The Angkor Archeological Park is Southeast Asia’s most important archeological site and is the world’s largest religious complex. Originally founded in 839 AD by King Jayavarman II, who had established the Khmer Empire in 802 when he gained the region independence from Java (Indonesia today). Each successive Khmer king added temples in honor of themselves, their mother/father, their children, or the Hindu gods, Shiva and Vishnu. Most temples were in honor of Shiva because he is the god of destruction. The Khmer kings felt this was a more admirable quality than the protective powers of Vishnu. All the Khmer kings were Hindu (greatly because in Hinduism the king can be a god on earth), except Jayavarman VII (1181-1220) who was a Buddhist. During his reign he built many Buddhist temples and he himself practiced a mix of both Hinduism (come on he still wanted to be a god king!) and Buddhism. When you explore the site, you will see his temples no longer bare statues or reliefs of Buddha. His son, Jayavarman the VIII, had them all removed. He wanted to make sure the king didn’t lose his godly role. The Mahayana Buddhism of that time is no longer practiced in Cambodia. Now the majority of Cambodians practice Theravada Buddhism, which arrived in the 1400’s after the decline of the Khmer Empire.
Wat means temple and Angkor means City. What we think of just as an area of a lot of temples was once a massive city. Experts believe that in the 1200’s the population of the city was 100,000 people. To give you some perspective on that, at that time 80,000 people lived in London. Other than the temples everything was built in wood, thus nothing else stands from that period. Even the royal palace was built of wood because they held the belief that only structures built for the gods could be constructed out of sandstone. A few of the temples were even covered in gold and silver in honor of the Hindu gods. My Fodor’s guidebook states that the city was the largest pre-industrial settlement in the world (1,150 square miles!). The empire itself covered 400,000 square miles. Ergo, the Khmer empire was wealthy and strong.
They gained much of their wealth from trade. In the Bayon Temple’s reliefs, the Khmer people are depicted trading with China and India. The region first had contact with India in the 1st century and China in the 3rd century and over time they built strong trade relationships. Through their trade interactions much of India’s religious and cultural heritage was transmitted to the Khmers, while they gained wealth via China. While they shared a harmonious relationship with India and China, things were a bit different with the Cham Civilization. The Cham territory now makes up central Vietnam. Cham took over the Khmer Empire for four years. This began under Jayavarman VII’s predecessor’s reign. Jayavarman VII, defeated Cham and reclaimed the Khmer land. In honor of his victory he built the Bayon Temple. The history of the region is fascinating because several civilizations were vying for the same territory for hundreds of years. After deforestation and the kingdom’s coffers had been emptied building temples, the area fell into conflict with Siam (modern day Thailand). Siam finally brought the Khmer Empire to its knees when they sacked Angkor in 1431. Angkor would remain under Siam for hundreds of years. Since it belonged to Siam for that long, today Cambodia and Thailand still dispute over who possesses rightful ownership. In reality Thailand just wants to cash in on the 7,000 tourists Angkor Wat pulls in each day.
As time wore on parts of Cambodia’s territory were taken by the Thai and some by the Vietnamese and then reclaimed and then taken again. This yoyo effect went on until 1863, when the French forced King Norodom I (1860-1863) to sign a treaty of protectorate. In all reality the French really did preserve the existence of Cambodia. Without France’s interference Cambodia would have been split between Siam and the Cham and most likely would be part of Thailand and Vietnam today. Even though at first France’s main interest was Vietnam, in 1884 Norodom was forced into signing a treaty which made Cambodia a colony of France. In addition to protecting Cambodian territory, in 1907 the French even pressured Thailand into giving back the region of Angkor to Cambodia. Now all that being said, I am not insinuating that the Cambodians were all that thrilled with their treatment by the French.
This is where I am going to fast forward and summarize historical events in a very watered down manner. Things got messy with the Japanese occupation during WWII, who made sure their sort of ally, Thailand, got back the Angkor region (not to be given back to Cambodia until 1947). Skip forward… After King Sihanouk declared independence from French Indochina in 1953 (recognized by the Geneva Conference in 1954), Cambodia had a short period of prosperity. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War changed everything. Sihanouk had fear that the Americans were plotting against him. Overtime he began to decrease diplomatic ties with Thailand, South Vietnam, and the US itself. He drastically swerved the country towards supporting North Vietnam and China. He even allowed them to wage war against the South Vietnamese on Cambodian soil. His support of the communists upset those on the left end of the spectrum in Cambodia and led to civil strife. Sihanouk was forced to live in exile in Beijing where he set up a government supported by a group of Cambodian revolutionaries he called the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge later abused this connection to the king, whom many farmers loved, to entice recruits who really didn’t understand what they were joining. They definitely hadn’t heard of Marx before.
