Southeast Asia is one of the

most diverse places on the planet.

With so many different cultures,

and religions...

all living side by side.

And I'm an example of just that.

My name is Peter Lee.

I'm a Singaporean scholar

of Peranakan descent;

Chinese with a dash of Malay blood.

I celebrate being mixed up.

It's in my DNA.

My passion is collecting artefacts

that offer a fresh narrative.

It's a European fairy tale,

but it is depicted on
a batik from Indonesia.

How wonderful is that?

I'm setting off on a new journey,

travelling further back in time.

Oh my god!

We see this everywhere

in Southeast Asia.

To explore how the region's mighty empires

have shaped our collective identity.

This is a gold mine!

No culture exists in isolation.

In this episode,
I'm visiting Cambodia,

a land of abundance.

A thousand years ago,

the Angkor Empire founded one

of the most sophisticated cities
in the ancient world.

And built the world's

largest religious monument.

They were masters

of bringing stone to life.

I think if they let go,

I'm going to fall.

I'm exploring how the Angkor Empire

dominated Southeast Asia for 600 years...

The male ascetic cutting

his own fingers into the fire.

...as the most powerful

civilisation of the medieval age.

That was really fun.

To see what remains

of a great peopleů

Just look at the size of them.

and how their legacy...

shapes the nation today.

I'm visiting Phnom Kulen,

the most sacred mountain

in Cambodia.

For centuries,

this has been an important

pilgrimage site for the people here.

You can't come to the top of

Phnom Kulen without getting a blessing.

I feel sanctified.

This mountain is
such a spiritual place

because legend has it

it was where the great

Angkor Empire was born

1,200 years ago.

Look at this amazing view!

There aren't many written records left
from the earliest period of Khmer history.

But a stone inscription

discovered in the late 19th century

tells of a Khmer prince who

spent many years in a foreign land

described as Java.

The story goes...

Jayavarman II was
the son of a nobleman

who lived abroad for most of his life.

But in 790, at the age of 20,

he returned to unite Khmer

for the first time.

He travelled the land making

alliances with competing factions.

In 802, he came to the

Kulen hills for a special ritual...

to proclaim himself
the Chakravartin,

or Ruler of the Universe.

And this was the universe he ruled:

a 1,000-square-kilometre plain

on the edge of
Southeast Asia's largest lake.

This is a land of
extreme weather cycles.

In the monsoon season,

between May and November,

water levels can rise over 10 metres.

But for the rest of the year,

drought takes hold

and temperatures can

soar to 40 degrees Celsius.

Because of this, water became

the focus of the ancient Khmer.
These symbols carved into
the rocky riverbed are called lingas,

and are sacred fertility symbols

associated with
the Hindu god Shiva.

And there are so many of them here,

the reason why this river is called

the River of a Thousand Lingas.

The thinking behind the carvings

was that as the water flowed over them,

it became sanctified.

It later merged downstream

with the Siem Reap River

into the paddy fields of Angkor.

They were almost like the spiritual

water purifiers for the entire region,

and they remain so today.

But sacred waters aren't

enough to make an empire.

To succeed, Angkor
needed a stable supply of food.

And the solution was

an amazing strain of rice.

To find out more,

I'm helping in a paddy field

with some good

old-fashioned weeding.

Here!

I am here in Win's rice field to pull out

these long grasses called 'salaptier',

which means 'duckwing grass'.

I love these very simple occupations,

it really clears my mind.

So I'm going to be busy,

happily busy.

Every year, the monsoon flood

brings fresh nutrients to the soil,
making it extremely fertile.

But with the annual

deluge of the monsoon,

growing rice here is a challenge.

That's so amazing.

So this is an ancient grain that can

respond to the changing water levels.

Known as "floating rice",

these plants can grow as

much as 10 centimetres a day

to a height of about 6 metres,

fast enough to stay

above floodwaters.

The grain was key to the early

success of the Angkor Empire,

allowing the fledgling kingdom

to secure enough food for its people.

But to truly succeed,

the ancient Khmer needed not just

to adapt to changes in the water level,

but to control it.

