Port · Dai Viet under Ly Cao Tong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Van Don

Opened under Ly Anh Tong in 1149 (English Wikipedia, board) as the kingdom's official foreign trade port.

Ships come to anchor among the limestone islands of Bái Tử Long and trade there without going up the river, which is the point of putting it far from the capital. The campaign board says the wharves excavated at Cái Làng and Cồn Quy on Quan Lạn are the physical evidence and that ships come from Java, the Malay ports, Siam and above all Song China. We confirmed the foundation and the busy foreign trade from the English Wikipedia; the wharf excavations we could not confirm.

Who holds it

Title
Officers of the island authority; not named
Confidence
low

English Wikipedia (Van Don)

Lord in 1200

The throne through its island officers.

What the town holds

  • The right to licence foreign ships and to tax cargo
  • Anchorages among the islands of Bái Tử Long
  • A market on the islands for hill goods, cloth, ceramics, ivory and horn

How things stand that morning

Working as the licensed door of the realm. The campaign board's 'only lawful door' we could not confirm.

Wealth

Dues on cargo and the court's share of imported goods.

Military

Island posts and boats; no numbers.

Threats

  • Piracy on the Song coast
  • A court that taxes too hard

Charter

A licence from the throne to receive foreign ships, by the campaign board; no written text seen.

Council

Officers of the court's island authority; no local council known.

Communities

Chinese, Cham, Malay and Javanese traders in season; the island fishers.

Fairs and markets

Trade follows the monsoon: ships come with the north-east wind and leave with the south-west (general pattern, not a source for Van Don).

Militia

Coast-watching boats of the islanders; not known.

Walls and castle

None known: an open harbour with island posts.

Trade and crafts

Imports: Chinese silk, ceramics and metalwork, Malay and Javanese spices. Exports: pearls, ivory, horn, forest goods and delta pottery, by the campaign board's general account.

Places of note

  • Van Don (Quan Lan): Board's point on Quan Lan
  • Cai Bau island: Main island of the district

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: One dated foundation (1149) and board notes.

Primary sources for Dai Viet (Ly)

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
  • 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
  • The Unofficial History of Nanzhao, Yang Shen; revised by Hu Wei (16th century, revised 1775, from Dali and Yunnan traditions and lost local histories). The kingdom of Dali has no surviving text of 1200: its own records were destroyed in the Mongol conquest and after, and the Song shi's Dali entry ends in 1175. 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
  • Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. 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

2 more in the sources library for Mainland Southeast Asia.

Sources and studies

  1. Vân Đồn, English Wikipedia (read)
  2. OMNIA board notes for the Vietnam and Champa area (a lead, not a source)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.