ofthe SAME TREE

etween the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Excavations and aerial photographs
have indicated the presence of a network of canals linking Angkor
Borei not only with Oc Eo but also with other sites further north. It appears
likely that Angkor Borei was a central redistribution point of goods flowing to
and from the interior and the coast. One of the canals is believed to have been
used for local transport and communication, as well as to drain the fields.
In fact, the canal system was principally for these functions rather than for
irrigation, which was unnecessary in the well-watered lands of the delta. The
coincidence of dates, material culture, and canal linkages between Oc Eo and
Angkor Borei suggests that they formed part of a larger political and economic
system. 83 Evidence points to the Lower Mekong as an ancient site of a
thriving culture at the eastern end of the Sea of Malayu.
In the mid-seventh century the Oc Eo site was inexplicably abandoned.
What may have hastened its demise was Chinese direct maritime trade to
Southeast Asia beginning in the fifth century. This led to the emergence of
coastal polities along the Straits of Melaka and greater trade traffic using one
of the Cham settlements in central Vietnam as the intermediary stop closest
to China. Increase in Chinese trade through the Straits of Melaka led to a corresponding
decline in those using the transisthmian route, with equally ruinous
consequences for Oc Eo. The direct line from the isthmian and peninsular
ports on the western side of the Gulf of Siam to the Lower Mekong was no
longer as attractive as the all-sea route from the straits directly to central Vietnam
and on to China. Oc Eo’s growing attention to manufacturing activity in
the fifth and sixth centuries may have been the result of its declining importance
as an international entrepot. The inhabitants in the Lower Mekong were
thus forced to seek another outlet for the import of foreign items and export
of their own manufactured goods. The decision to seek an outlet on the Vietnamese
coast was not a novel idea. There is evidence that already in the first
millennium BCE the Lao Bao pass was used to link the Mekong valley to the
South China Sea. Another ancient route in use since Neolithic times was the
Mu Gia pass linking Nakhon Pathom with the northern coast of central Vietnam.
It is no coincidence that some of the Cham polities in central Vietnam
emerged about this time, providing a much needed replacement for Oc Eo. 84
The “family resemblance” noted by O’Connor contributed to the cooperation
between the Lower Mekong and central Vietnam. Chinese envoys
to Funan in the third century CE observed that the Chams and the Funanese
cooperated in a raid against the Vietnamese in the Red River delta. 85
The appearance in Chinese accounts of polities they called “Land Chenla”
and “Water Chenla” replacing Funan did not signal a major break between
one kingdom and another, as had earlier been thought. It reflects instead the
changing economic dynamics of the same communities that now sought to
42 Chapter 1