Khmer people

“ That is why the government of resistance of Khmer, as well as that of Pathet Lao enjoy the support of and warm affection of the population in liberated areas and they enjoy great prestige and influence among the population of both countries.
"These governments represent the great majority of the people of Khmer and Lao, the aspirations of whom they symbolize..."6 French forces alone were to withdraw from Cambodia and Laos; the Pathet Lao and Free Khmer were not "foreign" troops. As in Vietnam, elections then would be held — but, without neutral or international supervision. ”

“ Cambodia Introduction
Background: Following a five-year struggle, communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh in 1975 and ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns; over 1 million displaced people died from execution or enforced hardships. A 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside and touched off 13 years of fighting. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some semblance of normalcy, as did the rapid diminishment of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1990s. ”

“ Fergusson at first suggested the fourth century as the period of migration to Cambodia. He afterwards came to the conclusion that the settlers must have been much the same as the Gujarát conquerors of Java. Architecture, III. 665–678. ↑
54 Fergusson, Architecture, 665. Compare Tree and Serpent Worship, 49, 50. The people of Cambodia seem Indian serpent worshippers: they seem to have come from Taxila. ↑
55 The name Khmer has been adopted as the technical term for the early literature and arts of the peninsula. Compare Barth J. As. Ser. VI. Tom. XIX. 193 ”

“ The cranial measurements of the Malays and an examination of their hair sections seem to bear out the theory that they are distinct from the Mongolian races. Their language, which is neither monosyllabic nor tonic, has nothing in common with that of the Mon-Annam group. It has, moreover, been pointed out that had the Malays been driven southwards by the stronger races of the mainland of Asia, it might be expected that the people inhabiting the country nearest to the border between Siam and Malaya would belong to the Malayan and not to the Mon-Annam or Mon-Khmer stock. ”

“ To reign over our souls and our destinies,
The one being, heir of the builder Sovereigns,
Guiding the proud old Kingdom.
Temples are asleep in the forest,
Remembering the splendour of Moha Nokor.
Like a rock the Khmer race is eternal. ”

“ In 1858 France first appeared in Indo-China, and in 1863 made a treaty with Norodom, king of Cambodia, by which Cambodia was placed under a French protectorate. Cambodia has now placed over it a resident-general under the governor-general of Indo-China. The most remarkable thing in Cambodia is the splendid ruins of the architecture of the Khmer kingdom. The temples, palaces and monuments scattered everywhere are wonderful for their size and artistic grandeur. ”

“ Geographically the Mon Khmer country lies as a whole well to the east of the Tibeto-Burman, for the most part in French Indo-China and Yunnan, and it is only a few of the westernmost Mon Khmer communities (the Takings of Lower Burma and the Was, the Palaungs and the Yangs or Rlangs of Upper Burma and the Shan States) that fall within the boundaries of the Province and the scope of the present note. The Cambodians and the Annamese have afforded scholars ample opportunity of studying the Mon Khmer problem in French territory. ”

“ One seeks in vain for any historical souvenirs of the many kings who must have succeeded one another on the throne of the powerful empire of Maha-Nocor-Khmer. There exists a tradition of a leprous king, to whom is attributed the commencement of the great temple, but all else is totally forgotten. The inscriptions, with which some of the columns are covered, are illegible; and, if you interrogate the Cambodians as to the founders of Ongcor-Wat, you invariably receive one of these four replies: “It is the work of Pra-Eun, the king of the angels;” “It is the work of the giants;” ”

“ The mountains of Dom-rêe, situated a little way to the north of Ongcor, are inhabited by the Khmer-dôme, a gentle and inoffensive race, although looked upon as savages by their brethren of the plain. These latter are the Somrais: they speak the Cambodian language, but with a different pronunciation. Beyond are the provinces, formerly belonging to Cambodia, but now Siamese, of Souréne, Song Kac, Con Khan, Nan Kong, and Ongcor-Eith or Korat.
According to popular belief, the king, if he should cross the great lake, is sure to die in the course of the year. ”

