In this episode of The Khmer Empire: The Lost Civilization Behind Angkor Wat, Lucas and Luna explore Jayavarman VII's ambitious network of 102 state-run hospitals across the Khmer Empire in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Drawing on the stone stele inscriptions found at Say Fong and elsewhere, they discuss how these hospitals — called arogyasala — were staffed with doctors, nurses, and attendants who provided free care, medicine, and even food to the sick. Lucas explains the role of the devaraja cult in funding these institutions, the medical knowledge derived from Indian Ayurvedic texts, and how the hospitals were part of Jayavarman VII's larger program of public works, including roads, rest houses, and reservoirs. They touch on the discovery of hospital shrines at sites like Ta Prohm and Banteay Chhmar, and the practical challenges of running such a system in a pre-modern empire. The episode reveals a surprisingly compassionate side of Khmer statecraft, while also questioning how much of the system survived after Jayavarman VII's death and the subsequent anti-Buddhist backlash under Jayavarman VIII.
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