Funan and the maritime routes
Southeast Asian states grow rich as the hinge between India and China.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 400 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
Funan in the Mekong delta emerges around 100 CE as the earliest known state in Southeast Asia, with the port of Oc Eo yielding Roman coins, Indian jewellery and Chinese goods. Indian religious and political ideas — Sanskrit, Hinduism, Buddhism, kingship models — are adopted selectively rather than imposed, a process usually called Indianisation. The maritime route through the region carries a growing share of Eurasian trade.