ABSTRACT
The least-recorded period of Cambodian history falls between Zhou Daguan’s visit to Angkor and the restoration of some of the temples there by a Cambodian king named Chan in the 1550s and 1560s. The intervening centuries witnessed major, permanent shifts in Cambodia’s economy, its foreign relations, its language, and probably, although this is harder to verify, in the structure, values, and performance of Cambodian society. Evidence about these shifts that can be traced to the period itself, however, is very thin. By the time the amount of evidence increases and becomes reliable around 1550 or so, many of the shifts have already taken place.
