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Angkor Wat

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing and massive Cambodian temple commissioned by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, a centre for Hinduism, Buddhism and Animism.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the largest and arguably the most astonishing religious structure on Earth, built for Suryavarman II in the 12th Century in modern-day Cambodia. It is said to have more stone in it than the Great Pyramid of Giza, and much of the surface is intricately carved and remarkably well preserved. For the last 900 years Angkor Wat has been a centre of religion, whether Hinduism, Buddhism or Animism or a combination of those, and a source of wonder to Cambodians and visitors from around the world.

With

Piphal Heng
Postdoctoral scholar at the Cotsen Institute and the Programme for Early Modern Southeast Asia at UCLA

Ashley Thompson
Hiram W Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art at SOAS University of London

And

Simon Warrack
A stone conservator who has worked extensively at Angkor Wat

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Available now

49 minutes

Last on

Thu 23 Jun 2022 21:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

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LINKS AND FURTHER READING

CONTRIBUTORS






READING LIST

R. Brotherson, ‘Special Section: new discoveries at Angkor Wat, Angkor’ (Antiquity, 89: 348, 2015)

Alison K. Carter and others, ‘The Evolution of Agro-Urbanism: A Case Study from Angkor, Cambodia’ (Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 63: 101323, 2021)

Cristina Cobo Castillo and others, ‘The Khmer Did Not Live by Rice Alone: Archaeobotanical Investigations at Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm’ (Archaeological Research in Asia 24 December, 2020)

Michael D. Coe and Damian Evans, Angkor and the Khmer Civilization (Thames & Hudson. 2018)

George Coedes, Angkor: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, 1963)

Zhou Daguan (trans. Solang Uk and Beling Uk), A Record of Cambodia's Land and Customs (New Generation Publishing, 2010)

Penny Edwards, Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860-1945 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2008)

M. Falser, Angkor Wat: A Transcultural History of Heritage (De Gruyter, 2020)

Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques, Ancient Angkor (River Books, 2009)

Peter Grave and others, ‘Centralized Power/Decentralized Production? Angkorian Stoneware and the Southern Production Complex of Cheung Ek, Cambodia’ (Journal of Archaeological Science, 125 January, 2021)

Piphal Heng and others, ‘Form, Structure and Long-Term Angkorian Urbanism: A View from the Kok Phnov Site (9th–10th Century CE)’ (Archaeological Research in Asia 31 September, 2022)

Helen Ibbotson Jessup, Temples of Cambodia: The Heart of Angkor (River Books, 2011)

Thomas S. Maxwell, Of Gods, Kings and Men: The Reliefs of Angkor Wat (Silkworm Books, 2007)

Theresa McCullough, Stephen A. Murphy, Pierre Baptiste, and Thierry Zéphir (eds.), Angkor: Exploring Cambodia’s Sacred City (Asian Civilisations Museum, 2018)

Ashley Thompson, Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor (Routledge, 2016)

Vittorio Roveda, Sacred Angkor: Carved Reliefs Of Angkor Wat (River Books, 2001)


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Broadcasts

  • Thu 23 Jun 2022 09:00
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4
  • Thu 23 Jun 2022 21:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

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