Kingdom of Funan

Kingdom of Funan (Chinese: 扶南; pinyin: Fúnán; Vietnamese: Phù Nam; Khmer: Nokor Phnom), was the Chinese name of an ancient kingdom located around the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam and in southern Indochina. The name is found in Chinese historical texts describing the kingdom, and the most extensive descriptions are largely based on the report of two Chinese diplomats representing the Wu Kingdom of Nanking who sojourned in Funan in the mid-3rd century A.D.; however, the name Funan is not found in any texts of local origin, and it is not known what name the people of Funan gave to their country.

Some scholars have advanced speculative proposals regarding the origin and meaning of the word Funan. It is often said that the name Funan represents a transcription from some local language into Chinese. For example, French scholar George Coedès advanced the theory that in using the word Funan ancient Chinese scholars were transcribing a word related to the Khmer word bnaṃ or vnaṃ (modern: phnoṃ, meaning "mountain"). However, it has also been observed that in Chinese the character 南 (pinyin: nán, Vietnamese: nam) is frequently used in geographical terms to mean "South"; Chinese scholars used it in this sense in naming other locations or regions of Southeast Asia, such as Annam. Thus, Funan may be an originally Chinese word meaning something like "Pacified South", and may not be a transcription at all. The epigraphist Claude Jacques has proposed that use of the name Funan be abandoned in favour of the names, such as Bhavapura, Aninditapura, Shresthapura and Vyadhapura, which are known from inscriptions to have been used at the time for cities in the region.

Like the very name of the country, the ethno-linguistic nature of the people is the subject of much discussion among specialists. The leading hypotheses are that the Funanese were mostly Mon–Khmer, or that they were mostly Austronesian, or that they constituted a multi-ethnic society. The available evidence is inconclusive on this issue.

Based on the testimony of the Chinese historians, the polity Funan is believed to have been established in the 1st century C.E. in the Mekong delta, but archeological research has shown that extensive human settlement in the region may have gone back as far as the 4th century B.C.E. Though regarded by Chinese authors as a single unified polity, some modern scholars suspect that Funan may have been a collection of city-states that sometimes warred with one another and at other times constituted a political unity. From archeological evidence, which includes Roman, Chinese, and Indian goods excavated at the ancient mercantile centre of Oc Eo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo, meaning "glass canal") in southern Vietnam, we know that Funan must have been a powerful trading state. Excavations at Angkor Borei in southern Cambodia have likewise delivered evidence of an important settlement. Since Oc Eo was linked to a port on the coast and to Angkor Borei by a system of canals, it is possible that all of these locations together constituted the heartland of Funan.