ABSTRACT
From the time of Suryavarman II's death around 1150 until Jayavarman VII's coronation in 1182, only one dated Cambodian inscription has survived. More than any other king, Jayavarman labored to integrate Buddhist with Cambodian ideas of kingship. Buddhist kingship, of course, grew out of this Indian tradition, but in Jayavarman's reign these notions were modified in several ways. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, in fact, Angkor was extracting tribute from much of what is now Thailand and southern Laos as well as from Champa, occupying the coastal areas of central Vietnam. To these corners of the known world the multiple half-smiling faces of Jayavarman's temple-mountain and his portrait statues addressed their benignly powerful glance. The thirteenth century was a period of crisis throughout the region—;;a time of rapid change, significant movements of population, foreign invasions, altered patterns of trade, the appearance of new religions, and shifts in the balance of power.
