Origin from 1178
A Cham attack on Angkor in 1178 opened a period of instability that King Jayavarman VII resolved by founding a new capital and turning the empire's state religion toward Mahayana Buddhism, encouraged by his devoutly Buddhist wife Indradevi; Angkor Wat itself was rededicated, its Hindu sculpture progressively replaced with Buddhist art over the following generations. The transition was gradual rather than sudden, continuing for centuries, and by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Theravada Buddhism, not Hinduism, had become the settled religious framework of the site and the wider Khmer world, a position it still holds.
Facts
Dates
Start YearSourced to the subject's own account1178, the Cham attack that opened Jayavarman VII's turn toward Buddhism, used as the atom because it is the clearest datable turning point in what the source itself describes as a gradual, multi-century transition rather than a single conversion event. StatusSourced to the subject's own account Disputed
End YearSourced to the subject's own accountThe source states Buddhist art had come to predominate by the late thirteenth century onward, with the process continuing through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before Theravada Buddhism was firmly settled; 1300 marks the point at which the site had become predominantly Buddhist rather than the process's full completion. Learn More
How Buddhism Displaced Hinduism at Angkor
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
A Cham attack on Angkor in 1178 opened a period of instability inside the Khmer Empire, one King Jayavarman VII resolved by founding a new capital and turning the empire's own state religion away from Hinduism toward Mahayana Buddhism. His wife, Indradevi, a devout Buddhist, is recorded as having encouraged the change, a shift carried out by the ruler who had just restored the empire's stability after the attack that had opened the crisis.
Angkor Wat itself, built decades earlier as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, was rededicated under the new state religion, and its Hindu sculpture was progressively replaced with Buddhist art across the generations that followed Jayavarman VII's own reign. The change at the temple was gradual rather than sudden, a rebuilding of the site's religious character in stages rather than a single act of conversion.
What this changed for the region's religious history was lasting rather than temporary: by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Theravada Buddhism, not the Mahayana Buddhism Jayavarman VII had first promoted and not the Hinduism it had replaced, had become the settled religious framework of Angkor and the wider Khmer world, a position the tradition still holds today, centuries after Hinduism's own displacement from the site.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Theravada directly: "sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Theravada Buddhism, not Hinduism, had become the settled religious framework of the site and the wider Khmer world, a position it still holds."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.