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Thailand The Mon and the Khmer
The closely related Mon and Khmer peoples entered Southeast
Asia along migration routes from southern China in the ninth
century B.C. The Khmer settled in the Mekong River Valley, while
the Mon occupied the central plain and northern highlands of
modern Thailand and large parts of Burma. Taking advantage of
Funan's decline in the sixth century A.D., the Mon began to
establish independent kingdoms, among them Dvaravati in the
northern part of the area formerly controlled by Funan and
farther north at Haripunjaya. Meanwhile the Khmer laid the
foundation for their great empire of the ninth to fifteenth
centuries A.D. This empire would be centered at Angkor (near
modern Siem Reap) in Cambodia.
The Mon were receptive to the art and literature of India,
and for centuries they were the agents for diffusing Hindu
cultural values in the region. The frequent occurrence of
Sanskrit place-names in modern Thailand is one result of the long
and pervasive Indian influence.
In the eighth century, missionaries from Ceylon (present-day
Sri Lanka) introduced the Mon to Theravada Buddhism. The Mon
embraced Buddhism enthusiastically and conveyed it to the Khmer
and the Malay of Tambralinga
(see Religion
, ch. 2). The two
Indian religious systems--Hindu and Buddhist--existed side by
side without conflict. Hinduism continued to provide the cultural
setting in which Buddhist religious values and ethical standards
were articulated. Although Buddhism was the official religion of
the Mon and the Khmer, in popular practice it incorporated many
local cults.
In spite of cultural dominance in the region, the Mon were
repeatedly subdued by their Burmese and Khmer neighbors. In the
tenth century Dvaravati and the whole of the Chao Phraya Valley
came under the control of Angkor. The Khmer maintained the HinduBuddhist culture received from the Mon but placed added emphasis
on the Hindu concept of sacred kingship. The history of Angkor
can be read in the magnificent structures built to glorify its
monarchy. Ultimately, however, obsession with palaces and temples
led the Khmer rulers to divert too much manpower to their
construction and to neglect the elaborate agricultural system--
part of Angkor's heritage from Funan--that was the empire's most
important economic asset.
Data as of September 1987
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