This is the West Mebon temple.

What I can see here is this

incredibly beautiful pond

with steps going down

and a dramatic walkway that

would have risen above the water

to a central shrine in the middle.

It must have been all arranged to ensure

that water is always present here.

The ancient Khmer believed all life

came from the sea of creation.

And surrounding the temple

is an enormous reservoir

that represents this mythical ocean.

Built in the 11th century,

the West Baray is over 2 kilometres

wide and 8 kilometres long,

making it the biggest hand-cut

reservoir in the world.

A thousand years on, it still holds

close to 50 billion litres of water,

which is used to irrigate

the area's crops.

It's a remnant of the ancient

Khmer's engineering mastery

that allowed them to weather

their yearly droughts.

The West Baray was part of a hugely

complex system of canals and reservoirs

that fed into the city

of Angkor and its rice fields.

The result was a quadrupling

of the grain harvest,

which was transported

along canals and rivers

to the furthest corners of the empire.

The result was food security,

and a surplus of rice for trade,

which became the economic

foundation of Angkor

and propelled the empire

into greatness.

But to extend their influence further,

Angkor needed a more

direct means of transport:

roads.

This is a 1,000-year-old pathway.

To learn how it was built

to survive so many centuries,

I'm joining a team of builders,

led by Sopheap An.

This technique is known

as soil compacting

and was used by the Khmer to build

their roads and temple foundations.

Okay, so I have to keep

pounding until I hear this...

brighter, more solid sound, right?

This technique allowed Angkor's roads

to withstand the contraction

and expansion of the soil

during the dry and wet seasons.

It's incredible how the simple

technique of compacting sand

can build the foundation

that lasts for millennia.

The Khmer relied on basic tools

and sensory techniques

to build a vast network of roads

across the entire region,

so different from the technologies

we rely on today.

By the 11th century, Angkor's kings

had built an extensive network of roads,

some of which are still used today.

I am travelling on a dirt road

on this charming ox-cart

which has been used

for about a millennia here.

The road is as straight as an arrow,

just like the great

Roman roads in Europe.

I can see endless rice fields,

water buffaloesů

and it must have looked just

like this in the Angkor period.

This was a super highway of that time.

People travelled like this for days.

It's quite comfortable now
but, to be honest,

I don't know how

I'd feel after a few days.

Six main arteries stretch

for over 1,000 kilometres.

To the west, to modern Thailand,

an important salt-producing region.

To the north, to the access point

of the Mekong River,

where rice and fish were traded

with neighbouring kingdoms.

And east, to the old capital,

an important centre of learning.

This network of roads helped

to extend Angkor's political power

and cultural influence

across the region.

But to become a true

regional powerhouse,

the Angkor Empire

first needed to overcome

the largest annual flood event

brought about by
Southeast Asia's largest river.

I want to know how the ancient Khmer

adapted to survive in their environment.

Near the ancient capital of Angkor

lies Southeast Asia's

largest body of freshwater,

Tonle Sap Lake.

I'm helping fisherman Thai to check

his nets and bring in his catch.

The net is really fine so

the fish gets caught in it

and you have to gently tug it out because

it also has really sharp fins on the side.

What would you

consider a good catch?
Every year, something
amazing happens here.

The monsoon floods the country

and expands the lake

to five times its normal size,

flooding over 7,000 square kilometres.

Then, in the dry season,

the flow of water reverses

and the lake empties

back into the Mekong.

This annual ebb and flow

has seen the lake nicknamed

the 'Beating Heart of Cambodia'.

I'm travelling along a river

running out of the lake

to the village of Kompong Khleang

which is built 15 metres

off the ground.

In the wet season,

the lake would rise

taking the water to just below

the level of these homes.

Just look at these!

It's like a surreal fortress!

I've never seen anything like it.

I want to see how its residents survive

in such an extreme environment.

Oh my goodness!

Look at this view!

Kim Heang's family makes

a living from shrimp.

So what is it like to live here?

So your happiness is
dependent on the water?

To build settlements
and survive on such a lake
show the resilience and
ingenuity of the Khmer people.

