Angkor

By the 14th century the faith that had built Angkor was changing. Theravada Buddhism, which had reached the city through the Mon kingdoms in the 13th century, gradually displaced Mahayana Buddhism and Shaivism as the religion of the Khmer. In 1351 Angkor first came under the suzerainty of Ayutthaya, and a Khmer rebellion against Siamese authority ended in 1431 with the sack of the city. The population moved south and many statues were carried off to Ayutthaya. Drought in the early 15th century may also have left the canals and reservoirs dry, and by the end of the century nearly all of Angkor was abandoned.

Angkor Wat alone was never deserted. Buddhist monks kept it as a shrine while the forest closed over the rest, and the Portuguese friar António da Madalena, one of the first Europeans to see it, reported in 1586 a temple so extraordinary that no pen could describe it. In the 17th century Japanese Buddhist pilgrims came as well and settled beside the Khmer who still tended the temple, leaving inscriptions on its walls.