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Cambodia on the Bay of Bengal is one of the major countries of Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Laos, Vietnam, and Thiland. Cambodia's relatively short shoreline with extensive mangrove stands, some of which are relatively undisturbed. The shoreline faces the Gulf of Siam, a part of the South China Sea. Cambodia is entirely located in the tropics. Cambodia is sitiated in a saucer-shaped plain drained by the Mekong River which plays a major role in Cambodian life. The Cambodin plain is hemmed in by mountains. One of the dominant features of the Cambodia is the large, almost centrally located, Tonle Sap (Great Lake). Another major feature is the Bassac River Systems and the Mekong River, cross the country from north to south. The Mekong psses through Cambodia. The actual delta of the Mekong is in southern Vietnam. The principal agricultural crop is rice. The climate and rich alluvial soil supports intensive cropping. The principal religion is Hīnayāna Buddhism. Cambodia played a major role in regional history. The fabeled Kymer Empire rose (6th century AD) and dominated the region for centutries. Angkor Wat is an architectural treasure of the Kymer Empire at its peak. The agricultural productivity of Cambodia supported such a extravagent building program. With the decline of the Kymer Empire, Siam and Annam encroached on former Kymer lands (15th-19th centuries). The Cambodian monarchy appealed for French intervention (1854). A French protectorate was establushed (1863). Cambodia became part of French Indo-China (1884). The French-Siamese Treaty restored the western privinces (1907). Following the French defeat in North Vietnam,Canodia achieved independence (1955). The country became involved in the Vietnam War and the seizure of power by the Communist Kymer Rouge (1975) led to the apauling Cambodian genocide. One of the mny attrocities committed by Communist regimes. We have a section on Camodian history. We also have some information on the Cambodian monarchy. Cambodians tend to have lrge fmilies. The family is very important in Cambodin society, a social insitution the Commumnit Kymer Rouge attacked.
Cambodia on the Bay of Bengal is one of the major countries of Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Laos, Vietnam, and Thiland. Cambodia's relatively short shoreline with extensive mangrove stands, some of which are relatively undisturbed. The shoreline faces the Gulf of Siam, a part of the South China Sea. Cambodia is entirely located in the tropics. Cambodia is sitiated in a saucer-shaped plain drained by the Mekong River which plays a major role in Cambodian life. The Cambodin plain is hemmed in by mountains. One of the dominant features of the Cambodia is the large, almost centrally located, Tonle Sap (Great Lake). Another major feature is the Bassac River Systems and the Mekong River, cross the country from north to south. The Mekong psses through Cambodia. The actual delta of the Mekong is in southern Vietnam.
Cambodia played a major role in regional history. The fabeled Kymer Empire rose (6th century AD) and dominated the region for centutries. Angkor Wat is an architectural treasure of the Kymer Empire at its peak. The agricultural productivity of Cambodia supported such a extravagent building program. With the decline of the Kymer Empire, Siam and Annam encroached on former Kymer lands (15th-19th centuries). The Cambodian monarchy appealed for French intervention (1854). A French protectorate was establushed (1863). Cambodia became part of French Indo-China (1884). The French-Siamese Treaty restored the western privinces (1907). Following the French defeat in North Vietnam,Canodia achieved independence (1955). The country became involved in the Vietnam War and the seizure of power by the Communist Kymer Rouge (1975) led to the apauling Cambodian genocide. One of the many murderous attrocities committed by Communist regimes. We also have some information on the Cambodian monarchy. Cambodians tend to have lrge fmilies.
The principal agricultural crop is rice. The climate and rich alluvial soil supports intensive cropping.
The family is very important in Cambodin society, one of the trditionl social insitutions the Commumnit Kymer Rouge attacked. Families as in most traditional agricultural socities tend to be large and close knit. One obsrveable pattern in the photographic rcord is how even toung children care for their younger siblings. The extended family system is widespread with two or three generations living together in one household. A Vambodian houhold may include grandparents, parents, unmarried adult children (including aunts aunts and uncles), children and the in-laws. The family bond is pronounced and involves well establoshed life-long rights and obligations. [Seanglim, 1991.] The family members are expected to live in harmony. They share food and are involved in each other’s business, ssentialy the idea of privacy is absent in Cambidian family life. Deference is expected toward the older members of the family. This includes aunts and uncles with no regard as to parentage. Aunts anc uncles can ply an important role in the family, helping wih child care and discussiins of all family matters.