It's so inspiring to see

how people in this village

have adapted to the environment

by building houses so high up.

It can be dry one season

and in the next,

completely submerged
in so much water.

It's unimaginable.

As the ancient Khmer thrived,

they built a complex society.

To find out how, I'm at a site

built by Angkor's greatest king,

Jayavarman VII.

At its height,
the temple of Preah Khan

was the epicentre of ancient society.

It was a place of learning but

also linked to administration.

An inscription found here states

that almost 100,000 public servants

donated goods and services

to the temple,

to ensure the smooth

running of the empire.

Phally is an archaeological architect

who is overseeing
the restoration of the temple.

Garudas are mythical

bird-like creatures

popular in Hindu
and Buddhist cosmology.

Seventy-two of these winged guardians

protect these sacred grounds.

Jayavarman VII,
who built this temple,
came into power
over a divided empire,

and used it as a centre of

administration to reunite his people

and restore order across his land.

Phally lets me have a go at carving

my own piece of Angkor history.

-Can I try?
-Yes.

I hope I don't break something.

-Like this?
-Yes.

You actually get quite good control.

This is the perfect tool.

It's so peaceful here,

it's hard to imagine

that 800 years ago,

it was a hive of activity.

Scholars visiting from

all over the region,

local farmers paying their taxes,

and officials making crucial

decisions about matters of state.

It's like a temple, university

and government ministry,

all rolled into one.

The ancient Khmer relied on

its temples as gateways

to manage its almost

1 million strong populace

under which the empire thrived.

And the result was the building of one

of the most iconic structures of all time.

I'm exploring the rise

of the Angkor Empire,

and at last my journey

brings me here.

The largest religious

monument in the world,

Angkor Wat.

Built almost 900 years ago,

the temple's design

mimics the Hindu universe.

With the five towers representing

the peaks of Mount Meru,

home of the Hindu gods,

under which it's said

King Suryavarman II

was laid to rest in 1150.

I've been here so many times,

but it just never ceases

to move me in this very deep way.

Surrounding the temple

is an enormous moat

that symbolises
the Hindu sea of creation.

But it also holds a secret

that helped the structure

withstand the cycle

of flood and drought.

To learn more, I'm speaking

to archaeologist Sokrithy Im,

who has studied this feat

of architecture for 20 years.

This moat is so beautiful

and it is so huge.

Can you tell me more about it?

I find that so incredible.

It just looks like

this very beautiful lake.

You'd never imagine that it has

this really important function.

But it wasn't just masterful engineering

that made this megastructure possible.

So all these things

combined at the right time

to create this incredible monument.

Angkor Wat is an
engineering masterpiece.

It looks the part of

a sacred Hindu temple,

but there are also

all these things going on

that have helped realise

this enormous structure.

I would never have imagined that,

to build something so high,

you needed to worry about

the underground water table.

But they were so good

at managing and storing water

that they found this

very elegant design solution

that also ticked the box

of religious symbolism.

It's pure genius!

But that just scratches the surface

of this incredible structure.

Inside the compound is further evidence

of the ancient Khmer's artistic skill:

decorative stonework,

and vivid carvings,

that bring the past to life.

Including the mighty king,

Suryavarman II,

in whose honour
the temple was built.

He's seated on this grand throne

with all these symbols of his kingship.

Just look at him.

This is really a very wealthy
and powerful king.

Further down the corridor

is another iconic scene

that tells us something about

the Angkor Empire of the day.

Here is the Khmer army

and their allies

heading into battle with their

long-time enemy to the east,

the Dai Viet.

It depicts all these kings on elephants

from the satellite states

surrounding Angkor.

It emphasises
Suryavarman II's power,

that he was able to muster all these

forces from the states around him

towards this attack

against the Dai Viet.

These carvings are a testament

to Angkor's might,

but the majority of the carvings here

aren't about the empire at all.

Instead, they tell stories

of Hindu cosmology

that shed a light on the

inner beliefs of its people.

Now, this is simply spectacular!

Possibly, the most iconic

bas-relief in Angkor Wat.

This is a massive 49-metre heavenly

tug-of-war between good and evil.

