Southeast Asian Empires

Out of a modest ninth-century settlement along the Irrawaddy River grew a power that would permanently redraw the cultural map of Southeast Asia.

A young prince raised in the provinces during a period of fraying central authority, the future king Suryavarman II initiated his rise to power as soon as his formal studies ended.

To approach the great monument of Angkor Wat is to confront a cosmic map rendered in sandstone and water.

Long before it became the cradle of a regional empire, the settlement surrounding the ancient city of Sukhothai operated as a Seventh-Century commercial hub within the Dvaravati Lavo.

The rise of the Majapahit Empire began in 1292 when Raden Wijaya established a stronghold on the island of Java, capitalizing on the chaos of a Mongol invasion.

To the sixteenth-century European travelers who navigated the waters of Southeast Asia, the Ayutthaya Kingdom loomed as one of the three great powers of the continent, standing alongside Ming China and Vijayanagara.

In 1406, more than two hundred thousand Chinese Ming troops crossed the border into Vietnam, quickly toppling the ruler, renaming the country Jiaozhi, and initiating a strict program of cultural assimilation.