KHMER BUDDHIST HISTORY: FUNAN: 100 BC – 500 AD

KHMER BUDDHIST HISTORY: 

Buddhism, under a variety of forms, existed in Southeast Asia for two thousand years or perhaps even longer. Buddhist legends say that Buddhism was originally introduced into Suvannabhumi, or the “Golden Peninsula”, by King Asoka, the great Buddhist Emperor in India, during the 3rd century BC.

For the first Thousand years, Theravada, Saravastavada and Mahayana Buddhism co-existed throughout Southeast Asia, including the lands of present day Cambodia. These Buddhist traditions were practiced under the dominant Hindu religion of the region, which consisted primarily in the worship of the God-king, Shiva, embodied in the human king. Saravastavada Buddhism was Hinayana tradition, virtually identical with the present day Theravada, except it was based in a Sanskrit literary tradition, rather that Pali language tradition. The doctrinal teachings and the monastic practices were the same as Theravada. Theravada Buddhism was present also, evidence by Pali inscriptions from this period. Saravastavada Buddhism was the predominant form of Buddhism in Southeast Asia from the earliest days until Mahayana Buddhism became ascendant with the rise of the Angkor Empire from about 800 – 1200.

Mahayana Buddhism became increasingly influential until it eventually replaced Hinduism as the official state religion under King Jayavarman VII.

At the height of the Angkor Empire, after the death of King Jayavarman VII, a “Theravada Revolution” occurred, and Theravada Buddhism became ascendant as the official state religion, which it has remained for past 800 years. Buddhism coexisted with the predominant Hindu Shiva worship for about one thousand years, until Buddhist religion became officially established about one thousand years ago, first with the establishment of Mahayana Buddhism of King Jayavarman VII, and then the ascendancy of Theravada Buddhism.

300 BC

Buddhism, according to legend, came to Southeast Asia as early as 300B.C. by way of missionaries dispatched by the renowned Indian Emperor Ashoka.

“Unconfirmed Singhalese sources state that Buddhism was introduced to Suvannabhumi, or the ‘Golden Peninsula’, as mainland Southeast Asia was once referred to, in the 3rd century BCE under the reign of King Asoka, the great Buddhist ruler. According to these sources, two monks, Sona and Uttara, were sent to propagate the doctrine of the Master in this region following the great council of 247BCE held in Ashoka’s capital Patalipitta, India. While this mission may be legendary, it points to a truth that Buddhism ahs been present in Southeast Asia for a long time. Various Buddhist sects and schools, including Tantrism, vied or coexisted with a dominant Brahmanism and indigenous animistic faiths for centuries before the rise of the classical Southeast Asian empires beginning in the 9th century CE. Through in part Indian merchant traders, Indian cultural influence was pervasive in this early period. In Funan (1st to 5th century CE), the first organized Khmer polity, the Khmer people embraced not only the diverse Brahmanic and Buddhist religions but also the social customs and mores of India.” [“Notes of the Rebirth of Khmer Buddhism” Radical Conservativism,]

FUNAN: 100 BC – 500 AD

Certainly there were Buddhists in Cambodia by 100BC.

In the 100BC-500AD the Kingdom of Funan in the present-day Mekong Delta established a flourishing sea-faring trade between China, Indonesia, and India. Hindu, principally Vishnu and Shiva religious practices were established in Funan.

An Indian Sanskrit inscription from 375 documents that an Indian claming descent from Scynthian line ruled as King of Funan. “He may have been responsible for establishing the worship of Surya, the sun god, who appears in many sculptures of this period. A second Indian, a Brahmin, succeeded him. Then other kings with Indian names appear in the inscription. One, Kuandinya Jayavarman (478-514) cultivated Buddhism, and sent a Buddhist mission complete with Funanese images [carved in coral] to the Emperor of China…” [The Art of Southeast Asia, Philip Dawson, p21]

[“Another early dated inscription of Kamboja (586-664) the Wat Prey Vier Sanskrit inscription is also definitely a Buddhist record, speaking of two Bhikkhus, Ratnabhanu and Ratnasimha, who were born of the same mother. That in Kamboja, Buddhism flourished already in the last half of the fifth century AD is also attested to by Chinese texts which have yielded to M Pelliot the important information that in 484 AD Jayavarman (king of Founan, who is also referred to in the inscription discovered at Ta Prom, cited above) sent the Indian monk Nagasena to present a memorial in the Chinese Imperial court which began with a panegyric of the Emperor a one of the patrons of Buddhism, in whose empire the Dharma flourished.” [Sanskrit Buddhism in Burma, Nihar-Ranjan Ray, 1936.]

Buddhism was clearly beginning to assert itself from year 450 onward, when the Chinese explorer I-tsing, toward the close of the 7th century, wrote the celebrated Records of the Buddhist Religion, based on extensive travels in India, Sri Lanka, the Indonesian archipelago, “he found that the islands of Southeast Asia, the Mulasarvastivada-nikaya had been universally accepted, except in Malaya where there were a few being Mahayana.” [Sanskrit Buddhism in Burma, Nihar-Ranjan Ray, 1936]

There was some interaction between Funan and Indonesia and India during these early centuries. As Funan declined in influence around 500AD, the southeast coast of Sumatra gained importance as a sea route from China to Indonesia and India, the central power between Java, Malaysia, and Chaya in southern Thailand.