And above, look at all these apsaras,

or celestial dancers,

springing out from the ocean.

There are more than 2,000 apsaras

carved into the walls of Angkor Wat.
Images that have found new
meaning in modern Cambodia.

This apsara dance

is a modern adaptation

inspired by the imagery found

at Cambodia's most famous temple.

This is really stunning!

It's as though the carvings

have come to life.

The joy is in observing the slightest

movements which speak volumes.

While the original dance is said

to have begun in the 7th century,

the closest we can come to it today

is through these modern re-imaginings.

It's one of the most popular

dances in Cambodia.

I'm going to learn what

all the movements mean.

This means...sigh.

This is a sigh.

I'm sighing in pain.

This is crying.

I feel like a clumsy old bear

among the apsaras.

Oh, this is flying.

I think if they let go,

I'm going to fall.

And after the angels' flight,

it's time to come down.

So this is arriving.
The final pose.

We've landed back to Earth.

-That was amazing.

-Thank you.

What I've learnt

is that it's very difficult.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

What's so interesting is how important

this was for modern Cambodians

to create a national identity

based on Angkor

that everyone could rally behind.

By the 12th century, Angkor was

a prosperous city with a thriving culture.

And it was the rise of

a new king with new ideas

that pushed the empire

to unprecedented heights.

But he also set the stage

for its ultimate downfall.

I'm exploring the last chapter

of the great Angkor Empire.

In 1181, a new king called

Jayavarman VII took power.

He ordered more building projects

than all of his predecessors combined;

extending the road network

further than ever before,

and expanding the empire's territory

as far as modern day Myanmar,

Vietnam,

and the Malay Peninsula.

Angkor was the uncontested

superpower of Southeast Asia.

I'm at the Bayon Temple,

built by King Jayavarman VII.

Just look at the size of them!

It's famed for its over 200 stone faces,

said to be the king's own likeness;

frozen in eternity as
the image of the Buddha.

Julia Esteve, an expert

of ancient Khmer religion,

has a theory
about the change of faith,

away from Hinduism which

has to do with a mystical sect.

Tantric Buddhism is a secret path

that is very strongly

populated with secrecy,

magic, forbidden behaviour

to become enlightened while alive.

So here, for example,

we can see a male ascetic...

-cutting his own fingers with a knife hereů

-Yes, I can see that.

into the fire.

This could be
a very good illustration

of this taboo behaviour that

is practised in Tantric Buddhism.

These forbidden rituals were designed

to reaffirm King Jayavarman VII's

connection to the divine.

It attracts fear and also respect,

and it gives extreme magical powers.

So he was playing with fire

but it helped him achieve this aura

-which no other king could manage before?

-Yes.

Jayavarman VII built this

magnificent temple with these faces,

one of the most recognisable images

of the Angkor Empire

in order to enhance his claim to power.

The king put himself as a god

of a new kind of state religion
full of rituals, mantras and magic.

It was a very clever tactical

move and it worked.

Thanks to his political move

to embrace Tantric Buddhism,

Jayavarman VII
enjoyed a golden reign.

But the move away from Hinduism

had repercussions 100 years later.

Hindu hardliners rebelled

in the late 13th century,

destroying the Buddhist temples of state,

and dividing the empire from within.

It was then that a powerful enemy

from the west made their move.

In 1431, Angkor was

attacked by a new force:

the Kingdom of Ayutthaya.

After a seven-month siege,

Ayutthaya's army ransacked the city

taking close to 100,000 prisoners

and several tons of gold.

And so came the sudden end

of the great Angkor Empire.

But new research is showing that

this was the final blow in a long decline.

Archaeologist Miriam Stark

is looking back in time...

for clues about life here

in the 13th century,

the closing years

of the Angkor Empire.

You take a trowel, and you

can scrape around the back here

and around the front very gently

and see if you can expose this.

-I'll try not to break the shard. Promise.

-Great.

Doing a good job there.

So we think these
are residential areas.

We are finding all kinds of artefacts and

materials that suggest household activity:

cooking, and eating.

We have animal bones.

