Chenla absorbs Funan
From the second half of the 6th century Chenla, a Khmer kingdom of the middle Mekong that the Chinese describe as a former vassal of Funan, turned against its overlord. Its kings Bhavavarman I and his brother Citrasena (Mahendravarman) attacked Funan, whose court withdrew to the south, and by the reign of Citrasena’s son Ishanavarman I, in the early 7th century, Funan’s lands had passed to Chenla, the forerunner of the Khmer empire of Angkor.
- Date
- between 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 57 years
- Place
- Funan’s heartland in the Mekong Delta (Angkor Borei)approximate locationtoday: Angkor Borei, Takeo Province, Cambodia · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Chenla, Funan, Bhavavarman I, Mahendravarman (Citrasena), Ishanavarman I
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Zhenla; Conquest of Funan; Bhavavarman I; Citrasena; Mahendravarman; Ishanavarman I; Temu; Nafuna; Чжэньла; Завоевание Фунани; Читрасена
The Book of Sui, compiled by 636, says that Chenla, south-west of Linyi, had originally been a vassal of Funan, that it had grown strong under the ancestors of its king Citrasena, a Kshatriya, and that Citrasena annexed Funan; his son Ishanasena ruled from Ishanapura, a city of more than 20,000 households, and in 616 Chenla sent an embassy to the Sui court. The New Book of Tang adds that Funan’s capital, Temu, was suddenly subjugated by Chenla and the king moved further south to the city of Nafuna, from where Funan still sent envoys to the Tang in the Wude and Zhenguan years (618–649); it dates the annexation of Funan by Chenla’s king Ishana to the beginning of the Zhenguan era (from 627). Sanskrit inscriptions name the brothers Bhavavarman I and Citrasena, sons of Viravarman, who extended their power along the Mekong; Citrasena took the name Mahendravarman on succeeding his brother around 600, and his son Ishanavarman I (c. 616–637) made Ishanapura — the temple city of Sambor Prei Kuk — his capital.
George Coedès, relying on these texts, described a conquest of Funan begun by Bhavavarman around 550 and completed by Ishanavarman; a later epigraphic study by M. K. Sharan dates Bhavavarman’s reign to about 580–598. Claude Jacques and Michael Vickery have questioned the picture: they doubt that ‘Funan’ and ‘Chenla’ were single, unitary kingdoms and regard them as Chinese labels for shifting groups of Khmer principalities, and Vickery stresses that the dominant groups of Funan were themselves most probably Khmer. Whatever its nature, the centre of Khmer power moved inland — from the delta, where the Óc Eo culture, dated to the 1st–7th centuries, came to an end, to the middle Mekong and the lands north of the Tonlé Sap.
Connections
Related events
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700 · Southeast Asia and Oceaniathe Óc Eo culture of Funan’s delta is dated to the 1st–7th centuries; it ended in the age when Funan passed to Chenla
- Funan’s embassy of 539 and the hair of the Buddha539 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaRudravarman, who sent the embassy of 539, is the last king of Funan known from the Chinese histories
Same place
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Fan Shiman, the ‘Great King of Funan’c. 205 – c. 225 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Kang Tai and Zhu Ying, envoys of Wu, in Funanbetween 245 and 250 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Zhu Zhantan, the ‘Indian’ king of Funan, offers tamed elephants to the Jin court357 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Adjacent events in the thread
- Lý Bí’s rising against the Liang and the kingdom of Vạn Xuânbetween 541 and 542 – 548 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Gregorian mission to the Anglo-Saxons597
- Lombard invasion of Italy2 April 568 – 572
- The Avars settle in the Carpathian Basinbetween 567 and 568
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625
Eastern Europe
- Avar campaign against the Antes602
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
- The Turks take Bosporusbetween 576 and 577
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
- The Avars ravage the lands of the Antesbetween 560 and 562
+ 2 events
Balkans and Anatolia
- Maurice’s Balkan campaigns582–602
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626
- Silkworm eggs are smuggled to Constantinoplebetween 552 and 554
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565
+ 1 event
Middle East and Egypt
- Revolt of Bahram Chobin and the restoration of Khosrow II589–591
- Abraha’s expedition against Mecca: the Year of the Elephantbetween 552 and 571
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579
- Breach of the Marib Dam and its repair by AbrahaJuly 547 – between 548 and 549
Africa
Central and Northern Asia
- Civil war and split of the Turkic Khaganate581–603
- The Bugut inscription, earliest monument of the Turkic Khaganatebetween 581 and 587
- Embassies of Maniakh and Zemarchus: the Turks ally with Byzantium568 – between 570 and 571
- The Turks and Sasanians destroy the Hephthalite Empire (Battle of Gol-Zarriun)between 557 and 567
- Bumin overthrows the Rouran: the Turkic Khaganate is foundedbetween February and March 552
+ 1 event
South Asia
- Mangalesha dedicates the Vishnu cave temple at Badami578
- Varahamihira compiles the Pancha-siddhantikabetween 505 and 587
- The later caves of Ajanta under the Vakataka king Harishenabetween 460 and 480 – between 480 and 550
East Asia
- Soga no Umako builds Asuka-dera, Japan’s first great Buddhist temple588–596
- Sui conquers the Chen and reunites China22 January – between 2 February and 10 February 589
- Silla conquers Daegaya, the last of the Gaya states562
- The rebellion of Hou Jing and the fall of Jiankang27 September 548 – between 20 May and 7 June 552
- Buddhism reaches Japan from Baekjebetween 538 and 552
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
- The great drought of 563–594 and the crisis of the Mochec. 563 – c. 594
- Tikal is defeated in the ‘star war’ of 562between 27 April and 29 April 562
- Teotihuacan at its height: the largest city of the Americasc. 250 – c. 550
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Chenla
- Wikipedia (English): Funan
- Wikipedia (English): Bhavavarman I
- Wikipedia (English): Isanavarman I
- Wikipedia (Russian): Ченла
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бапном
- Book of Sui (Sui shu), ch. 82: Zhenla — Chinese text
- New Book of Tang (Xin Tang shu), ch. 222C: Funan and Zhenla — Chinese text
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968.
- Jacques C. ‘Funan’, ‘Zhenla’: The Reality Concealed by These Chinese Views of Indochina // Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History and Historical Geography / Ed. R. B. Smith, W. Watson. — New York; Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1979. — P. 371–379.
- Vickery M. Funan Reviewed: Deconstructing the Ancients // Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient. — 2003–2004. — T. 90–91. — P. 101–143.