Culinary Blog

Mahendraparvata Jayavarman II, -after an elaborate spiritual ceremony that included rituals performed by Brahman Hiranyadama- rose above the crowd that had gathered atop Mount Kulen, (Phnom Kulen) having just been crowned a deva raja, (god-king) a Chakravarti, (lord of the universe), it is the year 802 AD. Jayavarman II had returned to this land -then known as Chenla- from exile in Java; at the time of his return, Chenla was under the control of the Shailendra, a dynasty of Javanese kings. He swiftly built a strong power base by conquering and uniting a patchwork of small fiefdoms in the area, quickly rising to rule them all. An inscription from the temple at Sdok Kok Thom recounts the story of the ritual that occurred on that day in 802, atop the sacred mountain, when it was known as Mahendraparvata, (Mountain of the Great Indra). Jayavarman II declared independence from ‘Java’, and a new nation was born, the Khmer Empire. The Khmer Empire, (802 CE to 1431) would go on to become the largest in South East Asia, incorporating the lands of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and parts of Southwestern China. The capital would move to Angkor; where the ruler Suryavarman II constructed the stunning temple, Angkor Wat, a microcosm of the Hindu universe and the largest religious complex on the planet. Sacred Mountain, Lost City Jayavarman II would rule for almost 50 years after his coronation and Mahendraparvata was one of three capital cities during his reign; the others being Amarendrapura and finally, Hariharalaya where he died in 850. Mahendraparvata is located 40 kilometers north of the Angkor Wat complex, 45 kilometers north of Siem Reap on the slopes of what is now called Phnom, (Mount) Kulen; the once great city predates the Angkor complex by 350 years. Whereas Angkor was not entirely abandoned by local people, but lost and found again by the Western world, Mahendraparvata was thought lost forever. Angkor was largely neglected after the 16th century when the capital moved closer toward Phnom Penh: yet fourteen inscriptions found in the area and dated from the 17th century, testify to Japanese Buddhist pilgrims having established small settlements alongside Khmer locals at Angkor. The best-known inscription tells of Ukondayu Kazufusa, who celebrated the Khmer New Year at Angkor Wat in 1632. One of the first Western visitors to the Angkor Wat temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese friar who visited in 1586, declaring it had “all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of”. In 1860, the temple was effectively rediscovered by the French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot, who popularized the site throughout the western world with the publication of his expedition notes; in which he wrote: “One of these temples, a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo, might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome…” Mahendraparvata on the other hand was extremely remote, swallowed up by the mountain and reclaimed by the jungle. The 1936 expedition of French archaeologist and art historian Philippe Stern, explored the Kulen highlands, where he discovered many previously unknown temples and Vishnu statues. He described it as the first true temple mountain, but the area and whilst being the source of rivers flowing south to the Tonle Sapit was very remote and hard to access. Wars and their remnants, (mines and unexploded ordinance) would halt further exploration for many decades and the area was known to be one of the final strongholds of the Khmer Rouge. In 1973 and 1979 Jean Boulbet and Bruno Dagens manages to publish an archeological inventory and mapping of Phnom Kulen. Discovery Following up on the previous work of Stern, Boulbet, and Dagens, a multi-year and often dangerous archaeological expedition co-led by Damian Evans of the University of Sydney and Jean-Baptiste Chevance of London’s Archaeology and Development Foundation was undertaken. Finally, in 2013 some 1,200 after the city was first developed, they announced their findings, the lost city of Mahendraparvata had finally been re-discovered. A key feature of the expedition was the aid of airborne laser scanning technology called LIDAR, which was used to scan the Phnom Kulen area, and enabled them to map the city layout. The Lidar results confirmed ground-based research conducted by previous archaeologists but, according to JB Chevance, before this, we “didn’t know exactly how it all came together”. Thirty previously unidentified temples were discovered, as well as the existence of an elaborate grid-like network of roads, dykes, and ponds forming a major city. Dr. Evans also noted that the imagery showed that the area had become deforested, and he theorized that the impact of this, and water management issues, led to the civilization’s decline and eventual abandonment of the city. The River of a Thousand Lingas Kbal Spean is an archaeological site on the southwest slopes of the Kulen Hills, it is situated along a 150m stretch of the Stung Kbal Spean River. The stone river bed and banks are elaborately carved with Hindu symbols of lingas, yonis as well as many other symbols of the pantheon of Hindu gods as well as animals. The carvings began in the 11th century and were completed sometime in the 12th century. King Udayadityavarman II is said to have consecrated a golden ling here in the year 1059AD. The Stung Kbal Spean River is a tributary of the Siem Reap river and it is believed the waters are blessed here before they flow down into Angkor. The archaeological site was discovered in 1969 by Jean Boulbet, an ethnologist, but further exploration was cut off due to the Cambodian Civil War. Mountain of Lychees Today, the small mountain range is called Phnom Kulen, (Mountain of Lychees) and it sits inside the Phnom Kulen National Park, the plateau stretches for 40 kilometers and the average height is 400 meters above sea-level, with the highest point being 487 meters. Lying south of the Dângrêk Mountains and … Read more