Historical figure
Chey Chettha II
Chey Chettha II was a 17th-century king of Cambodia who moved the royal capital to Oudong.[1] His marriage to a princess of the Nguyễn lords, who ruled southern Vietnam, opened close ties between the Cambodian court and the Nguyễn.[2]
Name
The chronicles call him Jayajeṭṭhā. The historians Mak Phoeun and Khin Sok number him Jayajeṭṭhā II, and give the name Jayajeṭṭhā I to one of King Saṭṭhā's sons.[1] Nhim Sotheavin's 2020 history of the fall of Longvek reads the inscription IMA 3 differently, and takes the Jayajeṭṭhā named there, Chey Cheytha I, to be Saṭṭhā himself.[3]
Accession
His father, King Srī Suriyobarm, reigned from 1602 and gave up the throne to him in 1618 or 1619, by Nhim's reading of the chronicles.[1] Srī Suriyobarm died about three months later, in 1619.[1] Nhim dates the reign of Jayajeṭṭhā II from 1619 to 1627.[1] Trần Nam Tiến, a Vietnamese historian, wrote in 2013 that he took the throne in 1618, and quoted the French writer Jean Moura, who wrote in 1883 that Prea Chey Chessda was crowned in March 1618.[2]
Marriage and Vietnamese ties
The sources date his marriage differently. Nhim wrote that the marriage was arranged near the end of Srī Suriyobarm's reign to win Vietnamese help against Siamese attacks, and the Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle dates it to 1616 or 1617.[1] Trần Nam Tiến dates it to 1620. In his account, the king asked for the marriage, and the Nguyễn lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên gave him his daughter, Princess Ngọc Vạn, who became queen of Cambodia.[2] The chronicle P/48 (II) gives her the title Samṭec Braḥ Bhagavatī Varaksatrī.[1]
Trần Nam Tiến wrote that in 1623 Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên sent an embassy with letters and gifts to Oudong. It asked the king to allow a toll post at Prei Kor, in the area of present-day Saigon, and a farming settlement at Mô Xoài, in the area of present-day Bà Rịa. He wrote that the queen spoke for both requests and that the king agreed to them. He also wrote that the Nguyễn lord twice sent troops to help the king drive back Siamese invasions.[2] Nhim wrote that when the Vietnamese sent troops against Siam, they wanted a share of the land of Prei Nokor for their trade.[1]
Oudong
By the chronicles, the king decided in 1620 to move the capital from Lvea Em to Oudong.[1] The Vāṃṅ Juon chronicle records that he first stayed at Lvea Em for six months and then traveled, stopping for some days at Samrong Tong. There he reformed many of the kingdom's legal codes, and by 1624 he had reformed at least 24 of them in full and proclaimed them across the kingdom.[1]
He chose a site near a small hill and the pond of Sraḥ Kaev, after a royal astrologer called it a land of victory. It lies on the western side of the Tonle Sap River, about 7 kilometers (about 4 miles) south of Longvek. The minister Ukañā Kralāhom Kaev had the palace built in about ten months, and in 1620 the king and his court moved to Oudong.[1] The chronicles call the new capital "Oudong Lu Chei" or "Oudong Mean Chei."[1] Oudong stayed a royal capital until the reign of Ang Duong (1840 to 1860).[1]
In 1623 the king brought the funeral urn of his father to the stupa of Trai Troeng on Phnom Preah Reach Troap at Oudong, with the urns of his mother, his grandfather King Saṭṭhā and Braḥ Kaev Hvā.[1]
Relations with Siam
Nhim wrote that Siamese attacks on Cambodia became frequent in his reign, above all in the reign of Song Tham, the king of Siam from about 1611 to 1628, and that these invasions were probably tied to trade interests.[3] The Khmer chronicles place a Siamese invasion in 1622 or 1623, just after the move to Oudong. Nhim wrote that the invasion failed and that the king asked the Vietnamese to step in against the Siamese attacks.[1]
Death
Nhim wrote that Jayajeṭṭhā II reigned for eight years and died in 1627.[1] Trần Nam Tiến gives his death as 1628, and wrote that the ruling circle of Cambodia was deeply divided after it.[2] Nhim lists three children, Bañā Tūr, Bañā Nūr and Bañā Cand.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 Institute of Asian Culture, Sophia University, Nhim Sotheavin, Factors that Led to the Change of the Khmer Capitals from the 15th to 17th century (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Tạp chí Khoa học Xã hội, Trần Nam Tiến, Vai trò của chúa Nguyễn đối với công cuộc khai phá và bảo vệ xứ Mô Xoài thế kỷ XVII, no. 2(174) (2013; in Vietnamese)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Yosothor, Nhim Sotheavin, Considerations Regarding the Fall of Longvek, UDAYA, Journal of Khmer Studies No. 15 (2020)