Chenla

…modern writers to use “Chenla,” the contemporary Chinese term for the region, when referring to Cambodia during that time. Chinese sources suggest that there were at least two kingdoms in Cambodia, known as “Water Chenla” and “Land Chenla,” that vied for recognition from China in that period. Whereas the…

…century ce the kingdom called Chenla was established in the upper-middle reaches of the Mekong River, in what is now Laos. The kings who ruled in Chenla were descended from the kings of Funan and took over much of the Funan domain. It seems that disastrous floods finally ruined Funan,…

…was called by the Chinese Chenla. This joint Funan-Chenla tradition produced some of the world’s most magnificent stone cult images. Though Buddhist icons are known, these images principally represent Hindu deities including Vishnu, his incarnation Krishna, Shiva, and a combined Shiva-Vishnu figure called Harihara. The images were housed in wooden…

…is reminiscent both of late Chenla art (see above Cambodia and Vietnam) and of Indonesian decoration, especially during the 11th-century return. Other figures are more emphatic in style, with the defined cubic volumes of Melanesian sculpture. It is thus probable that artists trained in the sophisticated Cambodian tradition worked for…