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Origin of the
Cambodians
Legend has it that
during the century AD, Kaundinya, an Indian
Brahman priest, following a dream came to Cambodia’s
Great Lake to find his fortune. He met and married
a local princess, Soma, daughter of the Naga king,
and founded the first Kingdom called the Phnom,
introducing Hindu customs, legal traditions and the
Sanskrit language. Modern historians refer to it
as Funan, the first Khmer Kingdom, and the oldest
Indianized State in the Southeast Asian region.
The Khmers who inhabited the Tchenla Vassal State took Funan in the mid-sixth
century, thus enabling the rise of the Khmer Empire, which became a dominant
power in the Southeast Asian region for more than 600 years.
Jayavarman II, a Khmer King, united all the Khmer people
under his leadership around the year 800 AD. Establishing his
capital in the northwestern part of Cambodia, north of the Tonle
Sap Great Lake, Jayavarman II was crowned as King of
Kambuja and adopted the Hindu religion.
During the Khmer
Empire era, a long succession of strong leaders enabled
the Khmer Empire to flourish until the 15th century,
with the zenith of its influence, might and architectural
splendor reached in the 12th century. With a succession
of capitals located in and around Siem Reap province,
the Khmer Kings exhibited an enormous talent for
marshalling the genius of their people.
The legacy of this more than half-millennia imperial flourish included
one of the most extensive concentration of religious temples anywhere
in the world, the Angkor Wat complex. With the temple complex, the largest
religious monument ever built as the most significant and world-renowned
legacy of this era, the Khmer Kings initiated a four-century long construction
boom of magnificent and unparalleled historic sites.
History
of Cambodia
Cambodia’s modern
day culture has its roots in the first century to
the sixth century in a State referred to as Funan.
It was the oldest Indianized State in Southeast Asia,
and from this period Cambodia’s language developed,
which contains remnants of Sanskrit, its ancient
religion of Hinduism, later transforming to Buddhism,
and other cultural traditions. Historians have noted
that Cambodians differ from their neighbors by wearing
different clothes, for example, the recognizable
scarves, known as Kramas, rather than
straw hats.
The period known
as the Angkor Empire that rise from
the Funan era, a succession of powerful
Khmer Kings dominated much of Southeast Asia for
more than 600 years, from the 9th century to the
13th century. The period began with King Jayavarman
II taking of the throne in 802.
At its height the Angkor Empire extended from the border of modern-day
Burma, east to the South China Sea, and north to Laos. The Khmer kings
were able to consolidate and marshal all forces to build the most extensive
concentration of religious temples in the world, the Angkor complex.
Among the successes
of the Angkor Kings (Jayavarman II, Indravarman I,
Suryavarman II, and Jayavarman VII) were the construction
of large Barays, or man-made lakes,
and a sophisticated system of irrigation canals and
dikes, which, according to some historians, allowed
Cambodia to grow two and three crops of rice a year.
As the Angkor period ended, Cambodia’s
capital moved south to Lovek, then to Oudong, and finally to the
present day capital of Phnom Penh.
Among the main features of the post-Angkorean era, besides the movement
of the capital, was a widespread conversion to Theravada
Buddhism. The beginnings of this conversion have been recorded in
temple carvings, where Buddhist feature replaced Hindu carvings.
The 15th century to the 17th century represented a time of foreign influence,
as the country was fought over by the expansionist Siamese and Vietnamese.
By the mid-1800s, Cambodia, like most other countries in Asia, was under
increasing pressure from European colonial expansion, and in 1863, Cambodia
agreed to protection from France. King Norodom signed a Protectorate
Treaty, leading to 90 years of French domination over the Khmer people.
The Kingdom has two branches of its Royal
Family. With the death of King Norodom in 1904, the branches
switched. The Norodom dynasty, which was heir apparent, was replaced
instead with the Sisowath dynasty. In 1941, the throne switched
back to the Norodoms with the crowning of Cambodia’s current
king-then prince Norodom
Sihanouk. He was 18 years old when he took the throne.
In 1945, the Japanese briefly ousted the French protectorate. Having
seen the light of independence, King Sihanouk campaigned tirelessly and
in 1953 he succeeded in winning independence from France. King Sihanouk
abdicated the throne from his father and took the reins of government
himself as head of state.
Throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s Cambodia was self-sufficient and prospered
in many areas. However the quagmire of the growing war in Vietnam spread
relentlessly, and in 1970, as war spilled over into Cambodia, General
Lon Nol overthrew Prince Sihanouk. Then, on 17 April 1975, the Khmer
Rouge pushed out Lon Nol’s weakened government. They immediately emptied
the capital of its residents and brought Sihanouk back to a deserted
capital to live under house arrest. The ensuing four-year reign of terror
under Pol Pot resulted in the deaths of more than 1 million Khmers.
In 1979, the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by the Vietnamese backed People’s
Republic of Kampuchea. Throughout the 1980s, Cambodia began rebuilding,
while retaining Vietnamese military and political protection. In 1989
the Vietnamese withdrew the last of their troops and the government renamed
itself the State of Cambodia (SOC). SOC ruled independently until the
Paris Peace Agreement of 1991, which created the United Nations Transitional
Authority (UNTAC). Supported by the presence of some 22,000 UN troops,
UNTAC in May 1993 supervised the first free election in Cambodia history.
Election will be held again in 1998.
Cambodia today has a parliamentary system with two Prime ministers who
share power. A new constitution was adopted and in 1993, King Norodom
Sihanouk assumed the throne once again. It was 52 years since he
had been crowned King the first time. King Sihanouk remains a symbol
of national unity to the Khmer people. |
