Ang Chan I

After Angkor › Longvek

1. Funanto about 550
2. Chenla6th to 8th century
3. Angkor802 to 1431
4. After Angkor1431 to 1794
5. Modern kingdomfrom 1794

BeforeStec Kan1512 to 1525 (Nhim)

This reignAng Chan I (Paramaraja II)1516 to 1566 (Nhim)

AfterBarom Reachea I (Paramaraja III)1566 to 1576 (Nhim 2020)1566 to 1579 (Nhim 2020, chronicle reading)

All Khmer monarchs

Ang Chan I was a 16th-century king of Cambodia who founded the royal capital at Longvek. Nhim Sotheavin describes him as the first king to reoccupy Angkor after it was given up as the capital in 1431. In his reign the unfinished reliefs of the northeast gallery at Angkor Wat were completed.

Part of the 16th-century relief of Vishnu defeating the asuras, in the north wing of Angkor Wat's east gallery, 2014. Photo: Michael Gunther, CC BY-SA 4.0

Historical figure details
Also known as	Ang Chan; Bañā Cand (Rājā); Paramarājā II (Borom Reachea)
Roles	King of Cambodia
Period	1528 (Tan and co-authors) or 1529, crowned (Nhim Sotheavin), to 1566
Country	Cambodia
Subjects	History & Remembrance

Names

Nhim, a research fellow of the Institute of Asian Culture at Sophia University, gives his names as Ang Chan, Bañā Cand (Rājā) and Paramarājā II, the name he took at his crowning.

Return from Siam

Nhim, following the Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle, wrote that Ang Chan fled to Siam for some years after Sdec Kan assassinated his brother, King Srei Sokunthabat. In his Sophia University paper, Nhim calls this brother Srī Sugandhapad and spells the usurper's name Sṭec Kan (Sdec Kan). In the chronicle's account, he offered to catch a great white elephant for the Siamese king, and once he was let into the forest for the hunt, he escaped to Cambodia. He came back in 1516, first to Battambang, and then made his residence at Pursat, where many officials and common people rallied to him against Sdec Kan.

By the Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle, the war with Sdec Kan lasted until 1525, when Sdec Kan was killed.

Longvek

Ang Chan then had his ministers build a new city at Longvek. Nhim dates the founding of the capital to about 1526, following the royal chronicles. In 1529 the king left Pursat and was crowned at Longvek as Paramarājā II (Borom Reachea). The archaeologists Noel Hidalgo Tan and his co-authors date his reign from 1528 to 1566.

Nhim wrote that his reign brought Cambodia peace, prosperity and justice. Following the Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle, he wrote that many vihear (Buddhist sanctuaries) and statues were put up across the country in this reign. On the hill of Oudong the king set up a large statue of the Buddha.

Angkor

Nhim describes Ang Chan as the first king to come back to the old city of Angkor in the 16th century. The historian Peter Sharrock named Jayavarma Paramesvara, who came to the throne in 1327, as the last king before Ang Chan to leave an inscription at Angkor. He placed Ang Chan's return in the middle of the 16th century. Nhim cites the Portuguese Diogo do Couto, who described the king of Cambodia at Angkor hunting elephants and clearing the plants and young trees that had grown over the buildings.

At Angkor Wat, two reliefs of the third gallery, the Victory of Vishnu over the Asuras and the Victory of Krishna over the Asura Bana, were carved in this period. Inscriptions on the reliefs show that the work began in 1546 and ended in 1564. Nhim wrote that the two inscriptions credit Ang Chan with finishing the northeastern panels left incomplete under Suryavarman II. Tan and his co-authors found traces of black ink designs on the reliefs, and judged that the later carvers had probably followed outlines drawn on the wall in the 12th century. They wrote that Ang Chan's restoration began a new role for Angkor Wat as a spiritual center rather than a political capital, and suggested that he may also have commissioned wall paintings there.

Relations with Siam

Nhim wrote that Cambodia had little trouble with Siam in this reign. The Garnier version of the chronicles and the Hluang Prasöt chronicle record one Siamese attack, in 1555 and 1556, led by Siddhien Rājā. The attack failed, and Siddhien Rājā died at Pursat. Nhim adds that Siam was then also at war with Burma, which gave Cambodia an advantage.

Death and succession

Nhim gives 1566 as the year the king died. The Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle dates his death to 1566 or 1567, and the Naṅ chronicle to 1502; Nhim noted that most researchers take the Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle as the more accurate. His son, whom Nhim calls Paramarājā III, then took the throne at Longvek. His grandson Satthā was king when the Siamese sacked Longvek in 1594.

References