Nourished by the Mekong River: Exploring Angkor

This episode from the series by Chinese Television’s Channel 9, looks at the great civilisation that centered around Angkor in Cambodia.

It starts by tracing the voyage of Zhou Daguan, a Chinese official who wrote a description of Angkor, its lands, customs and peoples in the 13th century, before looking at the archeological remains themselves.

The documentary also intersperses the Angkor material with footage from Lijiang in China, Luang Prabhang, Bagan and My Son, but briefly, and hardly in a connected way, the main focus being on Angkor.

For a short film it gives a fairly accurate and engaging view of its subject, and there is some good photography which animates the scenes, as well as aerial scenes.

Through most of the film we see the story with the help of a young samanera who follows us on a journey to find out more about this great civilisation.