No one knows for certain how long people
have lived in what is now Cambodia, as
studies of its prehistory are undeveloped. A
carbon - I4 dating from a cave in
northwestern Cambodia suggests that people
using stone tools lived in the cave as early
as 400 BC, and rice has been grown on
Cambodian soil since well before the 1st
century ad. The first Cambodians likely
arrived long before either of these dates.
They probably migrated from the north,
although nothing is known about their
language or their way of life.
By the beginning of the 1st
century ad, Chinese traders began to report
the existence of inland and coastal kingdoms
in Cambodia. These kingdoms already owed
much to Indian culture, which provide
alphabets, art forms, architectural styles,
religions (Hinduism and Buddhism), and a
stratified class system. Local beliefs that
stressed the importance of ancestral spirits
coexisted with the Indian religions and
remain powerful today.
Cambodia's modem-day culture has its roots
in the 1st to 6th
centuries in a state referred to as Funan,
known as the oldest Indianite state in
Southeast Asia. It is from this period that
involved Cambodia's language, part of the
Mon-Khmer family, which contains elements of
Sanskrit, it ancient religion of Hinduism
and Buddhism. Historians have noted, for
example, that Cambodians can be
distinguished from their neighbors by their
clothing - checkered scarves known as Krama
are worn instead of straw hats.
Funan gave way to the Angkor Empire with the
rise to power of King Jayavarman II in 802.
The following 600 years saw powerful Khmer
kings dominate much of present day Southeast
Asia, from borders of Myanmar east to the
South China Sea and north to Laos. It was
during this period that Khmer kings built
the most extensive concentration of
religious temples in the world - the Angkor
temple complex. The most successful of
Angkor's kings, Jayavarman II, Indravarman
I, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII, also
advised a masterpiece of ancient
engineering: a sophisticated irrigation
system that includes Barays (gigantic
man-made lakes) and canals that ensured as
many as three rice crops a year. Part of
this system is still in use today.
Angkor Wat, Culture Village,
Phnom Ba Keng, Phnom Kulen, Banteay Srei
Temple, West Baray, .: MORE...
Wat Sarsar
Muoy Roy,
Home of the Irrawadi Dolphine, Phnom Sambok,
Prek Kampi, Stung Treng Province, .: MORE...
Pine Tree
Plantation, Romanear Waterfall, Busra
Waterfall, O'Ply,
Hill Tribes Village, .: MORE...
