Agriculture et religion dans l'Empire angkorien

Agriculture and Religion in the Angkorian Empire History and archeology show that the Khmers, when they first came to settle in the plains of Northern Cambodia, were strongly influenced by their Indian and Founan experiences. Their initial form ôf agriculture was dependent solely on unreliable rivers and on the much too short summer monsoons. Beginning with the establishment of Angkor in the 9th century, the Khmers underwent a complete agricultural revolution which was responsible for their exceptional development. The basis of this revolution was the "hydraulic city", a vast water system making it possible to stock rain water, impound and regulate rivers and irrigate permanent rice fields, thus assuring both an abundant and stable production. The success of this form of exploitation was also due to their religion, which, though expressed in terms of Hindouism, was actually derived from more ancient soil and water cults.