Religions
Animism
From the earliest stages of the Khmer Empire, ordinary
people had worshipped spirits. South-East Asian people were animists before
Hinduism and Buddhism arrived in their lands and took over their belief systems.
Animism is the belief that natural phenomena like rain and winds have souls. It
also includes believing that people, animals and objects are inhabited by
spirits. Animists also believe that there was life after death and they
worshipped their ancestors’ spirits. Soon, Animism in the Khmer Empire became a
mixture of its own major traditions and the earlier local customs the people
had inhabited.
Hinduism
The first religion to come into South-East Asia was Hinduism.
The ancient religion has many gods and had originated in India. A couple of the
gods were Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma, who were the three Hindu Gods the Khmer
Empire focused on the most. The Khmer people may have embraced Hinduism because
the Indians who visited were very prosperous had an advanced culture, and they
wanted that too. We can’t be sure of the reasons but we do know that the Khmer
people did in fact build temples for these gods and worshipped them.
Further evidence of Hinduism in the Khmer Empire is found in stone temple inscriptions. They were often written in Sanskrit, which was the language of Hinduism. These inscriptions were used to talk to gods and to praise the king, nobility or the Brahmins. In very extravagant language, they wrote on the stone in poems.
Many South-East Asian states had adopted Hinduism into their lives but they had never seemed to adopt the caste system. The caste system in India divided their society into classes, they called castes. The castes were the Brahman (priests), the warriors and landowners, the farmers and craftsmen, and the outcasts.
Hinduism had a significant influence on the Khmer society. Temples were built for these gods and the whole concept of the god-king came from Hinduism. Having the god-king gave the Khmer Empire belief and control, and this gave the Khmer rulers absolute power and authority. This contributed greatly to the Khmer Empire’s success and prosperity.
Further evidence of Hinduism in the Khmer Empire is found in stone temple inscriptions. They were often written in Sanskrit, which was the language of Hinduism. These inscriptions were used to talk to gods and to praise the king, nobility or the Brahmins. In very extravagant language, they wrote on the stone in poems.
Many South-East Asian states had adopted Hinduism into their lives but they had never seemed to adopt the caste system. The caste system in India divided their society into classes, they called castes. The castes were the Brahman (priests), the warriors and landowners, the farmers and craftsmen, and the outcasts.
Hinduism had a significant influence on the Khmer society. Temples were built for these gods and the whole concept of the god-king came from Hinduism. Having the god-king gave the Khmer Empire belief and control, and this gave the Khmer rulers absolute power and authority. This contributed greatly to the Khmer Empire’s success and prosperity.
Buddhism
At the end of the 12th century, Mahayana Buddhism
was introduced to the Khmer Empire and started taking over Hinduism. This religion
also came from India and was brought by traders to the Khmer area. The Mahayana
Buddhism says that the Buddha should be worshipped and this was quite prominent
in the Khmer Empire until Theravada Buddhism was introduced. Theravada Buddhism
brought consequences onto the empire as everything soon started to fall apart.
In Theravada Buddhism, it doesn’t say that you have to worship gods so the
people stopped seeing their ‘god-king’ as any special. This meant things weren’t
getting done as people didn’t view their king as important anymore. This led to
the fall of the empire.
Theravada Buddhism continues to be the state religion for both Cambodia and Thailand today.
Theravada Buddhism continues to be the state religion for both Cambodia and Thailand today.