Collapse_ How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond [335]
On the extravagantly luxurious architecture: “In the center of the capital is a gold tower (the Bayon). . . . To the east of it is a gold bridge flanked by two gold lions . . . about a Li [0.3 miles] north of the gold tower there is a bronze tower [the Baphuon] . It is even taller than the gold tower, and an exquisite sight.... Ten Li [three miles] to the east of the city wall lies the East Lake [East Baray]. It is about 100 Li [30 miles] in circumference. In the middle of it is a bronze reclining Buddha with water continually flowing from its navel.” Zhou’s account was confirmed by the spectacular rediscovery of part of that colossal Buddha statue in 1936, actually in the West Baray; Zhou seems to have reversed his compass directions.
As a commercial attaché, Zhou was especially interested in trade between Angkor and China. He lists the main exports from Angkor to China, in descending order of preference, as: bright blue kingfisher feathers, elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns, beeswax, wood incense, cardamom, resin, lacquer, medicinal oil, and pepper. Angkor’s main imports from China were gold, silver, silk fabrics, tin goods, lacquered trays, celadon ware, mercury, paper, and saltpeter for making gunpowder.
On slaves: “If young and strong, slaves may be worth 100 pieces of cloth; when old and feeble, they can be had for 30 or 40 pieces. They are permitted to lie down or be seated only beneath the floor of the house. To perform their tasks they may go upstairs, but only after they have knelt, bowed to the ground, and joined their hands in reverence.... If they have committed some misdemeanor, they bow their heads and take the blows without daring to make the least movement. If a slave should run away and be captured, a blue mark would be tattooed on his face; moreover, an iron collar will be fitted to his neck, or shackles to his arms or legs.”
On interrogation and punishment of criminals: “If an object is missing, and accusations brought against someone who denies the charge, oil is brought to boil in a kettle and the suspected person forced to plunge his hand into it. If he is truly guilty, the hand is cooked to shreds; if not, skin and bones are unharmed. Such is the amazing ways of these barbarians.... [For punishment of serious offenses], a ditch is dug into which the criminal is placed, earth and stones are thrown back and heaped high, and all is over.”
On the strong sex drive of Cambodian women: “One or two days after giving birth to a child they are ready for intercourse: if a husband is not responsive he will be discarded. When a husband is called away on matters of business, they endure his absence for a while; but if he is gone as much as 10 days, the wife is apt to say, ‘I am no ghost; how can I be expected to sleep alone?’ Though their sexual impulses are very strong, it is said some of them remain faithful.”
Zhou’s brief dismissive assessment of Khmer military skills: “Generally speaking, these people have neither discipline nor strategy.”
The Khmer also had books of their own. Religious books were made of palm-leaf fronds inscribed with a stylus, and the incisions were then filled with black pigment. Secular books were written with either white chalk pencils or black ink on accordion-like screenfolds of either black or white paper, respectively. Alas, those materials are perishable in a hot humid climate, and all of Angkor’s books without exception are lost. We can only guess what those books would have told us about Khmer history, society, science, and philosophy. It’s as if we were trying to evaluate the ancient Greeks despite having lost all the writings of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Herodotus, Sappho, and Sophocles.
At the time when France established a protectorate over Cambodia in 1863, Angkor was largely overgrown