Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Khmer empire of Jayavarman VII · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Delta lords

The delta rice country south of the Chatomuk was the first heartland of the kingdom of Funan and is now a quiet southern province: Angkor Borei, a brick-walled town on the edge of the plain, occupied since the last centuries before Christ and still lived in, stands at the head of old canals that run out across the flats to the coast; Phnom Da, a hill by it that becomes an island in the flood, carries the brick tower that gives its name to the earliest Khmer sculpture style; the hill temple of Phnom Bayang sits on the way to the sea; Phnom Chisor (Suryaparvata, 11th century, inscriptions K.

31 to 34) looks over the plain; and Ta Prohm of Tonle Bati, a laterite temple of Jayavarman VII with a hospital chapel, shows the king's building reaching the far south. Oc Eo, the great port of Funan, is a drowned ruin: the shore has moved seaward and the canals have silted. The coast of 1200 lies well inland of today's.

Who he is

Title
Governor and temple stewards of the southern rice country
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Angkor Borei; Oc Eo): Angkor Borei is a Funan-period settlement 'possibly its capital'; a canal about 68 km long ran from Oc Eo to Angkor Borei; Oc Eo's own canal once reached the Gulf near Ta Keo, which siltation has since carried well inland. No source we read names a lord of the delta in 1200.

Overlord

Angkor.

What it holds

  • Angkor Borei and the canal grid round it
  • Phnom Da, Phnom Bayang and Phnom Chisor as signal hills and shrines
  • Ta Prohm of Tonle Bati and its hospital chapel
  • The rice flats and the fishery of the southern plain

How things stand that morning

Settled, with Khmer temples and a king's hospital; no named lord; Oc Eo a ruin.

Wealth

Rice, fish, palm sugar; the salt coast to the west.

Places of note

  • Angkor Borei: Brick-walled town on the plain's edge.
  • Phnom Da: Brick tower on a hill-island.
  • Phnom Chisor: Hill temple of the 11th century (Suryaparvata).
  • Ta Prohm of Tonle Bati: Jayavarman VII's laterite temple and hospital chapel.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry ta-prohm-tonle-bati (11.371, 104.963) lies about 22 km from the real Tonle Bati temple (about 11.29, 104.79, from memory); we give the real place in the point.
  • The campaign board entry phnom-chisor (11.244, 104.902) lies about 10 km from the English Wikipedia coordinates (11.1844, 104.8233); we use the Wikipedia point.
  • English Wikipedia (Oc Eo) says the port ran 'between the 2nd century BC and the 12th century AD' but its own table gives the culture as 1 to 630 AD; we treat Oc Eo as a ruin by 1200.

Evidence: Archaeology and monuments; no lord.

"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 northern delta; the southern marsh is in the province record.

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

5 more in the sources library for Mainland Southeast Asia.

Sources and studies

  1. English Wikipedia, Angkor Borei
  2. English Wikipedia, Oc Eo
  3. English Wikipedia, Phnom Chisor
  4. 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.