History - Cambodia - page 605

The Early Cambodian Kingdoms
Cambodian might didn't begin and end with Angkor. There were a number of powerful
kingdoms present in this area before the 9th century.
From the 1st century AD, the Indianisation of Cambodia occurred through trading settle-
ments that sprang up on the coastline of what is now southern Vietnam, but was then inhab-
ited by the Khmers. These settlements were important ports of call for boats following the
trading route from the Bay of Bengal to the southern provinces of China. The largest of
these nascent kingdoms was known as Funan by the Chinese, and may have existed across
an area between modern Phnom Penh and the archaeological site of Oc-Eo in Kien Giang
Province in southern Vietnam. Funan would have been a contemporary of Champasak in
southern Laos (then known as Kuruksetra) and other lesser fiefdoms in the region.
Funan is a Chinese name and may be a transliteration of the ancient Khmer word bnam
(mountain). Although very little is known about Funan, much has been made of its import-
ance as an early Southeast Asian centre of power.
It is most likely that between the 1st and 8th centuries Cambodia was a collection of
small states, each with its own elites who strategically intermarried and often went to war
with one another. Funan was no doubt one of these states, and as a major sea port would
have been pivotal in the transmission of Indian culture into the interior of Cambodia.
The little that historians do know about Funan has mostly been gleaned from Chinese
sources. These report that Funan-period Cambodia (1st century to 6th century AD) em-
braced the worship of the Hindu deities Shiva and Vishnu and, at the same time, Buddhism.
The linga (phallic totem) appears to have been the focus of ritual and an emblem of kingly
might, a feature that was to evolve further in the Angkorian cult of the god-king. The
people practised primitive irrigation, which enabled successful cultivation of rice, and
traded raw commodities such as spices and precious stones with China and India.
From the 6th century, Cambodia's population gradually concentrated along the Mekong
and Tonlé Sap Rivers, where msot people remain today. The move may have been related
to the development of wet-rice agriculture. Between the 6th and 8th centuries, Cambodia
was a collection of competing kingdoms, ruled by autocratic kings who legitimised their
rule through hierarchical caste concepts borrowed from India.
This era is generally referred to as the Chenla period. Like Funan, this is a Chinese term
and there is little to support the idea that Chenla was a unified kingdom that held sway over
all of Cambodia. Indeed, the Chinese themselves referred to 'water Chenla' and 'land