I see. So, this is sort of domestic trash?

We like to say domestic debris.

It sounds a little more polite.

Now why don't you stop for a minute

and just, gently, with your hand wiggle it.

And then you can look at it.

It's beautiful!

It's just amazing

to pull out something

from a shallow pit like this

which is so ancient!

Next, the shard is washed,

and it's beginning to show itself

for the first time in 800 years.

-Beautiful.
-Yes, that looks fantastic.

So it has these wonderful

mottled colours.

You see green, you see brownsů

-it's almost abstract!

-Yeah.

We call this a brown glaze,

so it's really high-fired.

We don't often find such

large pieces like this.

It's really special.

Archaeologist Alison Carter is

piecing together these shards
to build a picture of what was
going on in the Angkor Empire.

We started seeing a decline in

the number of ceramics that we find,

and that tells us that there were

probably fewer people living in that area.

But this population decline

didn't just come at the end of

the empire in the 15th century,

but much earlier

than previously thought.

The decline of Angkor actually seemed

to be taking, maybe, a couple of centuries,

and there were a lot of different

factors that were a part of that.

Religious change,

socio-political change,

and even climatic change.

So this is revealing that

people were leaving Angkor

-way before the official end of the empire?

-Right, exactly.

As ocean-going technology improved,

maritime trade between

China and India increased,

pulling economic activity

and people away from Angkor.

With fewer people and less money,

the city's elaborate system

of reservoirs and canals

filled up with silt

and became ineffective,

leaving Angkor devastated

by two mega droughts,

each of which lasted decades.

Unable to recover,
Angkor was left to ruin,
reclaimed by the jungle.

But after its rediscovery in 1860,

the city of Angkor has been

given a new lease of life,

as the heart of Cambodian identity.

It's Southeast Asia's

biggest tourist draw

visited by over 2 million

people each year.

This is putting a strain

on the city's resources,

and bringing a whole new problem:

litter.

But its residents are coming together,

to conserve their
symbol of national pride.

I'm joining Sophea,

a local hotel worker,

who is volunteering to clean up

the modern city of Siem Reap.

A straw.

A lot of straws!

Plastic spoons!

Oh my god, a battery!

It's quite a fun to be out here

and I love cleaning up

so this is really my kind of activity.

What do you think about

clean-up projects like these?

I think, we must do it

every day and every week.

Right now, it's time to change.

We've stopped using plastics,

and we are trying to clean more
to keep our environment
clean and green.

So we've been picking trash

down this stretch of road

and this is just my haul.

It is so heavy.

Clearly, people who live

and work around here

want to see a much cleaner Siam Reap.

While the volunteers are busy

cleaning up the ancient city...

I'm getting a taste of

a vibrant living tradition.

Once a necessity of life in Angkor,

this Khmer pastime is kept alive

through a much-loved
national celebration:

the annual dragon boat race.

It takes place every November,

at the end of the rainy season.

This team of local farmers

is busy training for the race.

Their captain Morm Mech

is giving me tips

on how to paddle
like a real Angkor man.

Okay.

So basically, follow instructions,

keep the momentum

and don't fall off.

Ready!

This unique paddling style

was a technique used in battle

by the ancient Khmer army,

giving rowers more power.

I love how this competition brings

everyone in the village together.
It's such a community effort.

It's so wonderful to learn that such

a vibrant festival has its roots in the battle

that took place almost 800 years ago

during the Angkor Empire.

And the fact that

Cambodia's biggest festival

is based around
the annual water cycles

shows how much it's still in

the heart of the nation's psyche.

I've seen how for aeons,

life in Cambodia has

been defined by water.

And the ability to store and control it

enabled the empire to grow and flourish

to unprecedented heights.

The Angkor Empire found itself

in challenging conditions,

on the edge of flood plains where water

levels could rise as much as 10 metres high.

But these harsh conditions also

primed their skills to survive,

and build dazzling structures

which remain to this day.

While Angkor has become a world

icon of Southeast Asian history,

to the Cambodian people,

it remains a beacon of their past glory

on which they build

their modern identity and nation.