Page:Angkor from Siamese pov - Damrong - 1925.pdf/3

 far as the river Salwin, and thence, penetrating the range of mountains to the, crossing the Menam and finally reaching Cambodia from her Western boundary; and the other coming from Southern India by the sea route, passing Sumatra and Java, entering the Mêkhōng and settling down in Cambodia, eventually reaching the Lao country to the north.

Owing to their superiority of culture over the indigenous races, the latter in time came to adopt the Indians as their teachers and model. It is through this that the three races came to profess Indian religions and use Indian customs and manners, and even acquire some branches of their knowledge. In the countries of the Môn and Lao, it has not been ascertained whether Indians ever came to the position of rulers, but with the Khmer they attained sovereignty by intermarriage with the ruling families and hence we have Khmer Kings of Southern Indian blood ruling the country from the 8th century A.D. It was these monarchs who built the famous monuments in Khmer territory. When the Khmer spread their influence over the Lao, they established Colonies and erected monuments further and further into Lao territories. This process continued until Khmer power waned towards the eleventh century A.D., owing to the invasions of the Burmese and Môn at first, and then to the rise of Siamese power in the Menam valley. The Siamese finally conquered the Khmer in the 14th century. The succession of events being such, it will, therefore, be readily seen, that all Khmer monuments date back to one continuous period, that is, from the sixth to the twelfth centuries A.D. And yet they were numerous. So far as have been discovered, they now number about 600 in Cambodia alone; and 130 in Siam and French Laos; some made of stone, some of laterite, and some in brick or mixture of the three; and they all belong to the above-mentioned period of 600 years.

Most Khmer monuments are in the form of sanctuaries. Some are Buddhist, whilst others are Brahmin. The styles of architecture and decoration originated in India, but were later modified by skilled artists so as to create finally an altogether indepen-