Sunday, July 28, 1929
Sleep was one thing I couldn’t negotiate last night and it was five before I dozed off to wake up at nine. Went out to take a look around and bought my bus ticket to Angkor. Doesn’t leave till Tuesday though.
This place is the capital of Cambodge or Cambodia. The Mekong flows on one side of the town and on the other side of the river is a native village. The streets are typically Cambodian, Chinese or Siamese—as you please, [so, when did that expression originate?—not with Disney] but they are well-paved and reasonably wide. The marketplace is a place of great activity and distributes its full share of smells. I visited the Albert Sarraut Museum this morning. It is interesting as far as I got—the marionette masks, etc. and some royal jewelry and thrones. Bought a guide book on Ankor but in French—so that means lots of work. Permission is required to see the Palace, but as the gates were open I walked in to have a look. Like Siamese palaces it is resplendent with chedi and Phra chedis—very picturesque. It borders the Rue du Palais just where four branches of the river meet.
Everybody had “bifsteak avec l’onions” for lunch and I am still aware of he fact. The restaurant or café is OK and cheap.
This afternoon I went to Phnom Gardens in the midst of which rises a small hill. On it is a pagoda or wat, backed by an old phra chedi, and reached by a monumental staircase ornamented by two giant Nagas and other animals. In the larger chedi are the ashes of lady Penh who gave her name to the Phnom or mountain around which was built the city of Phnom Penh. In the small gardens below are some cages containing tigers, panthers, crocodiles, birds, etc.
Phnom Penh is an important river port connected with Saigon and other places. It numbers 80,000—40,000 Cambodian, 30,000 Chinese, 10,000 Annamite + Malay, and 900 Europeans.
Historique l’ancien Cambodge jut connu des Chinois sous les noms de Fou-nan, de Pa-nan, puis de Ichen-la, mais c’est de l’Inde que ce pays tira sa civilisation et ces concepts religieux.
Back in the sixth century one of the ten kingdoms under Fou-nan became independent. The capital was Çreshtha-pura (Prei-Angkor?), named after his queen. (Prei is Cambodian for forest.) Then followed a long line of Varmans, Bhava-Varman I, II, faya-Varman I, II, III, Indra-Varman I, Yaço-Varman, 889–910, who founded Angkor Thom, and so on. The power of the kingdom gradually rose and there were many vassal kingdoms. At first the capital shifted from one place to another, finally remaining at Angkor where generation after generation added to it. Surya-Varman—1112–1152—had the galleries of Angkor-Vat carved, but some time, probably during the middle of the thirteenth century, Angkor reached its zenith, and shortly after the place was deserted to the jungle. What happened is unknown. The Khmèrs had reached a high degree of civilization, but had been weakened by wars and their border states they had thus lost were not regained. The Annamites loomed up a new foe. Angkor was not destroyed. The inhabitants just vanished, leaving no traces. After this the powerful Cambodian kingdom fell to pieces and Angkor I think fell to the lot of Siam. At any rate, with the intervention of France and the treaty in 1907, the lands were restored. Now the French have gained control over six kingdoms, Cambodia, Laos, Cochin-China, Annam, Tonkin, and a smaller one. The French Resident however does most of the “saying” and the kings sit back and take what they are handed.