Angkor Wat: LiDAR finds underworld? (PBS)

Naga city under ancient architecture?

(The Sealed Scroll) Scientists just opened a vault underneath Angkor Wat that changes everything

Angkor: Hidden Jungle Empire | NOVA | PBS

WATCH FREE NOW: "Angkor: Hidden Jungle Empire" | full documentary | NOVA | PBS

The Khmer "Leper King"

(NOVA PBS Official) Premiered Jan. 28, 2026: New evidence sheds light on the remarkable life – and mysterious collapse – of the ancient Buddhist/Hindu jungle city (150+ square miles in size like Denver).

Uncover the lost secrets of a once-mighty empire. The massive capital City of Angkor [aka Yaśodharapura, City of Yasovarman I (or Yasodhara?), with more than one million inhabitants in ancient times], the seat of the great Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia for 500 years, was once the biggest city in the world.

• Buddhism in Cambodia
• Hire a guide or go for a ride - what's the best way to visit Angkor Wat? (globetrottergirls.com)

Khmer Empire (Wiki)

For centuries, this incredible civilization flourished, building the largest religious monument on Earth, Angkor Wat (one square kilometer wat "Angkor Temple"), and mastering urban engineering in a challenging landscape. But then it was mysteriously abandoned, swallowed by the jungle.

Now, cutting-edge technology and new discoveries are finally revealing how this astounding empire rose to global prominence – and what likely led to its devastating collapse.

Follow a scientific detective story that is challenging everything we thought we knew about this ancient Buddhist-Hindu metropolis.

CHAPTERS

• 

  Angkor Wat (globetrottergirls.com)

  00:00 Introduction
• 04:03 True size of Angkor Wat revealed by LiDAR
• 15:45 Engineering a massive temple on a flood plain
• 26:26 The kings of the Khmer Empire
• 35:30 Why was Angkor and Angkor Wat abandoned?
• 50:01 Conclusion

Danger: Russian tourist attacks

(The Country Collectors) White entitlement, violent Russian attacks tourists

Official website: to.pbs.org/4bfXd12 | #novapbs. © 2026 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. This program was produced by GBH, which is solely responsible for its content. This program is made possible by viewers. Support local PBS stations here: pbs.org/donate. Enjoy full episodes of favorite PBS shows anytime, anywhere with the free PBS app:  to.pbs.org/2QbtzhR. 📰 Stay up to date on the latest science discoveries, full episodes, articles, videos, and more by signing up for NOVA's newsletter here: to.pbs.org/4brCC7Y. 🛍️ Shop official NOVA 50th anniversary merch: nova-shop.org 🎙️ Watch NOVA PBS podcast, Particles of Thought, or listen wherever there are podcasts. TAGS: Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana, Hinduism, Khmer Empire, Cambodia, Asian Buddhist temple, LiDAR technology, water, rice agriculture, Angkor Thom, bubonic plague. Follow on social media for more NOVA content:

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• LiDAR reveals more to ancient City of Angkor | Electronics Weekly
• Angkor: Hidden Jungle Empire | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Theravada Buddhism in Minnesota, USA?

How Cambodian Minnesotans built one of North America's largest Buddhist temples

(WCCO - CBS Minnesota) May 7, 2025: Cambodian refugees came to Minnesota in the early 1980s. Today, the town of Hampton, about 35 miles southeast of Minneapolis, is home to Watt Munisotaram — one of the largest Buddhist temples in North America. Watch the full special: cbsloc.al/432xqDL. Learn more: cbsloc.al/44WsmmL.

• Buddhism in Cambodia

Finding Minnesota: Buddhist temple sits south of Twin Cities

(WCCO - CBS Minnesota) Aug. 26, 2018: In this week's Finding Minnesota, we traveled to Hampton and found out why this Theravada Buddhist temple has become a destination for all kinds of Buddhists and non-Buddhist visitors. John Lauritsen reports (3:40). WCCO 4 News At 10 – Aug. 26, 2018

Twitter: wcco. Instagram: wcco. #wcco #cambodia #cambodians #buddhism #vietnamwar #vietnam #refugees #immigration. Official Site: wcco.com. Facebook: cbsminnesota.

