The typical Southeast Asian 'kingdom‘ was a coalescence of
localized power centres, ideally bound together not by
force but through a complex interweaving of links
engendered by blood connections and obligation.
• Leadership, conceived in personal and ritual terms,
required constant reaffirmation. On the death of each ruler,
therefore, his successor's authority had to be reconstituted
with a renewal of marriage bonds and a vow of loyalty.
• While the women surrounding a leader were an important
political statement, they could also provide an abundance
of potential heirs, whose claims they could work to
support. As states became larger, the liminal period
between the death of one king and the installation of the
next could often prove to be a time of crisis.