Phimai

Who he is

Title

Lord or governor of Vimayapura and the upper Mun

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia (Phimai Historical Park): the sanctuary dates mostly from the late 11th to the late 12th century in Baphuon, Bayon and local Khmer styles; seven Sanskrit inscriptions of Saka 1108 (1186) record hospital foundations, five of them from the Nakhon Ratchasima region; the Preah Khan stele of 1191 counts seventeen rest houses on the road to Vimaya. The page names no patron and no governor.

Overlord

Angkor: the city is the end of the royal road, 225 km from the capital by the campaign board's count.

What it holds

• The walled city and its sanctuary
• The upper Mun valley and the road to Angkor with its seventeen rest houses
• The Phimai salt basin (the campaign board's salt flats)
• Hospital chapels of 1186 in the Nakhon Ratchasima country

How it was acquired

Khmer since the 11th century at latest (the late 11th century buildings); not dated more closely.

Allies and rivals

Angkor; the Mun valley temples (Phanom Rung and Muang Tam to the south-east); the Kui iron men of the Dangrek; Lavo across the Dong Phaya Fai to the west.

How things stand that morning

A seat in use, Buddhist, with no named lord. The sanctuary was largely built already; the rest houses and chapels of 1186 and 1191 are in service.

Wealth

Salt boiled in the Phimai basin, rice, the toll of the road, the temple's endowed villages (no figure known).

Military

Walls and moat; no garrison figure.

Threats

• Silting of reservoirs
• A weak succession at Angkor after the old king

Places of note

• Phimai sanctuary: Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary of the late 11th to late 12th century.
• Prasat Phanom Wan: 11th century temple on the road to the upper Mun.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry phimai: 'a walled rectangle ... predates Jayavarman VII by a lifetime' fits English Wikipedia (late 11th to late 12th century); no patron is named by that article.
• The distance of 225 km to Angkor is the campaign board's; the English Wikipedia page gives no figure.

Evidence: Monuments, the 1186 hospital steles and the 1191 rest-house count are firm; no lord is named.

"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 city; the real reach was the villages along the road.

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.