Chenla

In this episode, we explore Chenla, the Southeast Asian mandala kingdom that rose after Funan and helped shape the foundations of the Khmer Empire. Emerging in the sixth century, Chenla was deeply influenced by Hindu and Buddhist traditions, with ideas of divine kingship, temple-centered authority, and social hierarchy playing a major role in its political and cultural life. We examine how Chinese records describe its later division into Land and Water Chenla, while modern scholars see a more fragmented landscape of competing principalities. The episode also traces Chenla’s economic shift from maritime trade to inland rice agriculture, supported by irrigation networks and temple labor, before its eventual unification under Jayavarman II in 802 CE.