The earliest records, from the first century C.E., of the population of Southeast Asia living in what is now Cambodia are of the Mon-Khmer people. The arrival of an Indian aristocrat and his marriage to the daughter of a local chief mark the beginning of the kingdom of Fu-nan, which the Chinese wrote about a century or so later. The greatest military leader of Fu-nan appears to have been Fan Shih-man, who extended his kingdom’s borders east to the South China Sea, south to the Gulf of Siam, and possibly west toward Burma. Contemporary Chinese texts record the conquests and power of Fan Shih-man, who is thought to have died while on expedition to Burma. Control of the coastline along the South China Sea gave Fu-nan domination over the area’s maritime trade, and his successor, Fan Chan, entered into diplomatic and economic relations with China and India. These trade contacts continued throughout the third century, gaining value as China came under the Ch’in dynasty after 280. Apparently, Indian cultural influences made regular appearances in Fu-nan over the next two centuries. The kings often had Indian names, their writing is described as resembling northern Indian script, and trade with central Asia and even the Roman Empire was noted. The greatest of the Fu-nan kings was Jayavarman, whose 30-year reign ended in 514; he was recognized by the Chinese as “General of the Pacified South, King of Fu-nan.”
Jayavarman’s son was probably the last king of Fu-nan, because the Chen-la are believed to have conquered the kingdom after 539. Who the Chen-la were is a matter of some dispute, but they may have been vassals of Fu-nan who deposed their overlord. Rulers of the area at the end of the sixth century still claimed descent from the “universal monarch,” presumably the king of Fu-nan, but that may have resulted from Chen-la conquerors intermarrying with the royal family. In the 590s, the Chen-la leader Bhavavarman conquered the Mekong Delta to the Mun River in the north and to the Korat Plateau in the south. He and his brother Chitrasena seized the throne in Fu-nan, but whether as usurpers or restorers of the original royal family is unclear. Chen-la is regarded as the original kingdom of the Khmer people, the inheritors of the land and power of Fu-nan.
Bhavavarman’s grandson, Ishanavarman, completed the occupation of Fu-nan to roughly the borders of present-day Cambodia. He established his capital at Ishanapura and pursued a policy of friendship toward his nearest neighbors, the Champa. Consolidation of Khmer power throughout the region continued for another century, through the reign of Jayavarman I (657–681). His death without an heir caused discord and a split in the country; Chinese records speak of a “Land Chen-la” and a “Water Chen-la,” corresponding to inland and coastal principalities. The one continuing factor in this time period was the widespread practice of Hinduism, for the Khmers brought the formerly popular practice of Buddhism to an end.
The period of discord attracted outside pressure, notably from the Malay Peninsula and Java. Aggressively pursuing commercial dominance of Indonesia and Southeast Asia, Java seems to have established dominance in the two Chen-las by the late eighth century. The reunification of Chen-la came about in the early ninth century when Jayavarman II ousted the Javanese. His rise to power was confirmed by a religious ceremony naming him “Universal Monarch”; his posthumous title was Parmeshvara, or “Supreme Lord,” a title given to the Hindu god Shiva. He built a number of cities and established a capital at whose site Angkor was to be built.
Jayavarman’s grandson Indravarman went conquering during his reign (877–889), returning the Korat Plateau to the northwest to Khmer control. He sponsored irrigation projects and built a huge reservoir. Canal and reservoir construction for irrigation, as well as the building of temples and monasteries, remained royal projects for generations. The next several monarchs devoted themselves to public and religious works; not until the reign of Suryavarman (1010–1050) did more expansion take place. During his reign, Khmer power extended into the Menam Valley and to the west of the Great Lake, hitherto a wasteland. Also by his time, a resurgence in Buddhism took place. His sons struggled against internal revolts and attacks from the Cham tribe; the two sons joined the Chinese, however, in an unsuccessful campaign against Dai-Viet.
A new dynasty was established in 1080 by a Brahman who took the throne name of Jayavarman VI. His grandnephew, Suryavarman II, took the Khmer kingdom to its heights. He launched invasions of Dai-Viet in 1128, 1138, and 1150, conquering as far as the Red River delta. He conquered Champa, holding it for four years, and briefly occupied the land of the Mon kingdom. Contemporary Chinese sources state that the Khmer kingdom stretched from Burma to the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Suryavarman II also constructed Southeast Asia’s most notable structures at Angkor Wat, which became his mausoleum, overseen by the Hindu god Vishnu. Rebellions broke out after his death sometime after 1150, but events of the following century and a half are sparsely recorded. Not until the end of the thirteenth century do Chinese accounts describe a fading civilization, though the Khmer again gained control over the Cham territories in the early 1200s. Later that century, a Mongol force entered the area, and records indicate that the Khmers paid tribute to the Chinese emperor Kubilai Khan. After a series of conflicts with the rising power of Siam, the Cambodian capital of Angkor fell to that country in 1431. Though the Khmer recovered much of their strength and territory by the middle of the sixteenth century, the Siamese returned to defeat them. Only the arrival of the Portuguese, who gave military assistance to the Khmer king, enabled them to retain some power. From this point forward, too many internal struggles and outside forces—the influences of Portugal, Holland, and Islam—conspired to allow the Khmer to be powerful again. Finally, France took control of all of Southeast Asia in the mid-1800s, establishing a protectorate over Cambodia in 1863.
The Army
Khmer and Cham Armies from the period of the invasion of Champa by a Sui Chinese expedition in 605 until the Khmer empire’s destruction by the Thais. The Cham used virtually identical troop-types, but seem to have relied more on heavy spearmen and initially less on cavalry and archers than the Khmer. Khmer elephants are depicted with a driver, armed with spear and shield, and a single archer or sometimes spearman. Those ridden by generals (identified by being shown enlarged) are accompanied by one or more parasol carriers on foot. Cham elephants are all crewed by a driver, a javelin-thrower, and a parasol bearer at the rear. One Khmer king dedicated in a temple a chariot “that had brought him many victories”. Chariots of a distinctively Khmer type, with a single fighting crewman, are depicted in possibly mythological scenes, and a Chinese ambassador notes guards on horseback and in chariots in 1295. The ph’kak is an axe-like weapon resembling a hockey stick with an axe blade at right angles to its end. Maiden guard are depicted in one relief armed with ph’kak and mounted on horses apparently disguised as dragons. Doubt has been expressed whether these are over-interpretations of a damaged relief, but such equipment is only an exaggeration of the normal cavalry tack, which includes a possibly leather rump guard over a tail plaited to a point, a “dragon horn” (of stiffened horse hair?) on the forehead and sometimes face and chest protection. Spearmen carry either a long or small round shield. Khmer and Cham in (possibly armoured) jackets, with some long shields and some with round shields. Bottles of self-igniting “fierce fire oil” were sent by the King of Champa as a tribute gift (and hint?) to a Chinese emperor in 958. The artillery was Chinese-type “double crossbows” man-handled on wheels or mounted on elephants. It was probably acquired from the Cham, who learned its use with that of crossbow cavalry from the Sung. Thai have been identified at Angkor, differing from the Khmer only in dress and long machete-like infantry swords. They were as yet rather barbarous.