India has played a major role in the development of Canbodian religion. Both Hindism and Buddhism originated in India. Hinduism is the traditional abcient religion of India. Buddhism originated in what is now northern India and Nepal (6th century BC). China is closer to Cambodia than India, bu it was sea routes that carried trade and ideas like religion. The first organized relgion to reach Cambodia was Buddhism. Until then the population was primitive animists. The early Buddhist influence was missionaries sent by Indian King Ashoka. Hinduism was, however, promoted by the Funan Kings (100 BC and 500 AD). Buddhism declined during the Chenla era (500-700 AD). Then a change occurred with Buddhism eventually becoming the dominant religion. Cambodia's transition from worshiping the The Hindu god-king to Mahayana bodhisattva-king apprs to have been very gradual, probably inperceptable at the time. Both religions were tolerant, unlike the violent Christian Islamic divide in the West. There was a competuion, but not a viloent one. But the once dominant Vaishnavite and Shaivite traditions shifted to the worship of the Gautama Buddha and the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. The Buddhist Sailendra kingdom gained contol of Cambodia as a vassal state (late-8th century AD). King Jayavarman II , the first real Khmer king of the Angkor Empire, proclaimed himself a god-king and identified himself with Shiva (9th century). Despite this Hindu orientation, he became recptive to Mahayana Buddhist influences. And as a reslt , at the time the Hindu complex at Ankor wat was being built, Buddhism was beginning to replace Hunfism as Cambodia's principal religion. And Hindu Ankor Wat, the largest religious complex in the world, was eventully converted into Buddhist temples (13th century). Since that time, Theravada Buddhism has not only been the dominant religion, but Cambodia’s state religion--except during the Kymer Rouge period. The principal religion in Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism. This is a Buddhism is a tolerant, non-prescriptive religion which is why it coexits with othr religions like Hinduism and Shintoism. A core precepts require that each individual must take responsibility for his psonal actions and filures. Theravada accepts as canonical the Prajnaparamita Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. The French introduced Christianity (9th century), but Buddhism is the dominant religion--about 85 pervent of Cambodiams are Budhits. Theravada is one of the three great schools or vehicles/pths of Buddhism. It is applied to the Śrāvakayāna, the Buddhist path followed by a śrāvaka (a hearer ordisciple as used in both Buddhism and Jainism) who desires to reach arhat status -- a perfected person who has attained nirvana. The term began to be used early after the foundation of Buddhism in Southeast Asia (about the first or second century AD). For nearly two mellennia it played an important role in Cmbodian life. Theravada is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the 'Great Vehicle'. The Kymer Rouge like all Communists were hostile to religion. They attempted to stamp out Buddhism. All monks that they could identified were disrobed and murdered. most religious scholars were also murdered, the only survivors were those ho mnaged to flle into exile. Any attempt at religious worship could get you killed by the Kymer Rouge. There is an ethnic character to religion in Cambodia. Virtually all ethnic Kymers (90 percen of the popiulation) and many non-Kymers adhere to Theravada Buddhism. There are two small ethnic-based Muslim communities, the Cham and the Malay, perhaps 3 percent of the population. Anout the same proprtio of the populations are Christians. And Christian missionaries are active. In the northeast of Cambodia, many of the tribal non-Kymer people practice animist religions.
Cambodian edication has very greatly in modern times, depending om the political regime in power. Camodian education was traditionally a function of the wats (Buddhist temples). There was no tradition of secular education. This meant that education was centered on religion and restricted to a relatively small part of the population. Only boys were educated in the wats. Cambodia was nearly devestated by invading Thai and Vietnamese armies. King Noradom requested French intervention (1854) which ended the wars with Thailand and Vietnam and ushered in a period of French colonial control. The French oversaw major improvements in the country's infrasructure, but gave little attention to other areas such as education. This was in part a decesion not to disrupt traditional Kymer society. The French did not address the need for a modern education system until the 20th century. French colonial officials enacted the Law on Education (1917). This introduced a basic primary and secondary education system modelled somewhat on the French system. It was not, however, a mass education syste, It was an elitist designed to educate a very small part of the population, basically to meet the needs of the French colonial system and not the Kymer people. The creation of a mass education system did not come until independence (1955). The developing Cambodian educational system experienced a huge set back by the Cambodian Civil War and the victory of the Kymer Rouge. They essentially abolished education. The Kymer Rouge sought out and killed teachers. Since the overthrow of the Kymer Rouge, great progress has been made in revuilding a national education system.
Seanglim, Bit. The Warrior Heritage: A Psychological Perspective of Cambodian Trauma California: Seanglim Bit self pPublished, 1991).
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