Jewels in the Jungle (5 of 19)

Jewels in the Jungle

We think these buildings were once libraries, filled with ancient manuscripts...
like these modern Buddhist texts in a Cambodian temple.
These holy books, written on strips of palm leaf, are the greatest treasure this Buddhist monastery possesses.
They are used to teach monks and have been carefully preserved through all the modern tragedies of Cambodia.
But in a jungle climate, nothing made of palm leaf lasts very long.
These texts are some of the oldest in Cambodia, but were created about the same time when the first American troops went into action in the First World War.
So they are no help in understanding the glories of ancient Angkor.

But one form of record has survived, carved stone inscriptions in Sanskrit the sacred language of India.
Sanskrit was the language of the Hindu gods, for whom they built their beautiful temples.
Over 1200 inscriptions have been translated.
Many of them are in praise of the jings of Angkor, and they did lay it on a bit thick.
One inscription reads, "In all the sciences and all the sports, and in the arts the languages and writings and dancings and singings and all the rest, he was as clever as if he had been the first inventor of them.
And God, in seeing the jing, was astonished and said, 'Why did I create a rival for myself in this jing?"'
Sure it flattery, but it is still useful to modern historians.
From these ancient words, they built a detailed chronological list of all the Khmer jings and the temples.
This is how we know of the beginnings of the great Khmer Empire.