{"podcast":{"title":"The Khmer Empire's Sudden Collapse Explained — Fexingo History","slug":"the-khmer-empire-s-sudden-collapse-explained-fexingo-history-7829682","podcast_index_feed_id":7829682,"rss_url":"https://feeds.fexingo.com/history/the-khmer-empires-sudden-collapse-explained.xml","website_url":"https://www.fexingo.com/history/the-khmer-empires-sudden-collapse-explained/","image_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-khmer-empires-sudden-collapse-explained/cover.png","author":"Fexingo","episode_count":166,"summary":"Built around the enigmatic ruins of Angkor Wat, the Khmer Empire once dominated Southeast Asia, but its sudden collapse in the 15th century remains one of history's great puzzles. Lucas and Luna guide listeners through the empire's rise under Jayavarman II, its golden age under Suryavarman II, and the gradual unraveling that followed. They examine the religious shift from Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism, the massive water management system that sustained Angkor, and the environmental stresses—droughts, floods, deforestation—that may have triggered its downfall. The show delves into the sacking by Ayutthaya in 1431, the abandonment of the capital, and the migration south to Phnom Penh. It also explores modern debates: was the collapse sudden or a slow decline? How did climate change and infrastructure failure intersect with foreign invasions? And what can the Khmer Empire's fate teach us about resilience and vulnerability in our own era of environmental change? #KhmerEmpire #AngkorWat #SuryavarmanII #JayavarmanII #Ayutthaya #TheravadaBuddhism #AngkorThom #SoutheastAsia #MedievalHistory #RiseAndFall #ClimateChange #WaterManagement #AncientCivilizations #Cambodia #History #WorldHistor…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-19T00:20:54.064403+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-khmer-empire-s-sudden-collapse-explained-fexingo-history-7829682"},"episode":{"title":"Angkor's Poison Wells: The Biological Warfare That Collapsed an Empire","slug":"angkor-s-poison-wells-the-biological-warfare-that-collapsed-an-empire","published_at":"2026-07-10T00:59:06+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-khmer-empire-s-sudden-collapse-explained-fexingo-history-7829682/angkor-s-poison-wells-the-biological-warfare-that-collapsed-an-empire","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-khmer-empire-s-sudden-collapse-explained-fexingo-history-7829682","url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-khmer-empires-sudden-collapse-explained/episode-0150.mp3","audio_url":"https://audio.fexingo.com/history/the-khmer-empires-sudden-collapse-explained/episode-0150.mp3","summary":"In 1431, the Siamese army besieged Angkor Thom. But instead of storming the walls, they poisoned the city's wells. Drawing on the Ming shi lu and recent archaeological forensics from the Greater Angkor Project, Lucas and Luna piece together how biological warfare—not just drought or invasion—broke the Khmer capital. They trace the wells from the royal plaza to the outer suburbs, examine the symptoms described in chronicles, and ask why Ponhea Yat's final flight to Phnom Penh may have been a desperate quarantine. A dark, specific chapter in Angkor's final decades, with echoes in the Chola and Mongol sieges of Southeast Asia. #Angkor #KhmerEmpire #PonheaYat #Ayutthaya #BiologicalWarfare #MingShiLu #GreaterAngkorProject #AngkorThom #PhnomPenh #SoutheastAsia #SiameseHistory #SiegeWarfare #WaterContamination #MedievalWarfare #CambodiaHistory #Archaeology #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo","meta_description":"In 1431, the Siamese army besieged Angkor Thom. But instead of storming the walls, they poisoned the city's wells. Drawing on the Ming shi lu and recent a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":445,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-khmer-empire-s-sudden-collapse-explained-fexingo-history-7829682/episodes/angkor-s-poison-wells-the-biological-warfare-that-collapsed-an-empire/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-khmer-empire-s-sudden-collapse-explained-fexingo-history-7829682/angkor-s-poison-wells-the-biological-warfare-that-collapsed-an-empire.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}