Fowler Talk with Piphal Heng (Yale University)

Tuesday, April 28, 2026
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Deutsche Room
Fowler Museum at UCLA

Social infrastructure played a central role in the formation, maintenance, and expansion of Angkor between the 9th and 15th centuries CE. Angkor is known for its urban planning, monumental architecture, and water management systems, yet the relationship between religion and governance remains contested. Rather than treating religion and the state as separable domains, this lecture approaches Angkorian infrastructure as a material expression of political ethics and social obligation.

The lecture examines two periods of transformation. Under Yaśovarman I (889–910 CE), polity-scale royal foundations supported population growth while accommodating religious pluralism. Under Jayavarman VII (1181–1218 CE), governance was articulated through a Buddhist framework centered on compassion, materialized in a network of temples, reservoirs, hospitals, and educational institutions. These foundations functioned as sites of worship, community support, health care, learning, and political authority.By framing Angkorian infrastructure as an archaeology of compassion—where religious practice, social provisioning, and statecraft converged—this talk argues for a social infrastructure approach to understanding premodern governance and political legitimacy.

Piphal Heng is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Yale University, specializing in Southeast Asian archaeology. He was a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow (2023–2025) at UCLA. His research focuses on urbanism, political economy, and religious transformation in Cambodia, with particular attention to the Angkorian and post-Angkorian periods (9th–18th century CE). Dr. Heng integrates geospatial technologies—including LiDAR, remote sensing, and spatial analysis—with archaeological fieldwork to examine long-term landscape use, settlement patterns, and urban infrastructure. He currently directs the Phum Archaeology Project, which explores the social and spatial dynamics of low-density urbanism in the Lower Mekong Basin.

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Fowler Museum at UCLA, UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute