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

Muang Sing

A laterite wall and moat on the Khwae Noi with Bayon-style shrines inside (board), which watches the road from the Mon country and the Three Pagodas pass.

It is the best sign of a Khmer military outpost on the west, 200 km from Lopburi, and the only one the campaign board calls a castle. It is an old site: Dvaravati and prehistoric phases lie under it, and Phetchaburi-style Khmer stone is not found south of it. The Khmer name Srijayasimhapuri on the 1191 list is accepted by English Wikipedia; the exact identification is open.

No commander is named; the Khwae Noi corridor above it is a week of forest without a town.

Who he is

Title
Lord or commander of Srijayasimhapuri (probably Muang Sing)
Since
not known
Born
not known
Family
not known
Confidence
low

Srijayasimhapuri (Kanchanaburi) is among the six names English Wikipedia gives from the 1191 list. The identification with Muang Sing is an argument, as the campaign board says; an inscription naming Srichaiya Singhapura is often read as this place.

Overlord

Angkor by title; the only western town with a defended Khmer plan.

What it holds

  • The walled town and its shrine
  • The Khwae Noi corridor and the road to the Three Pagodas pass
  • Alluvial tin in the streams of the Tenasserim range (documented only much later)

How things stand that morning

A frontier outpost of the Khmer west; commander not known. No Pagan or Mon force is dated against it.

Military

Wall, moat and a garrison; no numbers.

Threats

  • Raiding Mon and Karen of the hills
  • Pagan's reach to the Three Pagodas pass (Pagan is across the range, in the Burma records)

Places of note

  • Muang Sing: Walled Khmer town.
  • Three Pagodas pass: The road to the Mon country.

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign board entry muang-sing-kanchanaburi 'secure' and 'put up under Jayavarman VII': style dating; the identification as Srijayasimhapuri is an argument.

Evidence: A style date, a list name, an argued identification.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: A disc round the walled town and a loose corridor.

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, Jayavarman VII
  2. 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.