• WCCO; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

War criminal Kissinger at 100: new crimes

Nick Turse (The Intercept), hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (democracynow.org, 5/24/23); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Kissinger at 100: New war crimes revealed in secret Buddhist Cambodia bombing campaign that set the stage for our "Forever Wars"

(Democracy Now!) May 24, 2023. Latest Shows. A bombshell new investigation from The Intercept reveals that former U.S. National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was responsible for even more innocent civilian deaths during the U.S. War in Cambodia (and War on Vietnam) than was previously known.

Let's bomb this peaceful Buddhist kingdom!

The revelations add to Kissinger's violent résumé that ranges from Latin America to Southeast Asia, where Kissinger presided over brutal U.S. military attacks, incursions, and interventions to put down a "communist revolt" and to develop U.S. influence around the world.

While survivors and family members of these deadly campaigns continue to grieve, American warmonger Kissinger celebrates his 100th birthday this week.

Illegal US missions over Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam

“This adds to the list of killings and crimes that Henry Kissinger should, even at this very late date in his life, be asked to answer for,” says The Intercept’s Nick Turse, author of the new investigation, “Kissinger’s Killing Fields.”

Democracy Now! also speaks with Yale University’s Greg Grandin, author of Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman.

• Transcript: democracynow.org/2023/5/2...

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 am ET. Support independent media: democracynow.org/donate. Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe.

Cambodia: "First They Killed My Father" (video)

Angelina Jolie, Luong Ung (Netflix); BBC; CC Liu, Ashley Well (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


Cambodia: The Power of Memory

(Angelina Jolie Brasil) Almost 40 years after the Cambodian genocide by the CIA-backed Communist Khmer Rouge or "Red Khmer" regime, which cost more than two million innocent lives in the "killing fields," people are still struggling to come to terms with what happened.
 

A new film by Hollywood director Angelina Jolie and her Cambodian son Maddux, with an entirely Cambodian cast, based on a memoir by Loung Ung, attempts to help the healing process.

For the BBC's Our World, Host Yalda Hakim has been to Theravada Buddhist Cambodia to meet Jolie and some of those who lived through that genocide. More about the film and book (First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung)

• After 11 Years, $300 million, and only 3 convictions, was the Khmer Rouge Tribunal worth it? 
• Will Angelina Jolie movie help renew Khmer language?
• FREE CUBA: "Cuba Libre Story" (Netflix)

Wild man survives naked in Cambodian jungle

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Mr. Nguyen, Wisdom Quarterly; Arn Chorn Pond BBC.co.uk (BBC World Service, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014) CAMBODIA COVERAGE

Escaping the Khmer Rouge to a Thai Buddhist refugee camp (THAI-ON/flickr.com)

The jungle has no mercy, not for monkeys, snakes, leeches, tigers, or humans...

See all previous episodes from Outlook: LISTEN NOW (55:00)

.

Music Saved me From the Killing Fields

Woodlands and jungle (bhumi deva land)

[Paul] Arn Chorn Pond survived a brutal childhood in Cambodia as a child soldier against the Vietnamese -- living naked like a half-animal "wild man" in the jungle for months trying to escape the brutality -- under the Khmer Rouge. But he was eventually able to make a new life for himself in suburban America after being adopted by an American in the Northeast, eventually settling in New Hampshire. Now he's working to save traditional Cambodian art and music.
 
Also: Turkish film director Kutlug Ataman is recognized around the world for his documentaries. And ghoulish Italian Cesare Bergamini has been catching and killing eels for decades. His boathouse on the River Tiber is under the Rome ringroad. More episodes

• AUDIO: Listen now on pop-out player

Khmer convictions: Cambodia, Angelina Jolie

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; BBC

It is believed that up to 2 million Cambodians died under CIA/Pol Pot's regime (AFP/BBC)

.

Cambodian Tomb Raider Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft)

Most Americans are not likely aware that anything much ever happened in Cambodia -- Cambodia? Where's Cambodia? -- even as our government illegally bombed it during our war on Vietnam and our CIA fomented mass murder and crimes against humanity by cultivating dictators. 

