Organizer: University of California Los Angeles

Description:

Few of the world's premodern polities outside of China achieved the scale or density of urbanism found in the 9th-15th century Angkor empire, which governed a substantial swath of mainland Southeast Asia. Angkorian rulers built cities, water reservoirs, stone monuments, and roads that crisscrossed the empire. Carved images glorify their gods, rulers, and ancestors; inscribed stelae celebrate political accessions and conquests, and narrate religious merits, economic properties, and status of the populations. Heng will introduce the ancient metropolis of Angkor and its Khmer world through recent archaeological findings using historical sources, excavation and remotely sensed ground survey (LIDAR) data. Heng is the 2022-24 postdoctoral scholar at the Cotsen Institute and the Program for Early Modern Southeast Asia (PEMSEA). His research interests include religious change, urbanism, political economy, public archaeology, and heritage management. He was a featured commentator in "Angkor 3D: The Lost Empire of Cambodia," at the California Science Center IMAX theater.

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