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The Chinese Envoy Who Saw Angkor's Last Days
Description
When Zhou Daguan visited Angkor in 1296, the Khmer Empire was still magnificent — but already cracking. His journal, 'The Customs of Cambodia', is the only first-person account of daily life in the capital under Indravarman III. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine what Zhou saw: the royal processions, the betel-chewing courtiers, the slave markets, and the quiet omens of collapse that the Khmer themselves may not have noticed. They explore Zhou's observations of Theravada Buddhism displacing the devaraja cult, the shifting trade networks with China, and the strains on Angkor's hydraulic system. They also consider why Zhou's account was nearly lost — buried in Chinese archives for centuries — and what it reveals about the empire's final act. This is a story of a foreign visitor who walked through a golden city at dusk, not knowing the night was coming.