South-East Asian Fortified Stone Walls: Angkor Thom (Cambodia), Ho Citadel (Vietnam) and Ratu Boko (Indonesia)
Abstract: This article aims to
analyze three significant examples of defensive walls from South-East Asia made
of solid stone blocks (both rock as well as stone-like laterite) and provided
with different but equivalent functions –a fortified imperial capital-city
(Angkor Thom, in Cambodia), a fortified royal citadel (Ho Citadel, in the North
of Vietnam) and a royal palace with a partly fortified appearance (Ratu Boko,
in Java Island, Indonesia)–, focusing on their constructive and technical
characteristics and establishing parallels between them and their closest
counterparts, from China and India. We will see how their design and structure
can be closely related to the fortifications of neighbouring empires, as places
of origin of their strong cultural influences and, at the same time, we will
try to identify the local particularities. We will pay special attention to the
form of the fortified enceintes, considering the long tradition of the
quadrangular plan in the walls of royal capitals, inspired in the ideal model
of Chinese and Indian cities. Our research also make us think that the walls of
Ratu Boko, despite their functions as symbolic limits or for retaining the
soil, could also have had a defensive purpose, no matter if secondary, or at
least they could be used to provide protection to the complex in case of
external menace.
Author: VÃctor LluÃs Pérez
Garcia
Journal Code: jpantropologigg160032
