Dvaravati was gone as a state by 1000; what remains on the plain is a Mon and Khmer-speaking country of moated old towns (Lavo, U Thong, Khu Bua, Nakhon Pathom) and monasteries, with the Khmer building programme newly arrived at Lavo and Phetchaburi.
The rice of the flooded plain, a metre of water on it in the wet months, feeds every court in the basin with a surplus left for the Gulf trade; it has no defences and needs none: you take it by taking the towns round its edge (board). The shoreline of 1200 lay about the latitude of present Bangkok. The sixteen dated inscriptions of 1168 to 1219 from the Lavo country show no sign of Angkorian administration (Wyatt): this is a Khmer seat with weight of its own in a Mon countryside, not a province.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village headmen and the abbots of the Mon monasteries
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Lavo Kingdom; Khu Bua; Phra Pathom Chedi), Wyatt, Baker and Pasuk. The plain has none of the temple-endowment inscriptions typical of Angkorian provinces (Baker and Pasuk).
Overlord
Angkor by title at Lavo; no administration of the plain is shown.
What it holds
- Rice villages of the lower plain
- Mon monasteries and old moated towns
- Salt pans on the Tha Chin and Mae Klong mouths
- Boat stages on the Chao Phraya, Tha Chin and Pa Sak
How things stand that morning
Settled; Khmer building rising at Lavo.
Wealth
Rice, salt, river tolls, metal from Khao Wong Prachan.
Places of note
- U Thong: Old Mon moated town.
- Nakhon Pathom: Mon holy mound.
- Khao Wong Prachan: Copper and iron field.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry chao-phraya-rice-plain: 'a metre of water on it in the wet months'; accepted as a board figure, not a source.
Evidence: Inscriptions counted by Wyatt; monuments.
"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 round the plain; the 1200 shore lay inland of the modern one.
Primary sources for Khmer empire
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Abridged History of Viet, Anonymous (attributed by some to Su Hy Nhan) (about 1377, probably as an abridgement of Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272). The oldest surviving Vietnamese history, a century older than the Complete Annals and in places fuller for the Ly dynasty, which fills its second and third books.
- The Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. Read online
- The later Tai, Lao and Mon chronicles of the north, Ratanapanna (Jinakalamali); Bodhiramsi (Chamadevivamsa); anonymous monks and court scribes (the Chamadevivamsa about 1410; the Jinakalamali 1516 to 1528; the Chiang Mai Chronicle in its surviving form 1827; the Nithan Khun Borom 16th to 17th century). There is no text of 1200 for the Mon kingdom of Haripunjaya, the Tai muang of Ngoenyang (Chiang Saen), Chiang Rung, the Yom and Nan valleys, or the Lao middle Mekong.
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campa (EFEO and ISAW), Various (the Cham kings and their officers), edited by Arlo Griffiths, Amandine Lepoutre, William Southworth and Thanh Phan (inscriptions of the 4th to 15th centuries; the online corpus from 2012). The online edition of the Cham inscriptions, with photographs, texts and translations, keyed to the C. numbers. Read online
- The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
- The Sanskrit inscriptions of Cambodia and Champa (ISCC), Various (Khmer and Cham kings), edited by Auguste Barth and Abel Bergaigne (inscriptions of the 7th to 12th centuries; edited 1885 to 1893). The founding edition of Khmer and Cham Sanskrit epigraphy, public domain and online, which Coedes's later corpus supersedes but does not replace. Read online
Sources and studies
- English Wikipedia, Lavo Kingdom
- Wyatt, Thailand: A Short History (Yale, 1984; 2nd ed. 2003)
- Baker and Pasuk, A History of Thailand
- 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.