On any comparative scale, the temple of Sdok Kak Thom is of modest size. Its ruined sandstone sanctuary and associated reservoir lie 130km north-west of Angkor, just on the Thai side of the border with Cambodia. It belonged to a noble family that, for nine generations, had dedicated their service to the Angkorian royal dynasties, beginning in AD 800 with the founder King Jayavarman II and ending with the reign of Udayadityavarman II 250 years later. It was there that, beyond any doubt, the most important stone inscription documenting the history of Angkor was discovered in the late 19th century. Numerous scholars have pored over and given their versions of the meaning of the Sanskrit and Old Khmer lines carved on a sandstone stela that stood 1.51m high. One cannot see it any more: it was destroyed in a fire that swept through the Thai National Museum in 1958, but copies survive in Paris.
The stela was set up on 8 February 1053, following a difficult episode in Angkor’s history, which saw a civil war involving three rival rulers following the death of the last king of the first dynasty. Suryavarman I was triumphant and established, as I have called it, the Dynasty of the Sun Kings, to reflect his name: ‘protégé of the sun’. The civil war had been very disruptive. There had been looting, pillage, and social upheaval. There are records of a most heinous crime, rooting up the boundary markers of land ownership, for which those guilty were impaled. And in the aftermath of war, as peace was restored, the noble family of Sdok Kak Thom under its patriarch Sadasiva set up this text to proclaim their 250-year loyalty to the crown and rights to their land.
Among a myriad of fascinating insights into the relationship between a noble family, its retainers, and the crown, there is a priceless section that has for long been the key evidence for the very foundation of Angkor. It describes how a king Jayavarman, meaning ‘protégé of victory’, came from afar to the northern shore of the Great Lake, the Tonle Sap. His long march began at his princely base, which has provisionally been identified at the huge, moated site of Banteay Prei Nokor on the left bank of the Mekong River. The text describes how he progressed northwards up the river, then wheeled to the west, conquering his enemies as he went, and settling land on his loyal generals.
