In the second century A.D., large numbers of settlers left India to colonise South-East Asia. They brought their culture with them - their beliefs, their customs and their art and architecture. Over the next few centuries, their culture came to dominate the cultures of the earlier natives (though not completely), and several large "Indianised" kingdoms rose to prominence in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. All of these kingdoms had substantially or completely waned in power by 1500.
These kingdoms had much contact with each other, both through trade and through war. The Cham and the neighbouring Khmer in Cambodia often fought. Indeed, in 1177 the Cham sailed up the Mekong to the Tonlé Sap and sacked the Khmer capital of Angkor. The walls of the Bayon at Angkor are decorated with scenes of this war.
Comparative timeline of the architecture of Champa, Cambodia and Java:
| Date: | Champa: | Cambodia: | Java: | |
| c. 700 | |
|
|
Borobudur |
| c. 750 | |
|
|
Dieng Plateau |
| c. 800 | |
|
|
Gedong Songo |
|
Prambanan | |||
| c. 830 | |
Hòa Lai | ||
| 875 | |
Dong Duong | ||
| 877 | |
|
capital at Roulos | |
| 889 | |
|
capital moved to Angkor | |
|
(1st Angkor) | |||
| c. 900 | |
|
Phnom Bakheng | |
| c. 950 | |
My Son A1 | ||
| 967 | |
|
Banteay Srei | |
| c. 1050 | |
Pô Nagar | ||
|
Bánh It | |||
| c. 1060 | |
|
Baphuon (2nd Angkor) | |
| c. 1100 | |
Chiên Ðàng | ||
| c. 1130 | |
|
Angkor Wat | |
| 1177 | |
|
Cham sack Angkor | |
| c. 1200 | |
Cánh Tiên | Bayon (3rd Angkor) | |
| c. 1270 | |
Pô Klaung Gerai | ||
| 1432 | |
|
Angkor abandonned | |
| 1470 | |
defeat by the Vietnamese | ||
| c. 1650 | |
Pô Rômê | ||