The Customs of Cambodia

Zhou's account is of great historical significance because it is the only surviving first person written record of daily life in the Khmer Empire.

[2] The book is an account of Cambodia by Zhou Daguan, who visited the country as part of an official diplomatic delegation sent by Temür Khan (Emperor Chengzong of Yuan) in 1296 to deliver an imperial edict.

Excerpts were given in a lengthy compilation Boundaries of Stories (說郛, Shuo fu),[4] in a second version was published in early Qing dynasty.

[5] The work is written in classical Chinese; however, there are occasionally words and sentence structures that appear to have been influenced by Zhou's Wenzhou dialect.

Harris worked in Cambodia for many years and included modern photographs and maps directly relating to Zhou's original account.

[14] The book gives descriptions of Yasodharapura, the capital city at the center of Angkor, and everyday palace life and protocols.

It describes the various customs and religious practices of the country, the role of women and slaves, trade and city life, agriculture, and other aspects of society in Angkor, as well as the presence of Chinese in Cambodia and the war with the Siamese.

The descriptions in the book are generally considered to be accurate, but there are also mistakes, for example the local Hindu religious devotees were described erroneously by Zhou in Chinese terms as Confucians or Daoists, and the measurements of length and distance used are often less than exact.

Open corridors and long colonnades, arranged in harmonious patterns, stretch away on all sides.On Khmer Homes:[2] The dwellings of the princes and principal officials have a completely different layout and dimensions from those of the people.

The official rank of each person determines the size of the houses.On a royal procession of Indravarman III:[16] When the king goes out, troops are at the head of [his] escort; then come flags, banners and music.

The elephant's tusks are encased in gold.On the king's wardrobe:[2] Only the ruler can dress in cloth with an all-over floral design…Around his neck he wears about three pounds of big pearls.

At his wrists, ankles and fingers he has gold bracelets and rings all set with cat's eyes…When he goes out, he holds a golden sword [of state] in his hand.On the dress:[17] From the king down, the men and women all wear their hair wound up in a knot, and go naked to the waist, wrapped only in a cloth.

Siamese women do know how to stitch and darn, so when local people have torn or damaged clothing they ask them to do the mending.On judgment:[3] In front of the palace there are twelve small stone towers.

So when a Chinese goes to this country, the first thing he must do is take in a woman, partly with a view to profiting from her trading abilities.The women age very quickly, no doubt because they marry and give birth when too young.

When they are twenty or thirty years old, they look like Chinese women who are forty or fifty.Priests from Angkor performed costly ritual ceremonies to break the hymen of young girls as a mark to adulthood and sexual activityZhou's account is very useful for determining that the 1st month of the Khmer calendar was "kia-to", called Karttika.