JAYAVARMAN II: THE PRINCE FROM JAVA

Diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Cambodia have been established in their contemporary form for only a few decades, but the ties between the peoples of Indonesia and Cambodia date back centuries.

“I wish to thank you, Excellency Mr Yasushi Akashi, for sending another prince from Java to help bring peace to Cambodia,” quipped Prince Sihanouk, referring to me. It was August 1992. We were in the city of Siem Reap, six kilometres from the world-famous Angkor Wat temple for the official inauguration of the provincial headquarters of the United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia (UNTAC), established to implement the Paris Agreements for Cambodia. I had joined UNTAC from the United Nations in New York and was appointed the provincial director in Siem Reap, some sort of shadow governor to the de facto governor of the People's Republic of Cambodia (PRK), renamed the State of Cambodia (SOC) in 1991, which had remained unrecognized by the United Nations since its establishment in January 1979.

Sihanouk's witticism had its origin back in the year 802 CE, when a solemn ceremony was performed at Mahendraparvata, now known as Phnom Kulen, a sacred mountain top not far from where we were gathered that day in Siem Reap. At that ceremony, Prince Jayavarman II ostensibly was proclaimed a universal monarch. According to some sources, King Jayavarman II had resided for some time in Java during the reign of the mighty Sailendras, or Lords of the Mountains. Hence the concept of Devaraja, or God King (still often applied to Sihanouk), was ostensibly imported from Java. This ceremony was also allegedly meant to free King Jayavarman II from the overlordship of the Sailendras of Java. At that time, the Sailendras ruled over Java, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and parts of modern Cambodia. Jayavarman II's inauguration in the year 802 CE gave birth to the Angkor period, a glorious Khmer civilization that dominated mainland Southeast Asia with ebbs and flows for the next six centuries. The Hindu-turned- Buddhist Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap was built in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (1113 – c. 1150).