 

It does the same now in the geopolitical Middle East just as it did all over Latin America. The CIA's activities there were exposed first hand by the highest ranking officer to ever blow the whistle:
 

Philip Agee, author of Inside the Company: CIA Diary. This seems to be in keeping with the way-of-empire and our American imperial method of making war as we learned it from England, Germany (WW II era Nazis, who came to live and work for the U.S. shadow government), Spain, France, Rome, Greece... It seems to be the Western way.

 

But Americans might know the name Pol Pot from the late 1970s, and we have all certainly heard the expression "killing fields." After all, the world's most famous Cambodian citizen is superstar actor Angelina Jolie. And America's amazing "Buddha Girl" Ratanayani is a Cambodian-American!
 

The Buddha at Battambang, Cambodia (Kim Seng/captainkino.com/flickr.com)

 

Reptilians/Nagas

Cambodia was once a peaceful Theravada Buddhist country in Southeast Asia.
 
But long before that -- mirroring the Mesoamerican empires of ancient Mexico (Aztec, Toltec, and Olmec) -- it was one of the world's greatest empires extending in the jungles from the center of the world at Angkor Wat and its suburbs, which were once home to 1,000,000 residents. It covers more ground than Paris and was built with more stone than the pyramids of Egypt, according to National Geographic.

The greatness is evident because Cambodia's former glory was not limited to the City of Angkor with its central wat (Buddhist temple). Other great stone cities have also been discovered and made much of by National Geographic, but other equally great ruins remain yet to be discovered.
 

Glass pool reservoir at Angkor Wat, Cambodia (Platongkohphoto/flickr.com)

 

But their innovative water system collapsed and their apparent worship of nagas (reptilians, snakes, Quetzalcoatl-like off-planet overlords) ushered in their ruin as a "Rome," "Washington," or "Vatican" -- the capitals of other massive empires.
 
"The Killing Fields," winner of three Academy Awards, tells the story of a New York Times reporter and his Cambodian aide harrowingly trapped in Cambodia's 1975 Khmer Rouge revolution. Sam Waterston, John Malkovich, and "Best Supporting Actor" (Oscar and Golden Globe winner) Haing S. Ngor star in this shattering true story. Rated: R.

 

Jolie's Cambodian shaman/Buddhist tattoos

Americans would have heard of the expression "The Killing Fields" from the popular film, and Pol Pot from the chorus of the Dead Kennedy's ironic and popular punk classic "Holiday in Cambodia," its stone building sunk in jungle thickets from Angelina Jolie as actress (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

WARNING: Graphic and gruesome violence! (CNN.com, May 1, 2009) CNN's Dan Rivers profiles members of the Khmer Rouge, as they face justice before a U.N.-backed trial.

Top Khmer Rouge leaders convicted: found guilty of crimes against humanity

Ancient megalithic Angkor Wat and its Buddha and kings' faces (Dvillaret/flickr.com)

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(BBC) There was a round of applause as the verdict was reached, according to BBC correspondent Jonathan Head.

Two top Khmer Rouge leaders have been jailed for life after being convicted by Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal of crimes against humanity

 

Nuon Chea, 88, served as leader Pol Pot's deputy and Khieu Samphan, 83, was the Maoist regime's head of state. They are the first top-level leaders to be held accountable for its crimes.
 

Soum Rithy, who lost his father and three siblings, reacts to verdict in Phom Penh (Reuters)

 
Up to two million people are thought to have died under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime -- of starvation and overwork or executed as enemies of the state.

 

Judge Nil Nonn said the men were guilty of "extermination encompassing murder, political persecution, and other inhumane acts comprising forced transfer, enforced disappearances, and attacks against human dignity."

 

Lawyers for the pair said they would appeal against the ruling. "It is unjust for my client. He did not know or commit many of these crimes," Son Arun, a lawyer for Nuon Chea, told journalists. They will remain in detention while this takes place. 
 
"Anger remains"

The regime sought to create an agrarian society: cities were emptied and their residents forced to work on rural co-operatives. Many were worked to death while others starved as the economy imploded. 

