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Angkor Wat was and is a prime example of human civilization and its early prowess. However, the title is not entirely right. The Angkor Wat by itself was built

Angkor Wat was and is a prime example of human civilization and its early prowess. However, the title is not entirely right. The Angkor Wat by itself was built by Suryavarman who was apparently a descendant of the Cholas of Tamilnadu, India. The Cholas and Pandyas are very under documented empires. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Suryavarman-II https://www.britannica.com/biography/Suryavarman-II There are tamil inscriptions in Angor Wat and the architecture is highly influenced by Chola/Pandya architecture. https://www.quora.com/How-did-Tamil-Kingdoms-influence-Angkor-Wat-the-worlds-biggest-religious-structure https://www.quora.com/How-did-Tamil-Kingdoms-influence-Angko... Some examples of what the Cholas and Pandyas accomplished which stands to today are Tanjore Temple (Cholas) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX9-__GWHnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX9-__GWHnA (Edit: Unfortunately, this video also has a lot of old western cliched ideas of Hinduism, hope I had a better documentary to share...) (for scale, this can fit 200 Taj Mahals) Madurai Meenakshi (Pandyas) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQjI3DPt9Tk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQjI3DPt9Tk You can see that the architectural pattern of 4 directional gateways with a central temple complex is basically the same as Angor Wat.

tacomonstrous 6y ago
>The Angkor Wat by itself was built by Suryavarman who was apparently a descendant of the Cholas of Tamilnadu, India. I don't think there is any evidence to suggest that the Khmer dynasty was ethnically South Asian. Do you have a reference for this?
- rusticpenn 6y ago
  It is very interesting because Suryavarman is a very common Tamil name, Surya means Sun. All his ancestors names are also typical Tamil names and are very similar to names of Chola kings at that time.
- richajak 6y ago
  I think that statement by avighnay is misleading to the readers. Ethnically, South East Asians are definitely not south asian. We can find filipino with mostly western names, malaysian with arabic names, indonesian with old sanskrit names, others with chinese names. however, their ethnicity? hmm For those who are aware of South East Asian's history, they are influenced by the Indian and Culture culture for the past two millennia, in addition to their own local culture. We can find some traces of Hindu-influence temples AD 800-1500, Chinese trading since Tang Dynasty onwards, even western culture during AD 1500 onwards.
BugsBunny1991 6y ago
There doesn't seem to be anything apparent about Suryavarman's origins, at least according to what I've read from Cambodian scholars.

tacomonstrous 6y ago

>The Angkor Wat by itself was built by Suryavarman who was apparently a descendant of the Cholas of Tamilnadu, India. I don't think there is any evidence to suggest that the Khmer dynasty was ethnically South Asian. Do you have a reference for this?

rusticpenn 6y ago
It is very interesting because Suryavarman is a very common Tamil name, Surya means Sun. All his ancestors names are also typical Tamil names and are very similar to names of Chola kings at that time.
richajak 6y ago
I think that statement by avighnay is misleading to the readers. Ethnically, South East Asians are definitely not south asian. We can find filipino with mostly western names, malaysian with arabic names, indonesian with old sanskrit names, others with chinese names. however, their ethnicity? hmm For those who are aware of South East Asian's history, they are influenced by the Indian and Culture culture for the past two millennia, in addition to their own local culture. We can find some traces of Hindu-influence temples AD 800-1500, Chinese trading since Tang Dynasty onwards, even western culture during AD 1500 onwards.

BugsBunny1991 6y ago

There doesn't seem to be anything apparent about Suryavarman's origins, at least according to what I've read from Cambodian scholars.