“ When this latter movement began, some six centuries after the commencement of the Christian era, the Mon Khmers had in Cambodia and in the Talaing country of Lower Burma already attained to some measure of civilization. ”

“ They are a mild mannered people, without much energy, but willing to be taught.
The Annamese and Tonkinese are somewhat superior in culture to their neighbors, and of well marked Asiatic physiognomy. The Cambodians, called Khmers, are a mixed people, descended partly from Mongolian ancestry, partly from Dravidian and Aryac conquerors who occupied their country about the third century, and left behind remarkable vestiges of their presence in ruins of vast temples and stone-built palaces. ”

“ The religion is developed from Buddhism, the worship of ancestors forming an important part. The language is much like those of Siam and Anam. The ancient kingdom of Cambodia or Khmer extended over a large part of Indo-China. ”

“ In Bangkok to-day, in what one may call a period at the height of prosperity, we are nevertheless unable to keep even in fair condition all our sanctuaries — even though they are far fewer in number and smaller in every way than those of Angkor. As I have shown above, when explaining the apparent changes in the religion of these monuments, there was need already, while the Khmer power was still flourishing, of repairs. ”

“ It is impossible, as stated above, to give any idea of the order in which these migration waves came down from Central Asia, for they were not single streams, but rather a succession of intermittent spates, the first separated by millenniums from the last; but it is probable, if for no other reason than that its traces seem the most diffuse and faint, that the Mon Khmer was in its beginnings the remotest in point of time. ”

“ For the last two months I have been living with the savage Stiêns amidst their immense forests, the latitude being precisely as I have stated above, and here I have passed the season most favourable for collecting insects and land shells. In spite of the letter given to me by the King of Cambodia, ordering all the chiefs of the Srok Khmer, or Cambodian villages, to furnish me with the means of transport on my journey, I experienced much difficulty, as frequently neither buffaloes nor carts were to be found in the hamlets through which I passed. ”

“ These tribes are nearly independent, although the Cambodians on one side, and the Laotians and Annamites on the other, levy on the villages near them a triennial tribute of rice and wax. The King of Cambodia does not want the will to treat the Stiêns as he did the Thiâmes, in order to people some of his desert provinces.
The inscription placed—alas! so vainly—on our public edifices is here, notwithstanding slavery, the motto of the [244] people, and its sincerity is evidenced in their practice. We use words; they act. ”

“ But your letter is dated more than eight months ago, and where are you now—I trust that the rainy season induced you to descend the Menam instead of the Mekon. Should you ever return to Battambong, you will find something new there. A pretty little church now replaces the old one; it is not yet quite finished, but I trust will be so very shortly.
Since I last wrote to you, grave events have taken place in Cambodia; the mandarins and people have risen against the young king in favour of his brother. It has been less a revolt than a universal pillage; nothing has been spared. ”

“ Most people knew very little about Cambodia; its very name was only familiar to us in that of its product, gamboge, which word was nothing else than a corruption of Cambodia. It was one of five or six states lying between India and China, whose inhabitants had lived under a second or third-rate civilisation at all times—never equal, whether physically, morally, or intellectually, to the Chinese, or even the Hindoos. At the present time Cambodia was a poor little state, having been encroached upon by the Siamese to the north, and by Cochin China to the south. ”

“ They imagine that all white people inhabit secluded corners of the earth in the midst of the sea, and often ask if there are any women in our country. When and how I can return to Cambodia and Siam I am ignorant, and I dare not think of the difficulty I shall experience among the rude and stupid Cambodians in transporting my treasures. What heartbreaking jolts my boxes of insects will receive! What palpitations I shall feel each time some rough fellow takes them to place on the oxen, elephants, or his own back! ”

