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Premier Symposium Franco-Thai Conference date: 18-24 July 1988 Introduction: Moats and reservoirs have long been built in Northeast Thailand to guard against flood and drought. During the 10th century AD, a temple was erected at Muang Tam, at the foot of Khao Phanom Rung, Buri Ram. A large rectangular reservoir just north of the temple appears to date to this time. In the early 7th century AD, the city of Muang Fa Daed Sung Yang, is said to have been founded, an event which may have included the digging of the moat which enclosed the separate sites of Fa Daed and Sung Yang. At the end of the 6th century AD, Mahendravarman, a Khmer ruler, made a series of raids onto the Khorat Plateau, perhaps in response to the growing prominence of moated cities such as Muang Fa Daed Sung Yang. Mahendravarman marked his conquests with a number of inscribed steles (e.g. Coedès 1953:3,K.377), and in at least one case, he also dug a reservoir (Coedès 1964:152,K.969). Well before this time, however, the people of the Khorat Plateau began to conserve water, by surrounding their villages with moats which collected, or "harvested" water. Excavations indicate that occupation of these water-harvesting villages, and thus possibly the moats, date to the first millennium BC.
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