The Priest Who Measured Angkor: Zhou Daguan's Lost Year

In 1296, a Chinese diplomat named Zhou Daguan arrived at the height of the Khmer Empire, just as it was beginning to crack. He spent a year in residence near Angkor Wat — and wrote the only surviving firsthand account of daily life in the great city. This episode follows Zhou's journey from the court of Temür Khan down the Mekong to Tonlé Sap, into the wooden palaces and stone temples of Angkor. We talk about what he saw: the king's procession, the fire-lighting rituals, the markets where women sold goods and men carried fans, and the simmering tensions with neighboring Siam that would eventually undo the empire. Zhou's Zhenla Fengtu Ji is a rare window into a world that vanished — but not without leaving a trace. We also examine why his account was ignored in China for centuries, and how it was rediscovered in the 19th century to reshape European understanding of Angkor. #ZhouDaguan #AngkorWat #KhmerEmpire #ZhenlaFengtuJi #YuanDynasty #TonleSap #SiemReap #TemurKhan #AngkorThom #JayavarmanVIII #IndravarmanIII #CustomsOfCambodia #History #FexingoHistory #SoutheastAsianHistory #ChineseDiplomats #MedievalTravelers #LostCities Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo