The plain east of the Mekong is the old home of the kingdom the Chinese called Funan.
Ba Phnom, a low hill, is its holy mountain, and later Cambodian ritual keeps sending offerings there; the identification with Vyadhapura is likely, not proved. At Banteay Prei Nokor (Wat Nokor, by Kampong Cham) the river road crosses the land road to the eastern provinces, and Jayavarman VII built a walled sandstone and laterite foundation there in the last years of his reign, with a baray beside it. The Chatomuk, the junction of the Tonle Sap river, the Mekong and the Bassac, is the hinge of the whole water system (in the flood the Mekong pushes back up the Tonle Sap and fills the lake) but no town of note stands there in 1200: the court moves down only in the fifteenth century and Phnom Penh's foundation story is dated 1372 (board).
Nothing names a governor.
Who he is
- Title
- Governors and temple stewards of the lower Mekong plain
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Wat Nokor): the walled foundation at Kampong Cham dates 'from the last years of the reign of Jayavarman VII' and is believed to have been his headquarters for a time; the campaign board gives Ba Phnom as the ancestral royal mountain. No named governor is in what we could read.
Overlord
Angkor.
What it holds
- Ba Phnom and its royal-mountain rites
- The walled foundation of Banteay Prei Nokor and its baray
- The river road and the Mekong crossing at Kampong Cham
- The Chatomuk junction and its landings
- Rice and fishery villages of the plain
How things stand that morning
Quiet and settled; Banteay Prei Nokor either newly built or still going up. No governor is named.
Places of note
- Ba Phnom: Royal mountain of the plain.
- Banteay Prei Nokor (Wat Nokor): Walled Bayon-style foundation by Kampong Cham.
- The Chatomuk: Junction of Tonle Sap river, Mekong and Bassac; no town yet.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry wat-nokor-banteay-prei-nokor (11.993, 105.426) lies about 4 km west of the Kampong Cham town centre in the gazetteer (11.9934, 105.4635); English Wikipedia puts the temple about 2 km north-west of the town. We use the town for the seat of the lord and the campaign board point for the temple.
- The campaign board's 'secure' for Banteay Prei Nokor rests on style; English Wikipedia says only 'the last years of the reign'.
Evidence: Two buildings and a holy mountain; no names.
"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 real grip was the villages and temples.
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, Wat Nokor
- Coedes, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia (East-West Center Press, 1968)
- 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.