History
Funan (kingdom)
នគរភ្នំ
Funan (នគរភ្នំ, Nokor Phnom) was an early state on the lower Mekong (មេគង្គ) and its delta, in what is now southern Cambodia and southern Vietnam.[1][2][3] It is thought to have flourished from the first to the sixth century of the Common Era, and it is among the earliest states in Southeast Asia.[3]
Name
Funan is the name used in Chinese records. Most of what is known of its early history comes from those records, together with modern excavations.[3][1] Chun Chanboth suggests that it is perhaps the Chinese sound of the Khmer word vnam or phnom, "mountain", taken from the title of its kings. The Khmer name of the kingdom is Nokor Phnom, "kingdom of the mountain".[2]
Founding legend
Two Chinese envoys, Kang Tai and Zhu Ying, visited Funan in the third century. Their reports are lost, but Chinese dynastic histories kept parts of them.[4][5] They tell of a Brahmin from India, called Hun Tian in Chinese, who came by sea after a dream in which a spirit gave him a sacred bow. The local queen, Liu Ye ("Willow Leaf"), attacked his ship. He pierced her boat with an arrow from the bow, and she gave in and married him.[2][4]
A Cham inscription from Mỹ Sơn, dated 658, gives the couple Indian names: Kaundinya, and Soma (សោមា), a naga princess.[2][5] In Cambodian tradition they are Preah Thong (ព្រះថោង) and Neang Neak (នាងនាគ).[2][5] Chun Chanboth writes that the couple founded the first Khmer royal line. In his account, Indian religion, language, learning, law and kingship then joined older Khmer beliefs such as the cult of ancestors and of neak ta (អ្នកតា) spirits.[2]
Kingdom
Early in the third century a king called Fan Shiman in the Chinese records came to the throne.[4] He built a fleet of large ships and brought the coastal states as far as the Malay Peninsula under his rule.[4][1] Funan sent envoys to India and to China.[4] Chun Chanboth writes that a later king, Fan Chan, sent envoys with gifts to the Chinese court in 243.[2]
Around the start of the fifth century a second Brahmin with the name Kaundinya came to rule Funan. Chinese records say that he "completely Indianized" its customs.[4] In Briggs's account, this Kaundinya probably brought the worship of Shiva, the Laws of Manu and the royal title varman.[4] Both Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced in Funan.[1]
The Seshat history databank finds it unclear whether Funan was one state, a group of centers or the strongest of several.[6]
Capital and port
Inscriptions call the capital Vyadhapura.[4] Its site is not settled. Several accounts say it was probably near Ba Phnom, a hill in Prey Veng province.[4][2][1] Michael Haas writes that the capital later moved to Angkor Borei, a walled town on the edge of the delta.[1] Michael Vickery wrote that the choice between Ba Phnom and Angkor Borei will rest on archaeology, and that the remains at Angkor Borei give it the lead.[5] Excavations there began in the 1990s.[3] Miriam Stark describes a walled town of at least 300 hectares with more than a dozen brick monuments, first settled in the fifth or fourth century before the Common Era.[7]
The port of Funan is thought to have been at Óc Eo, in An Giang province, Vietnam.[8][9] Canals joined the region's towns and served both travel and farming, and trade reached India and Persia.[1][8] The French archaeologist Louis Malleret first dug at Óc Eo in the 1940s. The site has given up jewelry, pottery, brick and stone temples and tombs, and Roman objects.[8][9] Vietnam added the Óc Eo and Ba Thê site to its tentative list for the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on January 4, 2022.[9]
Chenla
Chenla, a state farther up the Mekong, was at first a vassal of Funan. In Briggs's account, Bhavavarman became king of Chenla shortly before 550, and his brother then took Funan's throne for him. Funan was a vassal of Chenla from then on, and Chenla took it over early in the seventh century.[4] Michael Haas gives 627 as the year.[1] Seshat dates the last mention of a Funan ruler in Chinese records to before 540.[6]
The stone sculptures of Phnom Da were long dated to the early sixth century and tied to Rudravarman, the last king of Funan. The art historian Nancy Dowling dates them to the middle of the seventh century, after Chenla had replaced Funan.[10]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 EBSCO Research Starters, Michael Haas, Kingdom of Funan (2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Chun Chanboth, History of the Khmer in the time of the kingdom of Phnom, part 3 (February 5, 2014; in Khmer)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Miriam T. Stark and others, Results of the 1995-1996 Archaeological Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Cambodia, Asian Perspectives 38(1) (1999), abstract
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 Lawrence Palmer Briggs, A Sketch of Cambodian History, The Far Eastern Quarterly 6(4) (August 1947), pages 345 to 363
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Angkor Database, on Michael Vickery, Funan Reviewed: Deconstructing the Ancients, BEFEO 90-91 (2003-2004) (undated)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Seshat: Global History Databank, Funan II (2020)
- ↑ Angkor Database, on Miriam T. Stark, New Perspectives on Early Cambodia from the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (2008) (undated)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Việt Nam News, Famed Óc Eo culture set for preservation (October 24, 2021)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 VietnamPlus, Dossier finalised to seek UNESCO recognition of Oc Eo – Ba The archaeological site (January 27, 2026)
- ↑ Nancy H. Dowling, A New Date for the Phnom Da Images and Its Implications for Early Cambodia, Asian Perspectives 38(1) (1999), abstract