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Jayavarman VIII: The King Who Unmade Angkor's Buddhist Gods
After the devout Buddhist king Jayavarman VII died, his successor Jayavarman VIII — a staunch Shaivite — launched a sweeping iconoclastic campaign across the Khmer Empire. He ordered the defacement of countless Buddha images, the destruction of Avalokiteshvara carvings, and the conversion of Buddhist temples like the Bayon into Hindu sanctuaries. This episode explores his reign (1243–1295), the religious motivations behind the backlash, and the historical detective work that revealed the scale of the destruction. We also discuss how the Mongol envoy Zhou Daguan, who arrived just after…
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