“ F. Gamier says that “the Cambodians build their huts on piles some six or nine feet above the ground. At first sight it might be attributed to thePg xv necessity for protecting themselves from inundations; but as this mode of construction is found in places where no such danger exists, it must be ascribed to the instinct of a particular race” (it is the instinct of the Toltecs which caused them to erect their edifices on esplanades and pyramids) ; and in his description of the Khmer monuments at Angor-Tom and Angor-Wat he adds: “They are placed on pyramids of three to five stories high,” etc. ”

“ While the Mon and the Khmer (Cambodians) were still spreading over the southern parts of Indo-China and before they had begun, under the influence of colonists from India, to emerge from a condition of savagery, the tribes which they had left behind them at different points during their southward movement were already being driven back into the mountains and brought into a state of partial subjugation by the members of a third great family of migrants from the north. ”

“ The comparative exemption from heavy taxes and duties which the Cambodians enjoy, when compared with the Siamese, made me imagine I should be able to live here in comfort and abundance; but I was disappointed. Almost every vice seemed prevalent at Komput—pride, insolence, cheating, cowardice, servility, excessive idleness, [181] are the attributes of this miserable people. It is often remarked that no one should judge a country through which he is merely a traveller, and that only those are capable of doing so who have resided in it for some time. ”

“ When the Khmer spread their influence over the Lao, they established Colonies and erected monuments further and further into Lao territories. This process continued until Khmer power waned towards the eleventh century A.D., owing to the invasions of the Burmese and Môn at first, and then to the rise of Siamese power in the Menam valley. The Siamese finally conquered the Khmer in the 14th century. ”

“ The population which chronologically succeeds the Cambodians is that of the Annamese (Fig. 121) , the inhabitants of the delta in Tong King, of the coast in Annam, and most of Cochin-China. Some Annamese colonies are also found in Cambodia, in Laos, and among the Mois. The Annamese people, fifteen to seventeen millions strong at the present time, is the outcome of numerous interminglings. Of western origin, according to its traditions, that is to say akin to the Thai peoples, it came at an early period into the country which it now occupies. ”

“ The Annamite, proud of his lighter complexion, of his more advanced civilization, to say nothing of the numerous defeats he has inflicted on his neighbour, looks upon him as little above the Moïs or wild people of the mountains. ANNAMITE AND CAMBODIAN. The Cambodians are savages, he says, whose nature is radically bad and vicious; they think nothing of law or order; they are stupid, and almost devoid of reason. ”

“ Khloñ Lāmphong, the bold Khōm, was thus undoubtedly a representative of Cambodia, and, if we here see him attacking Mu'ang Rāt, it must apparently have been because the movements of the two Thai leaders were beginning to cause anxiety to the Khmer kingdom. Here is what the text reveals to us afterwards of this struggle between Thai and Khmers:
"Then Phō Khun Bāng Klāng Thāo went ... ... ... the army of Phō Khun Phā Mu'ang, Chief of Mu'ang Rāt ... ... ... caused the army to be assembled. Phō Khun Bāng Klāng Thāo and Phō Khun Phā Mu'ang mounted on elephants ... ... ... ”

“ Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers, descendants of the Angkor Empire that extended over much of Southeast Asia and reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries. Attacks by the Thai and Cham (from present-day Vietnam) weakened the empire, ushering in a long period of decline. The king placed the country under French protection in 1863 and it became part of French Indochina in 1887. Following Japanese occupation in World War II, Cambodia gained full independence from France in 1953. ”

“ A plain covered with coarse herbage separates it from the forest by which Cambodia is overspread, and which can rarely be traversed except by cutting a way. That forest is exceedingly unhealthy.
M. Mouhot reached Brelum, a village in lat. 11° 58′, long. 107° 12′, inhabited by a secluded race of wild people, whose customs are minutely described, differing in features from the Cambodian and Laos tribes, and forming one of a series of similar groups widely distributed in the less accessible parts of Cochin China, Cambodia, and Burmah. ”