The Khmer Civilization of Cambodia began as a city spanning 386 miles on the hill tops of Kulen Mountain around 802 AD.
The Khmer people of the Angkorean empire were of considerable sophistication and were versed in Sciences such as Astrology, Engineering and Architecture.
Their Technical Knowledge and skills in construction reflect ardency in the edifice known as The Great Temple (which was integral to an expansive city complex and spread over an area of over 17 square miles within South East Asia.
The Khmer were also expert Rice Farmers and traded with neighbouring territories, and irrigated their agricultural land with a networked multiplicity of inter-connecting earthen canals so as to ensure that their rice fields were supplied with sufficient water in order to grow their crops successfully.
It appears that the principle activity of the Khmer was growing rice and so the society embraced a Mono-Culture. The spectacular temple of Angkor Wat is a major piece of both architecture and art.
Artwork: L.D.K
The City State appears to have been governed by religious principles and the ruling echelon was largely comprised of Monks.
Records indicate that the Khmer Civilization declined abruptly, and it appears that a principle reason was the reoccurring failure of the Rice Harvests over a number of years.
Various Paleo-Climatological records (such as rock, sediment and tree ring data) along with other Chronological data reflect the stark ecological damage which was a primary cause of the decline and fall of what was once a flourishing city of the advanced Khmer Civilization in regards to the population abandoning the city and dispersing.
Research indicates that the Khmer cleared the land of trees to enable their rice fields and irrigation system of long canals and in the process of their ambitious construction, they gathered much of their materials from natural forest resources.
During this particular period, the Angkor Wat region experienced long droughts which lasted as long as six months.
The canals and reservoirs were obviously created in response to the re-occurring droughts, but also as a run-off from the paddy rice fields during the Monsoons.
The heavy downpours and the denudation caused by the Monsoons resulted in valuable nutrients and top soil being washed away into the the irrigation system channels.
The flooding damaged crops and the loss of the top soil impacted the rice harvest.
Scientists suggest that the Khmer aggravated the natural cycles of Drought and Monsoons, by devoting too much land to rice farming; in order to grow the rice crops successfully, the Khmer engaged in excessive (i.e large scale) deforestation of the land and the loss of nutrients from the protection of the trees and their tree roots which held the natural consistency of the top soil together.
Once the trees were removed this made the top soil more vulnerable to erosion by the overflowing of water in the heavy Monsoon rain and also more vulnerable to wind erosion and soil parchment (i.e the baking of the land in the heat due highly warm temperatures, along with periods of severe drought).
The widespread clearance of what was originally forested land, for the cultivation of rice grown upon a scale of dependency that made it a mono-culture crop, eventually led to food insecurity for the population; which then led to the rapid decline of the Khmer Civilization.
Among many ancient inscriptions, the anguish of the Khmer people is indicated by an edict/proclamation inscribed on the Great Temple wall which states: “ Do not harm the trees.” It appears that the Khmer Monks/High Priests ultimately realised that the Deforestation of the land was a significant strand in the unravelling of adverse circumstances which ensued and which resulted in the decline of the welfare and fortunes of the Khmer people.
The duality of extreme weather together with human error in terms of poor land management, ultimately led to economic collapse.
It seems that Ancient Cambodia was experiencing regional Climate Change, and that the extreme contrasts in the severity of those climatic events impacted the soil, water and agriculture of the ancient Angkor Wat Kingdom.
Although the beauty of huge ancient trees have since woven themselves into the co-existing architecture of the temple structures, less than a fifth of Kulen Mountain Forest remains from it’s original geographical size.
Fewer trees to counter-act flooding or high winds means that there is more soil depletion, along with damage to the foundations of buildings, which include the Ancient Temples.
The Ancient Historical record of Angkor Wat is a good example of how severe weather patterns along with large scale Deforestation can accelerate the decline of a community.
Many years later; a single golden leaf which was unlike any other of the fashioned golden leaves was discovered by archeologists in one of the Temple complexes ( and also not merely gold leaf- which is obviously very different), within a stone box/capsule along with an Amethyst Crystal Ball in a box, in one of the Temple Shafts of the West Mebon Temple. (Keep in mind that it was Ancient religious custom for Temples to be built within exact star-system alignments, as ancient temples also served as places of Astro-theological and Celestial observatories for one of the main purposes of seasonal/cyclical study and interpretation.
(It should be remembered that although the golden leaf was found in a stone box it was not customary for burials at the temples of Angkor Wat, therefore ruling out the idea that the items left behind in stone boxes were specifically funerary artefact items).
Artwork: L.D.K
If we look more closely at the possibility of the one intricate golden leaf in conjunction to the amethyst ball being left as some sort of chronicled sacred/spiritual and planetary message for everyone living in the world (not only at this present time, but also for future generations), then it would undoubtedly serve to remind us that although we do not quite know what the future holds in regards to Climate Change, Earth and the forces of nature; that Ecology and Conservation (including things like air-quality, food security, and clean water) are truly Universal matters for everybody who lives on this planet, in terms of current and future international dialogue; as opposed to the void within the blinkered notions of Controlled International Dialogue. (If the former is applied, it could benefit humanity as a whole in multiple ways, whilst at the same time moving everybody on the planet further along the lines of conscious evolution within Earth’s planetary conscious fields).
In essence, one can not ‘contain’ what is in fact a Universal topic such as Climate Change and environmental matters in a small and contrived box of Internationally Controlled Narrative.
The message of one of the Khmer temple inscriptions (as interpreted by a monk many years ago) is very clear. It is also highly conceivable that the single, highly intricate golden leaf along with the quartz crystal ball were purposefully left behind (within the safe-keeping of the temple) as some sort of chronicle of the times, in order to serve as both an ecological time capsule and a spiritual reminder to humanity in matters of Climate Change.
Should we interpret the single intricate golden leaf (as discovered near one of the zenith shafts in the West Mehbon temple), as an ecological message, then we are reminded of what the real gold of planet Earth truly is…
Peace. L.D.K
(Article written by L.D.K)
(Copyright of L.D.K 15th June 2021)