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The Politic and History
The kingdom of Chenla was born when the ethnic Khmer migrated into Southeast Asia from what is now Yunnan, China, and Arunchal Pradesh, Northeast India, and displaced the rulers of Funan. Funan fell to the Khmers in about 650 A.D. and Chenla existed as a single, united kingdom for about 60 years - until it was divided in 706 A.D. With the defeat of Funan the status of the Khmers went from one of being a vassal in the relatively impoverished mountains of modern Laos and North Thailand to the dominant authority in the region. They quickly migrated on further down the Mekong river valley into modern Cambodia. The Chenla Khmer were not a seafaring people and as a result thy did not take up Funan's mantle in the world of international trade. That fell instead to the Sumatran kingdom of Sri Vijaya and, eventually, also to the Javanese kingdom of Mataram where the royal family of Funan had fleed when their mainland kingdom fell. Early in the 8th century, political divisions among the Khmers led to the partitioning of Chenla into two kingdoms: Upper Chenla (or "land" Chenla) stretched along the Mekong River over what is now southern Laos and eastern Thailand; Lower Chenla (or "water" Chenla) covered present Cambodia and the southern portions of Vietnam. Lower Chenla was invaded in 790 A.D. by a Sailendra king from Java. The king of Lower Chenla was beheaded and his head was sent to the king of Upper Chenla as a warning. The Sailendra dynasty of Java thus became one of the few Southeast Asia powers in pre-colonial times to rule over both mainland and island portions of the region. Sailendra rule lasted only a decade or so before the Khmers were reunited under Jayavarman II and the Chenla era gave way to the Angkor era of Khmer glory...