Khmer people own a number of various boats, including the boats used by navy in a war to win a victory over Cham in the reign of King Jayavaraman VII. According to the post-1177’s study, Khmer battle boats in the Angkorean Period have had different length from 17 to 27 meters, which could load about 15 to 21 people. Twenty nine of the ancient boat sculptures in Bayon temple are seen, demonstrating the courage of navy in the King Jayavaraman VII’s period. The archaeologists illustrate that the ancient Khmer boats and Cham boats carved in the wall of Bayon temple are the victory of the King Jayavaraman VII’s navy force over Cham’s navy in a war after 1177 A.D.

Fig. 1-9 The Type of Battle Boats On Bayon And Bantey Chmar Temple

Noticeably added, in the 5^th century A.D’s Nokor Phnom period, there was the Chinese memoir in the reign of Qi in the South China, revealing that the ancient Khmer boats were about 1.5 to 1.8 meters in width and about 24 to 25 meters in length. The features of those ancient boats are the Makara’s head sculpture and Hamsa-spraying Garuda’s sculpture while some other boats had no special features on the bow. In the same way, the sculptures of Dragon’s tail and Hamsa’s tail were seen at the stern of a boat. With reference to the study on those ancient boat sculptures, we saw that the naval armed forces were efficiently and strictly organized in the King Jayavaraman’s Angkorean period. More noticeably, the water battle between Khmer and Cham naval soldiers was done along the Tonle Sap river, not far from Phnom Krom, where was recognized as the entrance of the Khmer empire (M. Tranet).


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