Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia | Reflections of a lawyer on journeying in Cambodia
If the life of law is not logic but experience as Holmes said, the legal fraternity must go around the globe to learn more about cross-border cultural life and natural history, writes Mohan Katarki.
Mohan V Katarki
Published on: 31 December 2024, 02:11 pm
A visit to Cambodia during the Christmas holidays by the team of lawyers under the aegis of the Bar Association of India— hosted by the Cambodia Bar Association— was a refreshing break for the litigating warriors.
Even though traveling was definitely for tourism, it has its way of enhancing knowledge of law through interdisciplinary exploration, especially looking at the cultural history of a nation that connects with our own country.
We explored the impact of the Indic philosophy on the Khmer dynasty, the history of the constitutionalisation of Cambodia, and the relevance of the Mekong to international water conflicts which are erupting more due to the threat of climate change.
Indic philosophy invaded Cambodia
Cambodia’s tryst with Indic philosophy has been attracting huge interest, particularly due to the architectural beauty of temples, though these temples are not places of worship anymore.
Indic philosophy of life and religion traveled to East Asia in the Middle Ages with trading traders from South India. The then Khmer dynasty of Cambodia embraced the Brahminical religion, now popularly known as Hinduism and endeared to Indic philosophy by promoting its art and culture.
The dynasty apparently sought to justify its legitimacy by relying on a religious theory that the king is an avatar of Vishnu; one of three avatars of Ishwar in theistic Indic philosophy.
On embracing Hinduism, the Khmer regime in Cambodia developed places of worship with great passion from the ninth century onwards. The Siem Province— a seat of Khmer rulers— became the place for magnificent temples.
The Angkor Wat temple, though one of the many temples in Cambodia, stands out. It is probably the biggest temple of the Hindu religion in the world. Reportedly, more stones have been used to build the temple than were used in the construction of the pyramids in Egypt.
The tour guide told us that tourists— particularly European tourists— take three full days to explore the architectural finesse of this temple devoted to Vishnu. The guide sounded true because the entry ticket pass lasts three days! No wonder why this temple is UNESCO’s World Heritage Site.
However, the trust in the theistic Indic philosophy, which boomed with the Khmer regime in the ninth century, gradually changed to non-theistic Indic philosophy after the 13th century. The Khmer dynasty changed its affiliation to Buddhism— a non-theistic religion of Indic philosophy.
The reasons for the change of faith are not clear. Did theistic Hinduism fail to catch up with the common man leading to its abandonment by the Khmer regime? There is no credible study in that regard. Probably, there are no contemporaneous records available. If conjectural theorisation of history is permissible in such a situation, Hinduism remained the religion of only the royals because they thought it would legitimise their power as Kshatriyas.
