the siltation of canals, and the challenges of adapting an immense hydraulic state to a changing climate. #KhmerEmpire #Angkor #ClimateChange #Monsoon #BrendanBuckley #GreaterAngkorProject #TonleSap #JayavarmanIX #IndravarmanIII #TheravadaBuddhism #HydraulicCity #Paleoclimatology #TreeRings #SoutheastAsia #History #Archaeology #FexingoHistory #Collapse Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo