The Role of Khmer Monks during 16 th -19 th Centuries Mr. Vong Sotheara Lecturer of History department, Royal University Phnom Penh I. Introduction During the Post-Angkor period, Theravada Buddhism played a very important role in Khmer society replacing the existing Brahmanism. The Prah Khan inscription on a large sacred stone, supported by the head of a woman sitting cross-legged (K.888) shows the form of the respect paid to the triple baskets of Buddhist scripture: the Buddha worshiped as the greatest spiritual teacher, Dhamma as the dwelling and Monks as the authority of the religion (Pou 1989:14). All Khmer Royal chronicles indicated that Theravada Buddhism was a religion of the state and an official religion and this has been believed throughout the country since then. Most of the wars, including the wars with neighboring countries especially with both Ayutthaya or Sien (Vickery 2002) and Vietnam, civil wars, and the conflicts among rival members of royal families who claimed the right over the throne. Both sides always said they made or ended the war because of the interest of all Buddhist scholar monks, Brahman priests and especially of all peasants who were Buddhists and finally for Buddhism (Eng 1991:56, 174). Also, after long and serious fighting, peaceful armistices were made because of the need of both sides, to establishing calm for Buddhism and the peace of the Buddhists, too (ibid.). Very few Khmer and foreign researchers have focused on the study of Post-Angkor history recorded in the Royal chronicles that were written lately in the 18 th -19 th centuries. The studies are mostly concerned with the events of wars and the chronology of successive kings rather than the historical dimensions that cover a large field such as society as a whole and its dynamic changes after interaction with outsiders. Sometimes the names of Khmer kings were invented to fill in the gaps missing in the chronology of kings (Vickery, op. cit.). Owing to the scarcity of the documents related to religious affairs during the 14 th -18 th centuries, the study of this topic is not easy and, as result, many researchers avoid studying this period and instead they confine their studies mostly to the period from the mid of 19 th century until contemporary times because they can easily find many documents and much historical information recorded about this period. In addition, enriched documents in this period developed after the arrival of western scholars, politicians and soldiers in South East Asia. It is true that before world development and the introduction of western science, technology and ideology, particularly to South East Asia, all of the potential sources of crucial knowledge for people in this region, both in religious and scientific study depended only on religious theory. Religion was an ideology that all classical leaders of the state needed to