Zhān Bó
Zhān Bó Kingdom | |||||||||
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| Early – late 7th century | |||||||||
Proposed locations of ancient kingdoms in Menam and Mekong Valleys in the 7th century based on the details provided in the Chinese leishu, Cefu Yuangui, and others. | |||||||||
| Capital |
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| Government | Kingdom | ||||||||
| Historical era | Post-classical era | ||||||||
• Split from Chenla | 650s | ||||||||
• First tribute to China | 657 CE | ||||||||
• Formation of Yamanadvipa | Late 7th century | ||||||||
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| Today part of | |||||||||
Zhān Bó (Chinese: 瞻博) in Mandarin Chinese or Dzim Bohk in Cantonese, also known as the Inland Champa, was a medieval kingdom in the central Isan region of Thailand mentioning in the New Book of Tang. Zhān Bó, together with other four kingdoms, including Pó Àn (婆岸), Qiān Zhī Fú (千支弗), Shě Bá Ruò (舍跋若), and Mó Là (摩臘), sent their first tribute to the Chinese court around 656–661 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. These five kingdoms confederated politically and economically with Zhān Bó as the head, and they differed from the coastal region dominated by Dvaravati. Zhān Bó was formerly designated as one of the seventeen tributary states of Piao — also called Zhū Bō (朱波) — which has been identified with Pyu city-states in modern Myanmar, and situated geographically between two prominent kingdoms to whom Zhān Bó pledged loyalty.
In the early 7th century, Zhān and Bó were probably two individual kingdoms, as stated in the Cefu Yuangui, that in 657, "Zhān guo Bó guo", meaning "Zhān country Bó country", sent a tribute to China. It was regarded as a single entity in the latter mission, indicating the unification of the ruling families into one monarchy. During this period, there are a record of a Chinese Buddhist monk Chéng Wù (乗悟) died in Zhān Bó on his way back to Jiaozhou (交州), after residing in He Ling (訶陵) and other places farther south.
Following the fall of the Dvaravati culture in the 11th century, Zhān Bó, as well as other principalities in the Mun–Chi Basins, possibly formed alliances with Angkor, as indicated by the archaeological evidence that several artifacts and structures found in its capital, Champasri, are more Angkorian than those of the Mon Dvaravati. The tie with former trans-Mekong confederated city-states in the Menam Basin ended, especially with Qiān Zhī Fú at Si Thep, who, together with other Tai principalities in the upper Menam Valleys, moved south and absorbed the declining Dvaravati.