 

During four violent years, the Khmer Rouge also killed all those it perceived as enemies -- intellectuals, minorities, former officials -- and their families. More

"Holiday in Cambodia"
(DKs555) "Apocalypse Now" illegally in Cambodia, where the US/CIA had no right or justification to be. Yet, it dropped more cluster bombs and committed as many if not more secret war crimes in Cambodia and Laos than it did in Vietnam.

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Cambodia: "A River Changes Course" (film)

Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Kalyanee Mam; Film Festivals and Indie Films; LA Times

Theravada monks in front of Angkor, once the world's largest religious monument

Legacy of the CIA and Khmer Rouge

Twice a year in Theravada Buddhist Cambodia, the Tonle Sap river changes course, while the metaphorical river of life flows in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth, creation and destruction. Working in an intimate and cinema vérité style, filmmaker Kalyanee Mam (director of photography for the Oscar-winning documentary "Inside Job") spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians struggling to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt. A breathtaking and unprecedented journey from the remote, mountainous jungles and floating cities of the Cambodian countryside to the bustling garment factories of its modern capital Phnom Penh, "A River Changes Course" traces a remarkable and devastatingly beautiful story of a country torn between the rural present and an ominous industrial future.

• Travel guide: Introducing Cambodia (Lonely Planet)
• Khmer Studies Forum screening of documentary 

Amazing discovery in Cambodia!

"River" reveals a Cambodia in crisis

Susan King (latimes.com, Oct. 10, 2013)

Filmmaker Kalyanee Mam grew up with an unbridled passion for her native Cambodia. Though she was just a toddler when she and her family fled the country in 1979 and settled in Stockton (California), her parents would tell Mam and her siblings about the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, tempered with stories of the country's rich culture, history, and beauty. "I always had this strong sense I wanted to return to my homeland and to understand..." More

(TheLipTV) Kalyanee Mam talks about her documentary MORE

Obama in Buddhist Asia

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)

Barry bathes the Buddha with sky-deva looking on and Hillary nosing in (Reuters).

 

The Dalai Obama

While the rest of America was in line to re-watch K-Stew out vamp T-Laut and R-Patz and some blended chimera kid, fearless leader President B-SOb (Barry Soetoro Obama, or B.S. Obama) was in Buddhist Burma, the most Orwellian police state in the world.  It was George Orwell's inspiration for Nineteen Eighty-Four.

He worked for England's Indian Imperial Police in Burma, having been born in colonial India, now Buddhist Bihar state, the site of the Buddha's great enlightenment. B-SOb continues his epic tour through Thailand and the formerly devastated "killing fields" of Cambodia.

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B-SOb with parinirvana Buddha

These Theravada Buddhist countries welcomed the future leader of the planet, groomed by the MIC's clandestine services to assume the position post-disclosure. He will be a great speaker, the Great Communicator (scoot over, actor Ron Reagan), but he will wield no more actual power than anyone. That's what happens when you're just a hired teleprompter reader, as Zaphod Beeblebrox found out in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. (He's "just some guy, y'know?") This is the way the MIC has been running the world for decades since at least the time of a short man with a neat mustache wowed the crowds. And it goes to show, on a positive note, that in the decision between a Brave New World and an Orwellian New World Order, the powers that be seem to be leaning toward the former.

• Pres. Obama on a historic visit to Burma (Myanmar)
• Partying in a Police State 
• Police state? Who said anything about a police state?

President Barack Beeblebrox

Inside the Total Perspective Vortex

Like Barack or Barry, as he went by growing up, Zaphod is the renegade president of the galaxy. This sounds good, but it is a role that involves no power whatsoever. It merely requires the incumbent to attract attention so that no one asks, Who's really in charge?

 

This is a role for which Zaphod is perfectly suited. He is the only person to have survived the mind warping Total Perspective Vortex. The TPV is a machine that derives its hideous power from any material inserted into one end, say a slice of angel's food cake. It takes the holographic information contained in that material and reveals a boundless multiverse. 

