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1177 CEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Cham Forces Sail Up the Tonle Sap and Sack Angkor

A rival kingdom's fleet takes the Khmer capital and kills the king in 1177

On the timeline · around 1177 CE · Crisis and the Reign of Jayavarman VIITemple-Mountains and Angkor WatCrisis and the Reign of Jayavarman VIICham Forces Sail Up the Tonle Sap and Sack Angkor1140116011701180119012001210

Quick facts

Attacker
Champa, under King Jaya Indravarman IV
Route
Mekong River to Tonle Sap to Siem Reap River
Khmer king killed
Tribhuvanadityavarman

What happened

In 1177, the kingdom of Champa, a rival Indianized state on the coast of what is now central Vietnam, launched a surprise attack on Angkor. Cham forces under King Jaya Indravarman IV sailed a fleet up the Mekong River, across the Tonle Sap lake, and up the Siem Reap River to reach the Khmer capital directly by water, bypassing the empire's land defenses entirely. World History Encyclopedia describes it as Cham's humiliating revenge, looting Yasodharapura and pushing the empire to the edge of destruction; the reigning Khmer king, Tribhuvanadityavarman, was killed in the attack.

Why it matters

This is the low point of the empire's history and the direct trigger for the reign that followed: the man who would retake the capital and rebuild it, Jayavarman VII, came to power specifically because Angkor had just been humiliated and needed a new king who could restore it.

How we know

The attack is recorded in later Khmer inscriptions and depicted in bas-relief carvings on the walls of the Bayon and Banteay Chmar temples, which show Cham naval forces in combat, commissioned by Jayavarman VII's court after his eventual victory over Champa.

Sources

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Part of a timelineThe Khmer Empire28 events · How a trading kingdom on the Mekong became a temple-building empire that vanished into the jungleView all →