In April of 1970, the American and South Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia with hopes of kicking out the Viet Cong. Many Viet Cong took refuge deeper in Cambodian territory and even set up their headquarters as far west as the Angkor temples! In many of the temples today you can see graffiti from the Viet Cong soldiers and bullet holes from American M16s. The North Vietnamese and their Khmer Rouge allies easily took control of the weak Cambodian government. The American operation in Cambodia ran from 1969-1973, during which B-52s dropped bombs on areas the US believed to be communist strongholds. As the death toll rose, many farmers eagerly signed up to join the Khmer Rouge. After the US left, the civil fighting continued until 1975.
To properly explain what happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 would take a chapter worth of writing to give a proper summary and an entire book to explain all the details that I myself don’t know. So here is just the crust. Before the Khmer Rouge took over several key players including the famous Pol Pot studied overseas. Some studied, like Pol Pot, in France. Some studied in Vietnam. Some studied in China. They all came back with communist interests and wanted to create an equal state. The way they went about it was drastic and extreme to say the least. Anyone who had worked for the previous government was killed within days of the takeover. Anyone considered an elite or educated was killed. This included teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, etc. The Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of people to cleanse the society and to create an atmosphere where dissidence was unacceptable. The cities were emptied and all people including the elderly and sick were forced to perform manual labor in the fields for more than 12 hours a day. They were only given rice porridge twice a day. In addition to those brutally killed by the regime, hundreds of thousands died of disease and starvation. Experts believe around 2 million Cambodians died during that time. One third of the population was left dead.
All was not copasetic for the leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Some leaders were keener on building a society structured around the Soviet Union’s form of industrialized communism, while others wanted to follow in Mao’s footsteps. This difference in ideology led to great strife and Pol Pot wanted to cleanse the Khmer Rouge itself of those who had been educated and “tainted” by Vietnam and its Soviet Union way of thinking. These Khmer Rouge comrades fled to Vietnam and sought support against Pol Pot. Another factor at play is that before the partition of Indochina Vietnam and Cambodia already had a dispute over the Mekong delta region. So now you have the Khmer Rouge showing signs that they want to take back that region, you have Khmer Rouge members requesting Vietnam step in, and in general Vietnam was feeling imperialistic in its own right. Thus, Vietnam invaded. On December 25 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia and pushed Pol Pot from power within two weeks.
The Khmer Rouge fled to the hills. The Vietnamese set up a government including their allies amongst the Khmer Rouge leaders who were sympathetic to the Vietnamese agenda. Throughout the 80’s Cambodia was closed to the west and was essentially part of the Eastern-bloc. The economy was left in shambles and the country was broken in many ways. Finally, in 1989 after the fall of the Soviet Union Vietnam withdrew and Cambodia experienced a few years of democratic freedom. It was to be short lived unfortunately, for in 1997 a military coup took over. Since then Cambodia has a one party system that is controlled by the military. David W. Roberts explained the current Cambodian government nicely when he said, “Cambodia is a vaguely communist free-market state with a relatively authoritarian coalition ruling over a superficial democracy.”
In summary, the Cambodian people have lived through hell and are still healing from the past 100 years of abuse from other countries and from their own people. Thus far, I have found it extremely impressive the resilience of the people and the fact that they have pulled together and progressed in the healing process with one another’s support. Both the tour guides we met had lost a majority of their families. They told us stories of their youth and the horrors they witnessed. They also gave us the impression that they are just trying to make the best possible situation that they can for their children and for their families now. All they can do is look forward and not back.
Wat means temple and Angkor means City. What we think of just as an area of a lot of temples was once a massive city. Experts believe that in the 1200’s the population of the city was 100,000 people. To give you some perspective on that, at that time 80,000 people lived in London. Other than the temples everything was built in wood, thus nothing else stands from that period. Even the royal palace was built of wood because they held the belief that only structures built for the gods could be constructed out of sandstone. A few of the temples were even covered in gold and silver in honor of the Hindu gods. My Fodor’s guidebook states that the city was the largest pre-industrial settlement in the world (1,150 square miles!). The empire itself covered 400,000 square miles. Ergo, the Khmer empire was wealthy and strong.
