Zhou Daguan’s embassy to Angkor, 1296–1297

Zhou Daguan’s embassy to Angkor

Zhou Daguan, a member of an embassy sent by the Yuan emperor Temür to Cambodia, spent nearly a year at Angkor in 1296–1297. His Customs of Cambodia, written after his return, is the only surviving first-hand account of daily life in the Khmer Empire.

Date

March 1296 – 30 August 1297start: month known; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 17 months

Place

Angkor Thomtoday: Angkor, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia · Southeast Asia and Oceania

Route

Mingzhou (Ningbo) → Wenzhou → Champa → Zhenpu (Bà Rịa) → Kunlun Sea (Côn Sơn) → Chanan (Kampong Chhnang) → Tonlé Sap → Angkor

Participants

Zhou Daguan, Yuan dynasty, Khmer Empire

Threads

Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century

Also known as

The Customs of Cambodia; Zhenla fengtu ji; Chou Ta-kuan; Записки об обычаях Камбоджи; Чжэньла фэнту цзи

By Zhou’s own account, the embassy left Mingzhou (Ningbo) in the second month of 1296 by the Chinese calendar and put to sea from Wenzhou on the 20th day of that month — 24 March by the Julian calendar. It reached Champa in mid-April, but contrary winds held it up, and it arrived in Cambodia only in the seventh month (August). Zhou describes the way: from Champa about half a month with a fair wind to Zhenpu, on the Cambodian border; then across the Kunlun Sea into one of the many mouths of the Mekong, of which only one could take large ships; about half a month upriver to Chanan; and from there in small boats across the great freshwater lake to a landing some fifty li from the capital. Zhou stayed at the court of King Indravarman III until the sixth month of 1297, and on 30 August 1297 his ship moored again at Siming (Ningbo).

The book, of which only about a third is thought to survive, has forty short sections. They describe the walled city and the great temples in and around it — the Bayon, the Baphuon and, just outside the south gate, Angkor Wat — as well as the palace and the king’s processions, religion, women, slaves, trade, the fields, the rivers, plants and animals, and the Chinese who had settled in the country. Zhou also noted that repeated wars with the Siamese had laid the land waste. First translated into French by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat in 1819, and again by Paul Pelliot in 1902, it became a key source for the study of Angkor.

Connections

Related events

Suryavarman II builds Angkor Watbetween 1113 and 1122 – c. 1150 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaZhou Daguan describes Angkor Wat as “the tomb of Lu Ban”, about one li outside the city’s south gate

Construction of Angkor Thom and the Bayon1181 – c. 1218 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaZhou Daguan described the walled city and its central temple, the Bayon, built by Jayavarman VII about a century earlier

Proclamation of the Yuan dynasty1271 · East AsiaZhou Daguan went to Angkor with an embassy of the Yuan court under Temür Khan, Kublai’s successor, appointed in 1295 and setting out in 1296

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Zhou Daguan’s embassy to Angkor

Connections

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Meanwhile in the world

Western and Central Europe

Africa

Central and Northern Asia

South Asia

East Asia

North America

Latin America

The same period

Sources