Aséanie 27, juin 2011, p. 35-66 Using Inscription Data to Investigate Power in Angkor’s Empire

Eileen Lustig

A growing body of archaeological data is providing insights into settlement,

material culture and trade of pre-Angkorian (fifth to eighth centuries) and Angkorian (ninth to fifteenth centuries) Southeast Asia. Yet our knowledge of

the society has been restricted by limited historical data, as records on perishable

materials have not survived in the tropical climate. Apart from a few contemporary

reports from neighbouring polities, notably China and Vietnam, much of our rather narrow appreciation of this society has been gleaned from relatively few stone

temple inscriptions. Researchers have used key texts to draw conclusions about

events in history, especially elite genealogies, wars and monuments, but interest in

the exercise of political power— the capacity to control or influence governance—

and how this might have varied over time and across space has not been as much a

focus of research as in some contemporary polities, for example Pagan (e. g. Aung Thwin 1985), Vijayanagara (e. g. Sinopoli and Morrison 1995) and Inka (e. g. D’Altroy 1992). In an early epigraphy-based, synchronic study of the Khmer economy, Sedov

depicted the state as integrated by ideology and by the redistribution of resources

through a hierarchy of temples (Sedov 1967; see also Hall 1985). Other scholars— again somewhat synchronically— provided interpretations of Angkor’s political and administrative institutions, often referring to Indian structures (e. g. Sahai Sachchidanand 1970). Vickery’s comprehensive analysis of pre-Angkorian politics and economics examined internal Khmer transformations and took account of spatial and temporal fluctuations (Vickery 1998). More recently, Hendrickson has studied the development

of Angkorian communication networks in light of the state’s changing political

and economic objectives (Hendrickson 2007). Using the available Khmer epigraphic data, Lustig has examined the Angkorian political economy, particularly trade in the absence of money; and changing relationships between rulers, the elite and temple