Tboung Khmum Kingdom (Khmer: ត្បូងឃ្មុំ [tɓoːŋ kʰmum]) was a former political entity of the Kuy people[1]: 21 [2] that existed around the 14th to 16th centuries in the central Mekong Valley,[2] covering some parts of present-day northeast Cambodia, southern Laos, and northeastern Thailand.[2] Its capital was annexed by Cambodia in the 16th century,[3]: 37 while the remaining communities in the north evolved into the multi-ethnolinguistic polities that later became part of Laos and Thailand.[3]: 37–38 [4]: 1–4, 11–12
Tboung Khmum Kingdom ត្បូងឃ្មុំ (Khmer) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1300s – 1500s | |||||||||||||||
 Territory of the Tboung Khmum Kingdom in the 14th-16th centuries | |||||||||||||||
 The remaining Kuy city-states, marked as red and grey pogs, after their chief city near Mlou Prey fell to Khmer's Longvek in the 16th century | |||||||||||||||
| Capital | Tboung Khmum | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Kuy language | ||||||||||||||
| Monarchy | |||||||||||||||
• 1470s | Chao Kuy | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Post-classical era | ||||||||||||||
• Decline of the Angkor | 1300s | ||||||||||||||
• Establishment | 1300s | ||||||||||||||
• Sent embassy to Ayutthaya | 1400s | ||||||||||||||
• Mentioned in Longvek Chronicle | 1470s | ||||||||||||||
• Annexed to Cambodia | 1500s | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Today part of | Cambodia, Laos, Thailand | ||||||||||||||
Records of the Tboung Khmum Kingdom are limited. The only surviving evidence is the Longvek Chronicle, written by the Khmer king Ang Eng,[1]: 27–28 and it is sporadically mentioned in the Siamese royal text in the Ayutthaya and early Rattanakosin periods.[2][3]: 37–38 Preah Vihear province of Cambodia, which was previously the center of the Kuy Kingdom, formerly held a much denser population than today. The Preah Vihear Temple is one of the significant sites built in the 9th–10th centuries by the Kuy people,[5]: 146 It was almost certainly from them that the Khmers wrested the land lying to the west of the Mekong and northeast of the great inland lake (Thale Sap).[5]: 147
Location
editTboung Khmum Kingdom was located in the north of the present-day Kampong Thom province of Cambodia[2] and was said to cover Stung Treng and eastern Preah Vihear provinces of present-day Cambodia, Salavan and the other 3 southernmost provinces of modern Laos, and some parts of Si Sa Ket and Ubon Ratchathani provinces of Thailand. It bordered Phimai of the Ayutthaya Kingdom at the Khayung Creek (ห้วยขะยูง) to the west and reached the Annamite Range to the east. To the north met a group of Khottrabun polities and adjoined Cambodia to the south and southwest.[2][4]: 1–4, 11–12
History
editIndependent kingdom
editThe Tboung Khmum Kingdom of the Kuy people was first mentioned in the Khmer Longvek Chronicle, which was given to the Siamese king Rama I by his adopted Khmer son Ang Eng in 1786. The chronicle was translated to Thai and was kept in the Royal Library near the Amarindra Winitchai Throne Hall.[1]: 21 But now the original Khmer language version has been lost.[6]: 101 The latter part of the chronicle mentions the struggle for the throne by the Khmer royal family after the death of King Noreay Ramathuppdey in 1468. One of Noreay Ramathuppdey's lineage, Thommo Reachea I, requests help from the King of Tboung Khmum against Soriyoteï II.[1]: 27–28
..ฝ่ายพระธรรมราชา ขณะเมื่อหนีไปอยู่ทำเลอมนั้น ได้เปนมิตรสันถวะกันกับเจ้ากวย ครั้นได้พระนครหลวงแล้ว จึงให้มีหนังสือกำหนดไปขอกองทัพเจ้ากวยณเมืองตบงขมุมให้ยกมาช่วยรบพระศรีโสไทย ณ เมืองลแวก ครั้นได้กำหนด กองทัพเจ้าพญาธรรมราชากับกองทัพกวยก็ยกไปรบพระศรีโสไทย พระศรีโสไทยทานมิได้ก็ทิ้งครัวเสียหนีไป...
..As for Thommo Reachea I, while he was fleeing to live in the north, he was on good terms with the Chao Kuy. When he had captured the capital, he then sent a letter requesting the army of Chao Kuy from the city of Tboung Khmum to fight Soriyoteï II at the city of Longvek. When the time came, the army of Thommo Reachea and the Kuy army went to fight Soriyoteï. Soriyoteï lost, abandoned his family, and fled...
