The wooded uplands north and east of the Mekong delta's edge, from Bù Đốp and Lộc Ninh to Long Khánh and Châu Đức: the Stieng, Ma and Chau Ro.
This is where the sheet meets the Khmer lowlands. We found no source that places a Khmer or Cham post, a road or a battle here in 1200, so we draw no belt; the near side of the Khmer lowland is for the Khmer sheet's anchors. The group names are those of the nineteenth and twentieth century; the Chinese and Cham sources of the time use general labels. We use the later name only to say which people the ground is for, and we read their society backwards from later ethnography: villages with headmen and elders, shifting fields, no kings and no towns.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village headmen and councils of elders; no overall chief is known for 1200
- Confidence
- low
Later ethnography read backwards; Chinese trade lists and Cham inscriptions that name hill goods (board)
Overlord
The Khmer lowlands lie to the south and west; no claim recorded.
How things stand that morning
Governing itself under village headmen; the lowland courts trade with it and claim it in name; not pinned further.
Wealth
Forest goods, elephants.
Military
Village fighters; no numbers.
Places of note
- Dong Xoai: Uplands
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Chinese trade lists, Cham inscriptions that name hill goods, and ethnography written six centuries later (board); no dated event for 1200.
On the map: A union of modern districts standing for the people's country; there was no border, and the groups overlapped and traded across any line we draw.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA board notes for the Vietnam and Champa area (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.