While on assignment for the Washington Post in 1979, John Burgess stumbled across an ancient Khmer temple. The temple would later become his inspiration for a book, and now, a lecture at Sacramento State.

“One day I went for a walk in forest land outside the camp and came across a Khmer temple,ruined and untended. It was a magical experience,” Burgess said.

Burgess, who started writing for the Washington Post in 1971, began writing his book part-time in the last year of his stint with the paper. Once he retired from the Washington Post in 2008, his part-time work on the book turned to full-time, and he completed it 18 months later.

His book, “Stories in Stone: The Sdok Kok Thom Inscription and the Enigma of KhmerHistory,” is about inscriptions found on sandstone monoliths built by the Khmer empire in Southeast Asia, mainly the Sdok Kok Thom temples in the Angkor region of Cambodia, which is now Thailand.

Art professor Pattaratorn Chirapravati invited Burgess to speak at Sac State as a part of his book tour.

“The inscription that he will talk about is one of the most important documents of Cambodian history,” Chirapravati said.

The lecture will be presented through a PowerPoint slideshow and will discuss the details of the empire itself, how the inscriptions were written, and the story behind its disappearance and discovery.

The inscriptions are significant because they tell the history of the Khmer empire, an empire that had power over Southeast Asia for more than 600 years.

“The work showed that in its day, the Khmer Empire was every bit as glorious its part of the world as the Roman or Chinese empires were elsewhere,” Burgess said.

Years after the empire fell, the temples and inscriptions were seemingly forgotten, and Burgess said it took decades to decipher their meaning.

Back in the 1800s, the bulk of the deciphering was conducted by translating the ancient Cambodian language found in the Khmer inscriptions scattered in Cambodia, France and Thailand, Burgess said.

These inscriptions and their translations were pieced together to form the history of the empire that is known today.

“I know that my students in both Asian studies program and art history program will be interested in the topic,” Chirapravati said. “We have a lot of Southeast Asian students on campus and in the Sacramento Area so it will be interesting to have a lecture on Southeast Asia.”

Burgess grew up in Thailand, Indonesia and India, and is no stranger to Southeast Asia. He stumbled upon the temples in Thailand while on assignment for the Washington Post in 1979.

It was not until many years later when he found out what those temples were and their significance in history.

“I found that there was no general interest book about this fabulous record from the past. So I assigned myself to write it,” he said. “It was fabulous fun.”

Although he retired from the Washington Post two years ago, he does not consider himself retired. When he is not busy promoting his book, Burgess also does contract writing in Washington in addition to writing and editing for AARP magazine.

When he is not busy, Burgess enjoys doing “a usual collection of things” such as theater, movies, hiking, reading and architectural history.

In the next few years, he does not plan on straying far from what he is doing now. He is even considering following up his current book with another, but has no solid plans for that.

CORRECTION: The print edition of The State Hornet lists the incorrect room number for the lecture. John Burgess will be lecturing at Sac State in Mendocino Hall, room 1051 on Jan. 28 from 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Cayla Gales can be reached at [email protected]