In 790 a young Cambodian prince, claiming to be descended from the rulers of Funan, was consecrated in eastern Cambodia under the title Jayavarman II. Part of the ceremony involved breaking ties with “Java,” which probably was a reference not to the island of Java but to the kingdom of Srivijaya on the island of Sumatra. Over the next 10 years, Jayavarman extended his power northward into the Mekong River valley until, in 802, he was reconsecrated as a chakravartin (the ancient Indian conception of world ruler) in northwestern Cambodia. The capital seems to have been located in the Kulén Hills, north of the present-day provincial capital of Siĕmréab, where he died in 835. Despite the high status accorded him by subsequent Angkorean kings, Jayavarman II seems to have left no inscriptions of his own, and the monuments that can be dated to his reign were small and hastily built.

Jayavarman’s real accomplishment was less tangible and lasted longer, for he appears to have established what came to be called Kambuja-desa, a confident, self-aware kingdom that superseded and came to control a range of smaller states. He was Cambodia’s first nationally oriented king. It is not known whether smaller states were forced into submission or joined of their own volition. Despite the grandeur of the Angkorean temples that were built over the next four centuries, Jayavarman II’s successors were often powerless or constrained by opposing forces. Revolts and usurpations were frequent, as were foreign invasions. Rulers were the object of rival claims by family members, priests, generals, and bureaucrats. Some kings, especially usurpers, had more freedom of action than others. Those who ruled in periods of peace were also in a better position to undertake building programs and public works. Like their counterparts in medieval Europe, Cambodian kings were far removed from ordinary people. The king was perceived primarily in religious terms, and he ensured the fertility of the soil and the well-being of the kingdom through the rituals he performed. In exchange for his protection, the people were subject to intermittent military service and corvée duty and were also called on to provide labour without payment for Buddhist and Hindu religious foundations and for local elites.

Toward the end of the 9th century, soon after Jayavarman II’s death, the Cambodian capital shifted to the northern shores of the Tonle Sap, near present-day Phumĭ Rôluŏs. A king named Indravarman I (ruled 877–c. 890) constructed a large reservoir and several temples there, including a pyramidical structure called the Bakong—the first Cambodian temple to be built primarily of stone rather than brick. The so-called “temple mountain” became the model for the many larger royal temples at Angkor that served as monuments to the greatness of their patrons and, subsequently, as their tombs.