According to the text given in the chronicle, Chao Kuy (เจ้ากวย) is potentially referred to the king of the Kuy people who enthroned in the city of Tboung Khmum located in the south of the present-day Champasak and this also indicates that the kingdom of the Kuy people was the independent polity at least in the 15th century.[3]: 35–38 During this period, Kuy kingdom also engaged in trade relationship with Siam as its embassy were sent to the Ayutthaya court.[3]: 37 As per the Royal Criminal Law, the Kuy people had a very high social status in the early Ayutthaya period, comparable to the people of French, English, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Shan, Javanese, Malay, Arab, and Vietnamese descent.[7] Moreover, some of the Kuy people became government officers in the Ayutthaya court, especially in the elephant-related segments[8] since they are known as skilled mahouts, or elephant trainers, and many Kuy villages are employed in finding, taming, and selling elephants.[9]
ฺBefore that, according to the Ayutthaya Three Seals Law (กฏหมายตามสามดวง) of 1432, it also mentioned that the King of Tboung Khmum Kingdom sent his army to assist the King of Angkor Thom to suppress the rebellion.[2]
Post Tboung Khmum era
edit| Country | Number |
|---|---|
| Thailand | 350,444[3]: 34 – 400,000[10] |
| Cambodia | 70,302[11] – 236,333[3]: 34 |
| Laos | 42,800[12] – 58,735[3]: 34 |
Khmer's Longvek used their political power to subdue several ethnic groups and also annexed the Tboung Khmum Kingdom in the 16th century.[3]: 37 The remaining Kuy people then moved northward to settle in the present-day Champasak and the southern Isan region east of Ayutthaya's Phimai, which were a wasteland and remains unclaimed by any state at that time.[3]: 37 According to the Champasak Chronicle, the Kuy-Cham-Lao communities in the Champasak region and the Bolaven Plateau later evolved to the city-state of Nakhon Kalachambak Nagaburi Sri (นครกาลจำบากนาคบุรีศรี), which continued to the formation of the Champasak Kingdom in 1713.[4]: 1–4, 11–12 Meanwhile, the Kuy communities in the Mun River basin in the west were loyal to Ayutthaya, with Phimai as the head of the region,[3]: 37–38 and it was collectively called in the Rattanakosin period as Hua Mueang Khamen Pa Dong (หัวเมืองเขมรป่าดง), which can be interpreted as meaning "cities of the Khmer forest (Kuy) people."[13]: 259 The later immigration of Lao and Khmer peoples reduced the proportion of Kuy people in the area to about 10-20% of the total population.[14]
During the reign of King Uthong of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (r.1351–1369), the Kuy's polity of Radaer (เมืองระแดร์) was mentioned. It was proposed to be the present Attapeu in southern Laos and was not in the list of the polities invaded by King Fa Ngum during his campaign to unify the Lao petty kingdoms.
The development of the Kuy communities after the 17th century is shown below.
| Region/Territory | Kuy's political entities | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early era | Transitional era | Modern era | |||
 Northeast Cambodia |
Tboung Khmum Kingdom | Completely annexed to Cambodia since the 16th century.[3]: 37 | Modern Cambodia | ||
 Southern Laos |
Modern Laos | ||||
 Ubon Ratchathani |
Occupied by Lao people | Champasak Kingdom | Lao domination | Modern Thailand | |
| Surin |
wasteland[3]: 37 (The area was sparse in population after the decline of the Angkor.) |
Ban Khu Patay[3]: 37 | Mueang Prathaysaman | Mueang Surin[3]: 37 | |
| Ban Kud Wai[3]: 38 | Mueang Sri Nakhon Tao | Mueang Rattanaburi[3]: 38 | |||
| Ban Atchapueng[3]: 38 | |||||
| Si Sa Ket |
Ban Lamduan[3]: 38 | ||||
| Ban Jaraphuet[2] | |||||
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Longvek Chronicle
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "ประวัติศาสตร์ความเป็นมาของชาติพันธุ์กูย" [History of the Kuy ethnic group]. Indigenous Media Network (in Thai). 19 December 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Salee, Banyat (2015). "กูย : ว่าด้วยกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ ภาษา และตำนาน" [Kui : The Study on Ethnic Group, Language and Myth]. Journal of Human and Social Studies (in Thai). 1 (1). Archived from the original on 1 January 2025. Retrieved 2 January 2025 – via Thai Journal Online.
- ^ a b c d e Fine Arts Department (1941), "ตำนานเมืองนครจำปาศักดิ์" [Tamnan Mueang Nakhon Champasak], ประชุมพงศาวดาร ภาคที่ ๗๐ [Collection of Historical Archives] (PDF) (in Thai), Phra Nakhon: Phra Chan, retrieved 2024-10-26
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ a b Erik Seidenfaden (1952). "The Kui people of Cambodia and Siam" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
- ^ Santi Pakdeekham. "เอกสารกัมพูชากับการศึกษาประวัติศาสตร์อยุธยา" [Cambodian documents and the study of Ayutthaya history] (PDF). Damrong Wichakan (in Thai). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ สุจิตต์ วงษ์เทศ (30 June 2023). "ชาวกูย จาก 'โขง-ชี-มูล' รับราชการ 'งานช้าง' ในอยุธยา" [The Kuy people from 'Mekhong-Chi-Mun' work as government officials in 'Elephant Work' in Ayutthaya.]. Matichon (in Thai). Retrieved 2 January 2025.
- ^ Pongsak, Nakprada, The "Elephants Return to Homeland" Project Management for Provincial Economic Development in Surin Province (PDF), The Government of Thailand, archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2015, retrieved 7 November 2015
- ^ 2006 Mahidol University Study, cited in Ethnologue
- ^ 2019 Indigenous Peoples Organization, cited in
- ^ 2005 Lao Census, cited in Ethnologue
- ^ Chit Phumisak (2013). ความเป็นมาของคำสยาม, ไทย ลาว และขอม และลักษณะทางสังคมของชื่อชนชาติ [The origin of the words Siam, Thai, Lao and Khom, and the social characteristics of the names of the ethnic groups] (in Thai). Bangkok: Chonniyom.
- ^ "ประวัติชาติพันธุ์ "กูย" ก่อนดราม่า "กุน ขแมร์" โยงเชื้อสาย"บัวขาว"". PPTV (in Thai). 25 April 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2025.