The Khmer kings, even though not seeking to impose their personal beliefs, generally seemed to have shown delightful religious tolerance. Sylvain Levi then makes the observation that the two religions, originally foreign to the country, must rather have seduced the middle aristocracy as the manifestation of an elegant and refined culture than to have penetrated to the extremity of the masses. Even now there remains a caste of priests - the Bakou - who carry the Brahmanic cord. Practising the attributed religion they play in-stroke an important role, guard the sacred sword and preside at certain highly thought of festivals. This fused of the two religions did not however preclude occasional acts of fanaticism, manifest in the logical mutilation of the stone idols that were butchered gone the carvers tool or on speaking-graze to conflict the form of the opposing faith - the stele of Sdok Kak Thom describes for instance how king Suryavarman Ist had to lift troops as soon as to those who tore down the holy images, though in the 13th century there was a relentless and violent Shivate response adjacent-door to the works of Jayavarman VII. The oldest known known archaeological remains in Fou-Nan are Buddhist, suggesting that Buddhism probably preceded Brahmanism. If so, also this would have been in the form of Hinayana or the Small Vehicle (even if in Sanskrit) rather than Mahayana or the Large Vehicle. Not appearing in any innocent make known until the halt of the 7th century, this latter must have gained favour during the angkorian become pass in parallel later than the certified Brahmanism, which usually predominated. At the start of the 9th century, the accession to the throne of Jayavarman II - from Java - and the commencement of his capital in the region to the north of the Tonle Sap was to mark the instigation of a toting happening cult that was to continue until the subside of the Khmer empire - that of the Devaraja or the god-king, symbolised in the linga that was considered as an incarnation of Shiva.1 Set upon a temple-mountain or a tiered pyramid raised at the middle of the capital, this image must have been revered in the dwelling itself of the animate king. The inscription of Sdok Kak Thom anew givesIn Cambodia there was with the privilege of apotheosis, which could benefit not unaided the king but along with flattering figures of tall delineage - sometimes even during their lifetime - from where came the use of the posthumous names indicating the celestial abode of the deceased monarch, each one visceral assimilated to his selected god. Towards the fall of the 12th century, the Buddhist king Jayavarman VII, in order to assure perpetuity to the symbolic cult of the Devaraja, instituted the same cult of the Buddha-king at the Bayon - the central temple of Angkor Thom - manifest in the portrait statue that was found blinking at the bottom of the proficiently (and which has now been restored). This form of adaptation, however, was not to last, and from the 13th century, also than a reward to Shivasm, the Buddhism of the Large Vehicle - of the Sanskrit language - was replaced by that of the Small Vehicle - of the Pali language - to which Cambodia has remained loyal.