nobility and the royal court: |
Most of what we know about the nobility or aristocracy and the court of the Khmer Empire comes from the writings of Zhou Daguan.
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The royal palace...face[s] east...The tiles of the main building are made of lead; all the other tiles are made of yellow clay. The beams and pillars are huge, and are all carved and painted with images of the Buddah. The rooms are really quite grand-looking, [with] long corridors and complicated walkways...In the place for doing official business there is a gold window, with rectangular pillars to the left and right of the crosspieces. About forty or fifty mirrors are arrayed on either side of the upper part of the window; the lower part is made of images of elephants.
Zhou Daguan, A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its People
Zhou Daguan, A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its People
When serving wine they do so with a pewter pot, though poor people use a clay jug. In the great houses and wealthy homes, silver or even gold is used for everything. In the palace they often use receptacles of gold, different from the others in style and shape...On the ground they lay out grass mats from Mingzhou, or rattan matting, or the pelts of tigers, leopards, muntjaks, deer and so on. Lately people have started using low tables, about a foot high...At night there are a lot of mosquitos, so they use cloth nets. In the king's quarters the nets are made of fine silk with gold filigree work, all of them the gifts of seafaring merchants.
Zhou Daguan, A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its People
Zhou Daguan, A Record of Cambodia: The Land and its People