Frederik Dawson

Netherlands - 14-Aug-24 -

The first part of my two weeks field trip in Cambodia and Thailand exploring pre-Angkorian and Dvaravati arts with ICOMOS international experts was focusing on Funan Culture, the first kingdom of Southeast Asia. We started our journey at Phnom Penh National Museum to admire beautiful and realistic Funan period Hindu god statues to understand how Southern Indian art and architecture existed in Mekong Delta area via ancient maritime trade route that connected India, Nicobar Island, Sumatra, Java with communities around Gulf of Thailand. On the next day we went to Angkor Borei, a typical Cambodian town with nothing special apart from many canal that some historians pointed out that was a part of ancient canal system connecting Angkor Borei with Oc Eo and the sea in modern day Vietnam. The star attraction of this historic town is its small Angkor Borei Museum with some fine artifacts of Funan and early Chenla that discovered around town, the museum activities and Funan study were funded by an American university.

We continued to Phnom Da which is a small mountain south of Angkor Borei. We hiked to the top of the mountain to see an Angkorian temple named Phnom Da Temple. The highlight of this temple is the quality of laterite that is probably the best in the whole Southeast Asia, and with this high-quality material, ancient artisans abled to chisel and make beautiful motifs on laterite, a real one of a kind. Also from here I could see the whole flooded plain of Mekong Delta and Oc Eo. On the other side of the mountain is Asram Moha Russei Temple, this well-preserved small stone temple is probably the real reason to visit Angkor Borei and Phnom Da. The basalt rock temple is built in pure Pallava southern Indian art with some Javanese influence, great evidence of Indian civilization in Indianized Funan. Some experts even claimed that this temple maybe the oldest and the most important temple in the whole of Funan.

To be honest the Funan sites in Angkor Borei and Phnom Da were a bit underwhelming, only Asram Moha Russei Temple that is unique and interesting at least for art history. The highlight of Funan are those statues in museum at Phnom Penh, but not at the real site. I think under those flooded plain more historical sites are waiting to be discovered but I don’t expect to discover large ruin similar to Angkor. All in all, Angkor Borei and Phnom Da are very important site for Southeast Asia history that in my opinion can secure World Heritage Site status easily. The problem is historians still not sure that Phnom Da or Oc Eo that was the real center of Funan and both countries claim to be the center of Funan, I only hope that ICOMOS and UNESCO will provide solution that satisfy both Cambodia and Vietnam. Combining nearby Phnom Chisor Temple with Angkor Borei and Phnom Da will make the whole trip more worthwhile as Cambodian Government is also planning to propose the temple to be World Heritage Site and, in my opinion, Phnom Chisor Temple which is the main southern temple of Angkor Empire cosmology is more interesting and has a lot more to offer than Funan sites for casual visitors.