Angkor Wat and the Khmer of Cambodia

Once there was an Indian prince who loved to walk through the countryside outside of the palace.  One day, he met a beautiful princess.  He became so enamored with her, that he married her.

On their wedding night, the princess said to the prince, "I am not of your race.  I am a Naga spirit."  Now the Naga spirits are serpent spirits who dwell in the water.  They often take the form of humans, however, in order to interact with us.  The prince, upon learning that his new bride was a Naga spirit, was not upset, because her human form was so beautiful.

Soon, he had even more reason to rejoice.  The princess' father was so happy about the union that he created a new land for the two of them to rule.  So the prince and princess became the first King and Queen of the Khmer people.

-From Cambodia 



In the heart of Cambodia rises the imposing architectural marvel known as Angkor Wat.  Its massive blocks - some of which weigh in at 3,300 pounds - have been the source of one of the great historical mysteries:  how did such an ancient people move and manipulate more than 5 million of these blocks onto the site?  Japanese archaeologist Estup Uchida, with the aid of satellite technology, believes he has discovered the secret. 

He and his team believe that the ancient Khmer used a series of hundreds of man-made canals to ship the blocks over a distance of 22 miles.  The previous theory had the Khmer shipping the blocks via river over a distance of 54 miles.  By cutting the distance in half, Uchida now believes the temple's construction period - a time frame of approximately thirty years - is far more feasible. 

You can read about the project in more detail at the Cambodian Information Center website, but, in the meantime, there is another component to this story that I want to look at, and that involves the Naga spirits.  This is one of the most startling pieces of information, but it only emerges as important when we consider it in light of the other mythology: 

1) That the Khmer peoples appear to have been experts at engineering and handling waterways, and

2) The Khmer people believed themselves to have been descended from the Naga, ancient Hindu water/serpent spirits.

Naga (or, more correctly, Naaga) spirits and the worship of them date back centuries, and seem to have been an integral and fundamental part of the formation of Hinduism (though, of course, Hinduism has so many forms and integrates so many other faiths that it is difficult to claim this with any certainty).  What is interesting about the Cambodian version of the Naga, however, is that the Khmer who built Angkor Wat believed in seven different types - or "races" - of Nagas.  Even today, if you were to visit Angkor Wat, you would see several statues of seven-headed cobras, each one meant to represent the Naga people who helped found that society.

Here's where things get interesting.  Ancient Sumerian literature tells of a group of seven water spirits who came to shore and brought with them architecture, literature, engineering - civilization, in short.  These "spirits" dressed in the garb of fish, complete with scales, a head and a tail.  It is clear from the literature that they were not traditional mermen, but people dressed in costumes.  It is interesting to note that seven water spirits, complete with scales, brought civilization to Sumeria.

Oh, but there's more.  A Bolivian legend has it that the temple complex of Kalasasaya was built with the aid of a "fish man."  Local statues at the temple portray him as a man with fish scales running down his body, and a belt decorated with several large crustaceans.  In other words, he was an architect and engineer who dressed like a water creature. 

And all of this parallels an ancient Indian (sub-continental India, not Native American) belief that civilization is restored after every calamity by a semi-divine group of beings known as the Seven Risis.

Interesting. . . .

So let's put this all together.  In India, we have a belief that a group of seven learned men skilled in the arts of literature, math, and agriculture help rebuild civilization.  In Cambodia, we have the belief that their kingdom was built by the Naga peoples, water spirits who excelled in engineering, the crowning achievement of that kingdom being a massive temple complex built with the aid of hundreds of canals.  In Sumeria, we have the belief that seven fish-people, led by Oannes, brought civilzation to the ancient Sumerian kingdom.  And in South America, the ancient kingdoms were built with the aid of fish-people.

Where does this leave us?  I haven't the foggiest idea.  It appears to leave us with the bizarre notion that there was an ancient race of engineers who dressed as aquatic beings and helped out mankind at its most dire hour. 

Even I realize how ridiculous that sounds.

And yet the parallels - many of them found on the opposite side of the world from others - indicate something must be going on here.  Add to these stories the fantastic tales of mermaids and mermen found almost all over the world, and I begin to suspect two possibilities.  Let's start with the unlikely one.

The first, that mermaids and mermen actually exist.  Despite what many people may argue on conspiracy theory websites, this does not appear to be the case, for several reasons.  There has not been, to my knowledge, any credible physical evidence.  Many fraudulent bodies, many cases of mistaken identity, but no actual remains.  Secondly, biology prevents fish and people from producing offspring.  It is genetically impossible for a human and a fish (or water snake) to produce offspring.  While the universality of the "merpeople" myth does make one wonder, it shouldn't make us wonder for long:  mermaids and mermen do not exist.

Which leaves us with my theory.  What if they were an ancient culture, advanced in many ways?  I'm not talking about aliens or some kind of mystic, Atlantis-like demigods, but a culture who, like the Egyptians, understood agriculture, language, and engineering.  And what if this culture were a maritime culture, its people becoming experts in sailing, swimming, and fishing.  They became so much so, in fact, that the ocean and its components became a matter of worship for them.  And what if that worship developed so much that they began wearing, as means of worship, clothing and accessories that reflected their admiration for the sea?

We do this even today, putting on clothing depicting movie stars and singers.  We buy magazines that give us intimate details of a movie star's life.  Is it strange to think this could be a new phenomenon?  Only, rather than worship Michael Jackson, they worshiped the ocean.  Rather than put up Justin Bieber posters, they put on fish scales.  After all, in both the Sumerian and Bolivian cultures, these are clearly people who dressed as water creatures. 

Could they have gone out in groups of seven, exploring the oceans?  Could they, in their explorations, have found less-developed cultures and, as a means of gesture and goodwill, assisted those cultures with their own knowledge?  Think of it as benevolent imperialism.  Rather than conquer the "lesser" people, they helped these people develop.  

Maybe the Nagas weren't spirits, but people.  Maybe they are the reason we have ancient civilizations.  Maybe, rather than dismiss mermaid tales, we should be investigating them in light of these other legends.  Maybe we should take the Cambodians seriously when they say that they are descended from the Naga, not because they owe their technology to spirit-snakes, but because they owe their civilization to a group of engineers who worshiped the ocean.