Around 1,200 stone inscriptions have been discovered in the Angkor region, written in Sanskrit, Khmer, and later Pali, the classical language of Buddhism. The bas-reliefs at the Bayon temple also offer vivid snapshots of everyday Khmer life. However, no books from Angkor have survived. The sole detailed written account of Angkorian life comes from The Customs of Cambodia by the Chinese traveler Zhou Daguan, who visited Angkor in 1295 during the later years of the empire.

While Angkor had no caste system, society was strictly stratified. The hierarchy ranged from slaves, peasants, and farmers to nobles, priests, and royalty. Temples like Ta Prohm were vast employment hubs, with over 80,000 people, including more than 2,500 priests, alongside musicians, dancers, and singers. Many inhabitants were slaves, a mix of debtors, tribespeople, and prisoners of war. Zhou Daguan noted that nearly every peasant owned at least one slave. However, as the peasantry was often considered the property of the king or local temple, the line between freedom and servitude was blurred, and even some slaves reportedly owned slaves themselves.

The daily lives of ancient Angkorians mirrored that of modern Cambodian rural communities. They relied on a diet of rice, fish, and fruit, and lived in stilted houses crafted from wood or bamboo, with thatched roofs made of palm leaves. Higher officials and nobles distinguished themselves by using tile roofs as a status symbol. Strict sumptuary laws dictated clothing types, though most wore simple loincloths or sampot-style skirts, with both men and women going bare-chested. Marriages took place during the teenage years, and if one spouse was absent for over ten days, the other could sleep with someone else. Girls underwent a coming-of-age ritual between ages seven and eleven, during which a priest symbolically removed their virginity by hand.

The legal system was severe, with common use of “trial-by-ordeal,” where the accused might have to plunge a hand into boiling water and would be declared innocent only if their skin remained unscathed. Penalties for crime were harsh; runaway slaves or criminals faced amputation of lips, hands, or limbs, and the most severe offenders could be buried alive. Religious practices may have included human sacrifices, and punishment in the afterlife was imagined as an eternal hell of freezing cold.