  

When a person is inserted into the business end of the machine, s/he sees what that arrow is pointing at -- an infinitesimally small speck on an infinitesimally small speck in this vast spectacle of space. A sign attached to the arrow contains the confidence-destroying, reality-warping message, "You are here."

  

How did Zaphod survive the revelation? In the original BBC radio series, it was established that he survived because he was in an Electronically Synthesized Universe within the multiverse. It was created especially for him, making him the "most important being in that universe." He was thus uniquely equipped to survive that version of the vortex. 

  

His brain-care specialist (psychiatrist) Gag Halfrunt, constantly explains to anyone who will listen, "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?"

  

The Lady Aung San Suu Kyi with Pres. Obama

President Zaphod used his position as President of the Galaxy to steal the Heart of Gold, a craft capable of taking advantage of Infinite Improbability Drive at its unveiling.  This is quite like the shocking but true reports of a young Barry Obama traveling to the surface Mars via an "elevator" (transporter room) in El Segundo, California. Believe it. Why? Because life and this universe is much, much stranger than fiction. And one thing is sure here: Like Zaphod, Barry is really, really cool. So all salute our handpicked (by the NSA, NSC, CIA, or MIC) leader!

We love him (as a person). We just can't stand those he represents, which are the same secretive behind-the-scenes movers-and-shakers Dick Cheney and the Bush Dynasty represented.

• White House denies Obama was ever TELEPORTED to Mars

Nice Words are Easy  

Presidents Obama and Thein Sein during historic visit (zimbio)

(Reuters) "For too long, the people of this [Burmese] state, including ethnic Rakhine, have faced crushing poverty and persecution. But there's no excuse for violence against innocent people," Obama told a packed audience for a speech at Yangon University.

"The Rohingya...hold within themselves the same dignity as you do, and I do. National reconciliation will take time, but for the sake of our common humanity, and for the sake of this country's future, it's necessary to stop incitement and to stop violence."

Thein Sein, in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week, promised to tackle the root causes of the problem, and Obama said he welcomed "the government's commitment to address the issues of injustice, and accountability, and humanitarian access and citizenship."

PRISONERS RELEASED?
Some human rights groups objected to the Burma visit, saying Obama was rewarding the government of the former pariah state for a job that was incomplete. Speaking in Thailand on the eve of his visit, Obama denied he was going to offer his "endorsement" or that his trip was premature. More

• Burma Dictator Watch

Letter from a soldier to Burmese people

Dictators hold fake elections (sjpaderborn)

(Original post in Burmese, Niknayman) I am a Burmese Army engineer from Division 905. Our captain, Ye Win Aung, from my division is forcing everyone in our division to recruit new soldiers. If we are not successful in our recruitment, he threatens to re-deploy us from well-paid positions at the base camp to other places. On top of that, he also demands that we must recruit at least one new soldier per month. We have also been given strict orders to recruit even underage kids, beggars, or homeless people by either offering them money or capturing them by force. Hence, everyone in the division is feeling miserable about having to carry out such orders. Army personnel close to obtaining pensions are especially worried that they might be punished if they do not carry out the orders.

Nagas in the News: The Killing Fields

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Tamjty (historical photo). HALLOWEEN SERIES

Prisoner portraits during atheist-Maoist-communist takeover of Buddhist Cambodia by Pol Pot and the NAGAS' own Khmer Rouge ("Red Army"). What followed in terms of police state war crimes and genocide of its own citizens is referred to as "Killing Fields."

Murder on an unimaginable scale: Killing Fields

(Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) Upon arrival at the secret prison, victims were first photographed and required to give detailed autobiographies, beginning at childhood and ending with arrest. They were then forced to strip to their underwear, and all of their possessions were confiscated. The prisoners were then taken to cells.

Those taken to the smaller cubicles were shackled to the walls or concrete floor. Those who were held in the large mass blocks were collectively shackled to long pieces of iron bar. The shackles were fixed to alternating bars; the prisoners slept with their heads facing opposite directions. They slept on the floor without mosquito nets, mattresses, mats, or blankets. They were forbidden to talk to each other. More 

• Thinking About Museums: revisiting genocide (PHOTOS)