The plateau east of the Mekong, between the Srepok and the Dong Nai uplands, is held by upland peoples (the Bunong, Stieng and their neighbours in the modern terms) who owe Angkor, at most, tribute in forest goods and no more.
It is elephant country, and the southern approach to the Cham coast, but nothing here can be garrisoned. The Annamite crossing north of it is where the Khmer armies climb. Kontum, Pleiku, Dak Lak and the Lang Bian plateau, and the coast from Phan Ri, are the Vietnam and Champa researcher's; the Dong Nai lowlands to the south are mine. Modern ethnonyms are used with caution: the evidence for the hill peoples of 1200 is Chinese trade lists, Cham and Khmer stelae naming forest products, Vietnamese notices of campaigns and ethnography of later centuries.
Who holds it
- Title
- Headmen of the upland villages (no name known)
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The campaign board only: rolling grassland and forest on the plateau east of the Mekong, elephant country, the southern approach to the Cham coast; 'Khmer inscriptions do not reach here; the claim rests on trade and on the fact that the roads pass through'.
Overlord
None attested; tribute in resin, wax, ivory and slaves is the campaign board's claim for the Sesan and Srepok peoples.
What it holds
- Swidden fields, forest and elephant range
- The tracks to the Cham coast
How things stand that morning
Unrecorded.
Wealth
Ivory, resin, wax, forest goods.
Places of note
- Mondulkiri uplands: Plateau grassland.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry mondulkiri-uplands: 'Khmer inscriptions do not reach here'. Agreed; the plateau is entered as a self-governing people's country, not as Khmer ground.
- Map ruling (sheet builder, pass 1): the Mondulkiri and Srepok uplands are drawn in the peoples' colour over the outline of the Khmer realm in this researcher's own realm record. This record says the Khmer realm does not govern the range, so the narrower record stands over the wider one.
Evidence: Geography and the campaign board.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A block on the Cambodian side of the border.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA board notes for the Khmer and Lao area (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.