The Dvaravati Mons and Khmers, who had similar languages, may also have come from the

Red (Hong)
River Delta in northern Vietnam, in prehistoric times. The Mons likely entered the upper Mekongfrom
western China in the 1st millennium BCE. Soon after that they reached the ChaoPhraya and Irrawaddy.
They were powerful from the 6th to the 11th century CE, but due to geographical barriers, ties between
Mon states of lower Burma and those in north Thailand weren’t close. The most significant Mon cultural
center was at Nakorn Sri Thammarat (one of Thailand’s oldest cities, founded during the first millennium,
perhaps even the first century, CE, and long known as Ligor). The Mon brought Theravada Buddhism
to Southeast Asia, and popularized many characteristics of Indian culture (especially the epic of Rama
and Sita). They influenced writing systems, art forms, governmental and religious terminology and the
scholarship of all their conquerors - the Khom, the Burmese and the Thai. Their alphabet came from the
Devanagari script of southern India, the basis of modern Indian writing.

The Khom rulers of Angkor were descendents of Kambojas, originally a nomadic tribe of Central
Asia north of the Himalayas, a branch which entered India in early times; these lost that identity by
merging into the local population, but other branches later entered east Tibet and the Mekong valley
from another direction, most likely by sea. This explains the name Kambucha being given to the kingdom
in the middle valley of the Mekong.

Another branch of Central Asian Kambojas migrated eastwards towards Tibet in the 5th century; in
chronicles of Tibet and Nepal they’re mentioned as Kam-po-tsa, Kam-po-ce, Kam-po-ji and (in Nepal)
Kambojadesa. Burmese chronicles refer to them as Kampuchih. In eastern Tibet their name can be
traced to the name of the province of Khams - it was from this region that Kambojas invadedAssam. A
branch migrated to North Bengal at an early period; an actual invasion came later, and they took Bengal’s
north-west section.

The small Hindu kingdoms of southern India, while politically divided, were spared the constant
invasions that tore apart the north; the Chola kingdom (850–1267) became rich from sea trade and
powerful enough to extend marginal control over much of southern India. At its height, Chola
controlled Ceylon as well as most area from the South China Sea to the Arabian Sea. Kambojas migrated
to Ceylon in pre-Christian times and played active role in the social, economical and political life of the
island, especially in Rohana Province. Those who founded the ancient Kambucha kingdom
in Indochina came through north-western India to Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Maybe the Khom/Kamboja rulers of Angkor had distant ancestors who were Royal Scythes (Scythians)
who became great Persian lords with younger sons who became Kshatriya caste warriors in
northwest India. Some of these horsemen became sailors, and from Sri Lanka took to trading among
the Spice Islands and Pacific Rim. Usually they held only ports, not taking territory or ruling populations,
but much as with the British East India Company, that changed, and the lower Mekong became an
independent empire under some of them. Society there became divided between an only somewhat
conjoined race of rulers and race of ruled. Seems likely anyway. History as taught in the west has
focused too much of Greco-Roman tradition, to the detriment of understanding much, perhaps most, of
humanity. Persian – and Chinese – influence should not be underrated. For instance, the Bunnag clan,
important advisers to the Chakri kings who dominated Siamese military, political, economic and
commercial in the 1800s, are of Persian origin.

The first advanced civilizations in Cambodia appeared during the 300s, 400s, and 500s CE in the
Indianized states of Funan and Chenla (extending through southwestern Vietnam). These states clearly
had close relations with both China and India. Funan, a wealthy trading kingdom along
the Mekong River from the first to the sixth century, called their kings “raja”, wrote in Sanskrit, and
worshipped Shiva and Vishnu. The Srivijaya maritime empire (~670–1025), often seen as based
in Sumatra, dominated a sea trade route from China to India. Myriad kingdoms followed, as complex as
the Indian civilization from which they borrowed. Angkor clearly displayed Hindu influences in its capital
at Angkor Thom, and Buddhist influences in its later capital at Angkor Wat. But trade from there went at
last up to the South China Sea and the Pearl River estuary, the doorway for foreign influence
in China since the 3rd century CE, site of Guangzhou (once called Canton).

It’s claimed that Kambu Swayambhuva, a learned Indian prince or king of Kamboja lineage, voyaged
into the Far East and found an area of jungle ruled by a Naga king, whom he fought and defeated. Kambu
took the Naga king’s daughter Mera as wife, and developed the land into a flourishing country. Naga
people still live in far northeastern India, near Burma (Assam, now called Nagaland). The combination of
the names Kambu and Mera may be the root of “Khmer” (Kambu + Mera = Khmer), according to George
Cœdès. Sage-prince Kambu seems to have sailed from Saurashtra/Gujarat on the west coast of India, and
then established a Kamboja Kingdom in Bassac, around Vat-Ph'u Hill, in the later 300s CE. In ancient
Chinese accounts, this kingdom is known as Chenla (Zhenla).

Kambu was followed by his young son Shrutavarma Kambuja, who ruled in the early 400s CE, then was
succeeded by his son Shreshthavarma Kambuja, who was followed by Viravarma Kambuja. Princess
Kambujarajalakshmi (“fortune of the kings of the Kambujas”), the queen of prince Bhavavarman I, was
from this line - through her Bhavavarman inherited the royal lineage and became king.

After many ups and downs, in the 700s CE, the Kambuja family reasserted itself under Jayavarman II,
who rebelled against foreign domination by Srivijaya (based then in Sumatra), and remade Kambuja a
sovereign state. His capital was in the Kulén Hills north of the present-day provincial capital of Siĕmréab
(Siem Reap), where he died in 835. He was Cambodia's first nationally oriented king, and began the
Angkor period (‘Angkor’ derives from the Sanskrit word nagara, meaning “city”). Revolts and usurpations
remained frequent, though, as were foreign invasions.

Cambodia, the traditional transliteration of the Khmer name of the country in English, has been given
another transliteration, Kampuchea, more faithful to Khmer pronunciation. The formal name is Prâteh
Kampuchea; prâteh being a formal word meaning country, taken from Sanskrit (it’s a cognate of the word
pradesh, as in Uttar Pradesh).

Angkor flourished from the 9th to the 13th centuries CE. This period, in terms of cultural
accomplishments and political power, was the golden age of Cambodia. The kingdom, with capital at
Angkor, lasted into the 15th century.