Jayavarman VIII and the Shivaite Purge of Angkor

After centuries of Buddhist kings building Angkor's grandest monuments, a Shiva-worshipping king named Jayavarman VIII seized power in 1243 and systematically dismantled the Mahayana Buddhist state. He smashed Buddha images, converted temples back to Hindu sanctuaries, and recarved the Bayon's serene faces into angry Hindu gods. But his religious revolution came at a terrible cost: while he looked backward to restore the devaraja cult, the real threat was gathering outside Angkor's walls. The Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan was demanding submission, and the Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai and Lan Na were breaking free. This episode traces the paranoid king's campaign to erase Buddhism from Angkor's temples and monuments, the frantic diplomacy that tried to placate the Mongols without paying tribute, and the irreversible weakening of Khmer power that followed. Along the way we examine the physical evidence of iconoclasm at the Bayon, Banteay Kdei, and Ta Prohm, the Chinese account of Zhou Daguan who saw the aftermath decades later, and the question of whether Jayavarman VIII's reactionary policies set the stage for Angkor's eventual abandonment. #JayavarmanVIII #Angkor #KhmerEmpire #Shivaism #BuddhistPurge #Bayon #Iconoclasm #KublaiKhan #MongolInvasion #Sukhothai #ZhouDaguan #devaraja #13thCentury #SoutheastAsia #TaProhm #BanteayKdei #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo