The Rice That Starved Angkor: Climate and Crop Failure

While previous episodes have explored the hydraulic engineering of the barays and the political shifts toward Theravada Buddhism, this episode investigates a more fundamental failure: the agricultural system itself. We examine how the Khmer Empire’s reliance on a single rice variety, Hom Mali, combined with severe drought cycles detected in lake sediment cores, led to widespread famine. Lucas traces the journey from the golden age of Jayavarman VII to the reign of Indravarman III, showing how climate stress fractured the social contract between the king and his subjects. Luna asks about the specific biological vulnerabilities of these crops and how the shift away from Mahayana patronage removed the religious justification for state-led grain storage. Together, we uncover how a broken food supply, rather than just military defeat by Ayutthaya or Champa, silently emptied the cities of Angkor Thom.

#KhmerEmpire #AngkorWat #ClimateHistory #SoutheastAsiaHistory #RiceAgriculture #HomMali #IndravarmanIII #JayavarmanVII #DroughtCrisis #TonleSap #BarayEngineering #TheravadaBuddhism #MahayanaBuddhism #ZhouDaguan #LiDARFindings #LakeSedimentAnalysis #FexingoHistory #HistoryPodcast #AncientCivilizations

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