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1,200 Years Ago in Southeast Asia

Khmer empire revives under the great King Jayavarman II in 802 AD, freeing the Khmers from control by Java. Jayavarman is most famous for beginning to build a new capital, Angkor Thom. Jayavarman died before the project could be completed, and his nephew, Indravarman, who became king in 877 was responsible for constructing the city. Angkor Thom was pre-planned with extensive use of irrigation canals to control the flooding of Mekong River and to provide water during the winter dry season. Khmer farmers could now grow three crops of rice a year. It took thousands of workers, both hired labourers and slaves, to finish the city. The city centre was filled with temples and royal buildings, while most of the people lived in surrounding "suburbs".

Other powers in the region were the great Buddhist empire of Srivijaya (which lasted from 650-1150 AD), including the island of Sumatra and Malaysia, and the Champa kingdom in south Vietnam with a capital at Danang. The Champa, probably a Malay people, were great merchants and seafarers. The kingdom was founded by 300 AD but reached its peak around 800.

In 938 AD, Ngo Quyen leads a Vietnamese army to victory against the Chinese at the Battle of the Dang River. While the Vietnamese still had to make tribute payments to the Chinese emperor, the battle marked the beginning of an independent kingdom of Vietnam. The Vietnamese were frequently at war with Champa.

The discovery of a copper plate from 900 AD in the Philippines, shows parts of the island group may have been part of a Hindu kingdom based on Java. The copper plate, with etched letters, records a legal transaction and uses a Javanese alphabet called Kavi. Kavi, itself based on Indian letters, is the source of most of the letters used in southeast Asia. Writing in south India and southeast Asia was most often done on palm leaves, called "pattra", the Sanskrit Indian word for leaf. A number of leaves would be bound into a book. However, few of these ancient writings have survived.

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