Funan was the first important Southeast Asian mandala state which flourished from the 3rd through 6th centuries AD. Centered in southern Vietnam, Funan was in regular contact with China. It had become extensively Indianized, esttemed literacy, planned masterful irrigation systems and was probably organized by a branch of the Khmer people who likely dominated that area. It was apparently part of a large trading networks, since trade goods from as far as Rome and Central Asia have been found in its ruins. The people of Funan also skillfully manufactured jewelry, pottery and other trade goods. But some historians suspect Funan was never more than a federation of coastal towns.
Source:
Lockard, C. A. (1995). Integrating Southeast Asian into the framework of world history: The period before 1500. The History Teacher, 29(1), 7-35.
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