One of the major imports to early Southeast Asia from India was religion: specifically, Buddhism and Hinduism. In particular, the Hindu religion (Brahminism) established the cosmological and political legitimisation of kingship in the courts of Southeast Asia. The ‘brahmins’ who preside over court rituals in contemporary Cambodia and Thailand are said to be direct descendants of Angkorian ‘brahmins’, but this identification is highly contested. By Indian definition and from a ritual perspective, the term brahmin generally referred to those whose caste and gotras (ritual lineage) go back to the Vedic period. Scholars of ritual and religions have questioned whether the ‘brahmins’ of Southeast Asia were ‘brahmins’ by the Indian definition, and if so, in what sense. Was there a caste system in ancient Cambodia?

This paper will address the debate and ask what information about ritual and what religious criteria are needed in order to evaluate the status of these so-called ‘brahmins’ in ancient Cambodia. My agenda here is not to reveal the illegitimate status of these so-called ‘brahmins’ but to provide alternative explanations for the construction of ritual authority, and to determine who has the power to define and to legitimise the social status of ‘brahmins’ in local contexts.

NATIONAL NARRATIVE ACCORDING TO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE

A series of narrative paintings was featured in the March 1960 issue of National Geographic Magazine. These paintings accompanied an article written by W. Robert Moore, Chief, Foreign Editorial Staff, entitled, ‘Angkor, Jewel of the Jungle’. The paintings, by Maurice Fiévet, a French artist, provide a visual, chronological narrative of the history of ancient Cambodia from the founding of Angkor in CE 802 to the collapse of the Khmer empire in CE 1431. The most conspicuous aspect of the juxtaposition of text and image is Moore's apparent efforts to present the events depicted in Fiévet's paintings as ‘fact’ rather than fiction. For instance, the opening statement reads: