The Day Angkor's Water Stopped Coming

In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine the final decades of the Khmer Empire through the lens of Angkor's most vital resource: water. They uncover how a series of monsoon failures, combined with over-engineered canals and a failing baray system, turned the empire's greatest strength into its fatal weakness. Drawing on tree-ring data from Brendan Buckley and the Greater Angkor Project's LiDAR surveys, they trace how drought and flood cycles—worsened by deforestation on Phnom Kulen—stressed agriculture, undermined the devaraja cult's authority, and contributed to the city's abandonment. But this isn't just a story of climate doom: Lucas explains how Angkor's rulers adapted, shifting worship to Theravada Buddhism and eventually moving the capital to Phnom Penh, while ordinary people made pragmatic choices to leave. The episode ends with a question: could Angkor's fate have been avoided, and what does its collapse teach us about our own water-stressed cities? #KhmerEmpire #Angkor #AngkorWat #TonleSap #Baray #PhnomKulen #BrendanBuckley #GreaterAngkorProject #LiDAR #Monsoon #ClimateChange #Deforestation #TheravadaBuddhism #Devaraja #PhnomPenh #SoutheastAsia #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo