Early history of Cambodia

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The early history of Cambodia follows the prehistoric and protohistoric development of Cambodia as a country in mainland Southeast Asia. Thanks to archaeological work carried out since 2009 this can now be traced back to the Neolithic period. As excavation sites have become more numerous and modern dating methods are applied, settlement traces of all stages of human civil development from neolithic hunter-gatherer groups to organized preliterate societies are documented in the region.[1][2][3][4]

Historical records of a political structure on territory that is now modern-day Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to

Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong,[5] Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west.[6] By the 6th century a civilization, titled Chenla or Zhenla in Chinese annals, had firmly replaced Funan, as it controlled larger, more undulating areas of Indochina and maintained more than a singular center of power.[7][8]

The Khmer Empire was established by the early 9th century in a mythical initiation and consecration ceremony to claim political legitimacy by founder

Hindu devaraja cult tradition, reigned over the classical era of Khmer civilization until the 11th century. A new dynasty of provincial origin introduced Buddhism as changes of religious, dynastic, administrative and military nature, environmental problems and ecological imbalance[10] coincide with shifts of power in Indochina.[11][12][13][14]

The

royal chronology ends in the 14th century. Great achievements in administration, and accomplishments in agriculture, architecture, hydrology, logistics, urban planning and the arts are testimony to a creative and progressive civilization - in its complexity a cornerstone of Southeast Asian cultural legacy.[15]

Prehistoric Cambodia

In 1963 E. Saurin and J-P Carbonnel identified what they believed to be stone tools dating from c.600,000 BP at Sre Sbov in Kratie province; in 2009 a re-examination of the site indicated that the artifacts are results of prehistoric

fluvial movement and do not indicate early stone technology.[16]

The earliest traces of human presence in

Kampong Chhnang Province which was occupied since around 1500 BC and the relative recent site of Phum Snay.[1][2][18]

Recent archaeological finds (since 2012) indicate that parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited during the second and first millennia

Austroasiatic languages and participated in the exchange of contemporary technologies.[20][21]

Mythology

The Khmer people's founding legend centers around an Indian

Cambodian royal dynasty.[22] One day the princess saw the Brahman on a boat and went to speak with him, but was shot by one of his magic arrows which made her fall in love with him. Her father drank all the water that inundated the land and gave the new land to them as a dowry.[23]

The

Sage Kambu Swayambhuva
.

Funan

Main article:
Kingdom of Funan

At about the time that Western Europe was absorbing the classical culture and institutions of the Mediterranean, the people of mainland and

caste system
was never adopted, but Indianization stimulated the rise of highly organised, centralised states.

Austroasiatic
origin. What the Funanese called themselves, however, is not known.

During this early period in Funan's history, the population was probably concentrated in villages along the Mekong River and along the

Persian, Indian, and Greek
artefacts.

By the 5th century, the state exercised control over the lower Mekong River area and the lands around the Tonle Sap. It also commanded tribute from smaller states in the area now comprising northern Cambodia, southern

laws of Manu
, the Indian legal code, were adopted; and an alphabet based on Indian writing systems was introduced.

Beginning in the early 6th century, civil wars and dynastic strife undermined Funan's stability. A former northern vassal turned to independent kingdom, Chenla, began to increase its power and status quo was achieved only through dynastic marriages. Eventually Funan was absorbed by the Khmer Chenla and became a vassal itself. Funan disappears from history in the 7th century.

Chenla

Main article:
Chenla Kingdom
Ancient Khmer script

The people of Chenla were probably Khmer. Inscriptions prove that Khmer script, adopted from south Indian Pallava script, had fully developed and was in use alongside Sanskrit. Chenla is first mentioned in the Chinese Sui dynasty's history as a Funan vassal. The founder of the kingdom, who managed to break free from Funan's control, was Strutavarman. A later king, Bhavarman, invaded Funan annexing it to Chenla's domains. Once they established control over Funan, they embarked on a course of conquest that continued for three centuries. They subjugated central and upper Laos, annexed portions of the Mekong Delta, and brought what are now western Cambodia and southern Thailand under their direct control.

At the same time, king Mahendravarman established peace with the neighbouring kingdom of Champa through marriage arrangements, and Isnavarman, who succeeded him in 616, moved to a new capital, which, according to a Chinese writer, was inhabited by 20 thousands families. Culturally, the royal families of Chenla generally preserved the earlier political, social, and religious institutions of Funan, thus preserving the elements introduced from India. Chenla appears to have had a preference for Hinduism over other religions brought from there, like Buddhism.

In the 8th century, however, factional disputes at the Chenla court resulted in the splitting of the kingdom into rival northern and southern halves. According to Chinese chronicles, the two parts were known as

Java
actively tried to establish control on Water Chenla territories and eventually forced the kingdom to vassal status.

The last of the Water Chenla kings allegedly was killed around 790 by a Javanese monarch whom he had offended. The ultimate victor in the strife that followed was the ruler of a small Khmer state located north of the Mekong Delta. His assumption of the throne as Jayavarman II (ca. 802 - 850) marked the liberation of the Khmer people from Javanese suzerainty and the beginning of a Khmer empire.

Khmer Empire

Main article: Khmer Empire
Khmer, armed with war elephants, drove out the Cham in the 12th century.

The classic period or

Tonle Sap lake near the modern town of Siem Reap, are a lasting monument to the accomplishments of Jayavarman II and his successors.[24]

Jayavarman II settled north of the Tonle Sap and founded

Korat Plateau in Thailand, and he ordered the construction of a huge reservoir north of the capital to provide irrigation for wet rice cultivation. His son, Yasovarman I (889 - 900), built the Eastern Baray (reservoir or tank), evidence of which remains to the present time. Its dikes, which may be seen today, are more than 6 kilometres long and 1.6 kilometres wide.[26]

The elaborate system of canals and reservoirs built under Indravarman I and his successors were the key to Kambuja's prosperity for half a millennium. By freeing cultivators from dependence on unreliable seasonal monsoons, they made possible an early "green revolution" that provided the country with large surpluses of rice. The empire's decline during the 13th and 14th centuries probably was hastened by the deterioration of the irrigation system. Attacks by Thai and other foreign peoples and the internal discord caused by dynastic rivalries diverted human resources from the system's upkeep, and it gradually fell into disrepair.[27]

Suryavarman II (1113 - 1150), one of the greatest Angkorian monarchs, expanded his kingdom's territory in a series of successful wars against the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam and the small Mon polities as far west as the Irrawaddy River of Burma. He reduced to vassalage the Thai peoples who had migrated into Southeast Asia from the Yunnan region of southern China and established his suzerainty over the northern part of the Malay Peninsula. His greatest achievement was the construction of the temple city complex of Angkor Wat. The largest religious edifice in the world, Angkor Wat is considered the greatest single architectural work in Southeast Asia.

Territorial expansion came to a halt when Suryavarman II was killed in battle attempting to invade

Cham quickly drove Khmer presence out of Champa
territory. Suryavarman II's reign was then followed by thirty years of dynastic upheaval and an invasion in revenge by the neighbouring Cham, who destroyed the city of Angkor in 1177.

The Cham ultimately were driven out by Jayavarman VII, whose reign (1181 - ca. 1218) marked the apogee of Kambuja's power. Unlike his predecessors, who had adopted the worship of the Hindu god-king, Jayavarman VII was a fervent patron of Mahayana Buddhism. Casting himself as a bodhisattva, he embarked on a frenzy of building activity that included the Angkor Thom complex and the Bayon, a remarkable temple whose stone towers depict 216 faces of buddhas, gods, and kings.

He also built over 200 rest houses and hospitals throughout his kingdom. Like the Roman emperors, he maintained a system of roads between his capital and provincial towns. According to historian

Georges Coedès
, "No other Cambodian king can claim to have moved so much stone." Often, quality suffered for the sake of size and rapid construction, as is revealed in the intriguing but poorly constructed Bayon.

Carvings show that everyday Angkorian buildings were wooden structures not much different from those found in Cambodia today. The impressive stone buildings were not used as residences by members of the royal family. Rather, they were the focus of Hindu or Buddhist beliefs that celebrated the divinity, or buddhahood, of the monarch and his family. Coedès suggests that they had the dual function of both temple and tomb. Typically, their dimensions reflected the structure of the Hindu mythological universe.

For example, five towers at the centre of the Angkor Wat complex represent the peaks of Mount Meru, the centre of the universe; an outer wall represents the mountains that ring the world's edge; and a moat depicts the cosmic ocean. Like many other ancient edifices, the monuments of the Angkorian region absorbed vast reserves of resources and human labour and their purpose remains shrouded in mystery.

Angkorian society was strictly hierarchical. The king, regarded as divine, owned both the land and his subjects. Immediately below the monarch and the royal family were the Brahman priesthood and a small class of officials, who numbered about 4,000 in the 10th century. Next were the commoners, who were burdened with heavy corvée (forced labour) duties. There was also a large slave class who built the enduring monuments.

After Jayavarman VII's death, Kambuja entered a long period of decline that led to its eventual disintegration. The Thai were a growing menace on the empire's western borders. The spread of

Mahayana Buddhism
. Preaching austerity and the salvation of the individual through his or own her efforts, Theravada Buddhism did not lend doctrinal support to a society ruled by an opulent royal establishment maintained through the virtual slavery of the masses.

In 1353 a Thai army captured Angkor. It was recaptured by the Khmer, but wars continued and the capital was looted several times. During the same period, Khmer territory north of the present Laotian border was lost to the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. In 1431 the Thai captured Angkor Thom. Thereafter, the Angkorian region did not again encompass a royal capital, except for a brief period in the third quarter of the 16th century.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Chandler, David (July 2009). "Cambodian History: Searching for the Truth". Cambodia Tribunal Monitor. Northwestern University School of Law Center for International Human Rights and Documentation Center of Cambodia. Retrieved 25 November 2015. We have evidence of cave dwellers in northwestern Cambodia living as long ago as 5000 BCE.
  2. ^
    JSTOR 40386114
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  3. ISBN 9781633232327
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  4. ^ David Chandler, A History of Cambodia (Westview Publishers: Boulder Colorado, 2008) p. 13.
  5. ^
    hdl:10524/1535. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015. The Mekong delta played a central role in the development of Cambodia's earliest complex polities from approximately 500 BC to AD 600...{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link
    )
  6. ^ a b Stark, Miriam T.; Griffin, P. Bion; Phoeurn, Chuch; Ledgerwood, Judy; et al. (1999). "Results of the 1995–1996 Archaeological Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Cambodia" (PDF). Asian Perspectives. 38 (1): 7–36. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015. the development of maritime commerce and Hindu influence stimulated early state formation in polities along the coasts of mainland Southeast Asia, where passive indigenous populations embraced notions of statecraft and ideology introduced by outsiders...
  7. ^ ""What and Where was Chenla?", Recherches nouvelles sur le Cambodge" (PDF). Michael Vickery’s Publications. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Considerations on the Chronology and History of 9th Century Cambodia by Dr. Karl-Heinz Golzio, Epigraphist - ...the realm called Zhenla by the Chinese. Their contents are not uniform but they do not contradict each other" (PDF). Khmer Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
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  10. ^ "Scientists dig and fly over Angkor in search of answers to golden city's fall by Miranda Leitsinger". The San Diego Union-Tribune. 13 June 2004. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  11. ^ "The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire - Many scholars attribute the halt of the development of Angkor to the rise of Theravada..." (PDF). Studies Of Asia. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  12. ^ "What Caused the End of the Khmer Empire By K. Kris Hirst". About com. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  13. ^ "THE DECLINE OF ANGKOR". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  14. ^ "The emergence and ultimate decline of the Khmer Empire was paralleled with development and subsequent change in religious ideology, together with infrastructure that supported agriculture" (PDF). Studies Of Asia. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  15. ^ "Khmer Empire". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  16. ^ "Reinterpretation of an archaeological pebble culture from the Middle Mekong River valley, Cambodia". Geoarchaeology. 17 December 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  17. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.06.008
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  18. ^ "Prehistoric Culture of Cambodia and Its Relationship towards South China". The Guardian. 16 May 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  19. ^ "Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Asia - The case of Phnom Teak Treang and Laang Spean cave, Cambodia: The potential for World Heritage site nomination; the significance of the site for human evolution in Asia, and the need for international cooperation" (PDF). World Heritage. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  20. doi:10.7152/bippa.v30i0.9966 (inactive 20 February 2024). Retrieved 7 July 2015.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link
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  21. ^ "Art and Archaeology of Fu-Nan" (PDF). Department of Anthropology College of Social Sciences University of Hawaii. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  22. ^ "9 Textualized Places, Pre-Angkorian Khmers and Historicized Archaeology by Miriam T. Stark - Cambodia's Origins and the Khok Thlok Story" (PDF). University of Hawaii. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  23. ^ "Cambodia".
  24. ISBN 978-9004113466
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  25. ISBN 978-8189233266. Archived from the original
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  26. ^ Dunston, Lara (28 June 2013). "Cambodia's vast lost city: world's greatest pre-industrial site unearthed". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  27. ^ Dunston, Lara (28 June 2013). "Cambodia's vast lost city: world's greatest pre-industrial site unearthed". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  28. ^ "Early Indianized Kingdom of Funan". U.S. Library of Congress. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
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