Funan Kingdom
In the period between 100 BC and 500 AD, the Kingdom of Funan in the present-day Mekong Delta established a flourishing seafaring trade between China, Indonesia, and India. This kingdom was Hindu, with the kings of Funan sponsoring the worship of Vishnu and Shiva. Buddhism was already present in Funan as a secondary religion in these earliest times.
A Sanskrit inscription from 375 documents the presence of Buddhism in Funan. King Kuandinya Jayavarman (478-514) cultivated Buddhism and sent a Buddhist mission complete with Funanese Buddhist images, carved in coral, to the Emperor of China.
Another early inscription in Sanskrit dated 586-664 at Wat Prey Vier notes that two Buddhist monks named Ratnabhanu and Ratnasimha were brothers. Chinese texts attest that Buddhism flourished in Cambodia in the last half of the 5th century, and that King Jayavarman sent the Indian monk Nagasena to present a memorial in the Chinese Imperial court.
Buddhism was clearly beginning to assert its presence from about year 450 onward, and was observed by the Chinese traveler I Ching toward the close of the seventh century.
Read more about this topic: History Of Buddhism In Cambodia
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“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 13:44.