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The Theravada Wave That Undid the Devaraja
Description
Episode 112 of our Khmer Empire series explores the religious earthquake that may have done more to bring down Angkor than any invading army. While earlier episodes examined drought, trade disruption, and military defeats, this conversation zeroes in on the quiet but relentless spread of Theravada Buddhism across mainland Southeast Asia during the 13th and 14th centuries. Lucas and Luna discuss how the egalitarian, merit-based teachings of Theravada — carried by monks from Sri Lanka and Burma — gradually eroded the ideological foundations of the Khmer state, which had for centuries been built around the devaraja, or god-king cult. They look at inscriptional evidence from the reign of Jayavarman VIII, the conversion of the Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai and Lanna, and the role of forest-dwelling monks. They examine the crucial reign of Indravarman III (also known as K. 470), a Khmer king who apparently embraced Theravada and may have deliberately dismantled the state apparatus. The episode also touches on the exodus of Khmer elites southward to Phnom Penh and Lovek, and how Thailand's Wat Mahathat tradition absorbed Angkorian prestige. No battle, no drought — just a change in what people believed, and the slow collapse of a civilization's soul.