Cambodia from Funan to Chenla, A Thousand Years of Monetary History

No coin nor token have been retrieved from Angkorian architectural sites. We know that, except for some important transactions dealt with silver or gold ingots, most of the religious donations or daily commercial exchanges happened in kind.

Nevertheless, earlier social structures such as the kingdoms of Funan (South) and Chenla (North-East) did use coins. The Pyu and Mon city-states, further north of the region, clearly ​“indianized”, had also developed monetary instruments.

Archeological findings regarding this particular aspect of local economical and commercial realities in and around the territory of modern Cambodia are most recent: the main deposit of coins was discovered by chance in the Angkor Borei area (Southern Cambodia) only in 2012.

This study traces back the sparse archeological evidence to Chenla and Funan systems, which were more markedly under Indian influences than Angkor. King Isanavarman I, the founder of the capital city of Isanapuri (later known as Sambor Prei Kuk) in the 7^th century, manifested all the attributes of a typical sovereign in the Indian continent. And the vast city of Angkor Borei (អង្គរបុរី) was then known by its Hindi name, Vyadhapura, ​“City of the hunters”.

On the other hand, Funan, a Chinese version of the Khmer word ​“Phnom”, attracted thousands of Chinese merchants (​“Nanyang Huashang”, literally ​“Chinese traders of the Southern seas”).