They gained much of their wealth from trade. In the Bayon Temple’s reliefs, the Khmer people are depicted trading with China and India. The region first had contact with India in the 1st century and China in the 3rd century and over time they built strong trade relationships. Through their trade interactions much of India’s religious and cultural heritage was transmitted to the Khmers, while they gained wealth via China. While they shared a harmonious relationship with India and China, things were a bit different with the Cham Civilization. The Cham territory now makes up central Vietnam. Cham took over the Khmer Empire for four years. This began under Jayavarman VII’s predecessor’s reign. Jayavarman VII, defeated Cham and reclaimed the Khmer land. In honor of his victory he built the Bayon Temple. The history of the region is fascinating because several civilizations were vying for the same territory for hundreds of years. After deforestation and the kingdom’s coffers had been emptied building temples, the area fell into conflict with Siam (modern day Thailand). Siam finally brought the Khmer Empire to its knees when they sacked Angkor in 1431. Angkor would remain under Siam for hundreds of years. Since it belonged to Siam for that long, today Cambodia and Thailand still dispute over who possesses rightful ownership. In reality Thailand just wants to cash in on the 7,000 tourists Angkor Wat pulls in each day.
As time wore on parts of Cambodia’s territory were taken by the Thai and some by the Vietnamese and then reclaimed and then taken again. This yoyo effect went on until 1863, when the French forced King Norodom I (1860-1863) to sign a treaty of protectorate. In all reality the French really did preserve the existence of Cambodia. Without France’s interference Cambodia would have been split between Siam and the Cham and most likely would be part of Thailand and Vietnam today. Even though at first France’s main interest was Vietnam, in 1884 Norodom was forced into signing a treaty which made Cambodia a colony of France. In addition to protecting Cambodian territory, in 1907 the French even pressured Thailand into giving back the region of Angkor to Cambodia. Now all that being said, I am not insinuating that the Cambodians were all that thrilled with their treatment by the French.
This is where I am going to fast forward and summarize historical events in a very watered down manner. Things got messy with the Japanese occupation during WWII, who made sure their sort of ally, Thailand, got back the Angkor region (not to be given back to Cambodia until 1947). Skip forward… After King Sihanouk declared independence from French Indochina in 1953 (recognized by the Geneva Conference in 1954), Cambodia had a short period of prosperity. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War changed everything. Sihanouk had fear that the Americans were plotting against him. Overtime he began to decrease diplomatic ties with Thailand, South Vietnam, and the US itself. He drastically swerved the country towards supporting North Vietnam and China. He even allowed them to wage war against the South Vietnamese on Cambodian soil. His support of the communists upset those on the left end of the spectrum in Cambodia and led to civil strife. Sihanouk was forced to live in exile in Beijing where he set up a government supported by a group of Cambodian revolutionaries he called the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge later abused this connection to the king, whom many farmers loved, to entice recruits who really didn’t understand what they were joining. They definitely hadn’t heard of Marx before.
In April of 1970, the American and South Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia with hopes of kicking out the Viet Cong. Many Viet Cong took refuge deeper in Cambodian territory and even set up their headquarters as far west as the Angkor temples! In many of the temples today you can see graffiti from the Viet Cong soldiers and bullet holes from American M16s. The North Vietnamese and their Khmer Rouge allies easily took control of the weak Cambodian government. The American operation in Cambodia ran from 1969-1973, during which B-52s dropped bombs on areas the US believed to be communist strongholds. As the death toll rose, many farmers eagerly signed up to join the Khmer Rouge. After the US left, the civil fighting continued until 1975.
To properly explain what happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 would take a chapter worth of writing to give a proper summary and an entire book to explain all the details that I myself don’t know. So here is just the crust. Before the Khmer Rouge took over several key players including the famous Pol Pot studied overseas. Some studied, like Pol Pot, in France. Some studied in Vietnam. Some studied in China. They all came back with communist interests and wanted to create an equal state. The way they went about it was drastic and extreme to say the least. Anyone who had worked for the previous government was killed within days of the takeover. Anyone considered an elite or educated was killed. This included teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors, etc. The Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of people to cleanse the society and to create an atmosphere where dissidence was unacceptable. The cities were emptied and all people including the elderly and sick were forced to perform manual labor in the fields for more than 12 hours a day. They were only given rice porridge twice a day. In addition to those brutally killed by the regime, hundreds of thousands died of disease and starvation. Experts believe around 2 million Cambodians died during that time. One third of the population was left dead.
All was not copasetic for the leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Some leaders were keener on building a society structured around the Soviet Union’s form of industrialized communism, while others wanted to follow in Mao’s footsteps. This difference in ideology led to great strife and Pol Pot wanted to cleanse the Khmer Rouge itself of those who had been educated and “tainted” by Vietnam and its Soviet Union way of thinking. These Khmer Rouge comrades fled to Vietnam and sought support against Pol Pot. Another factor at play is that before the partition of Indochina Vietnam and Cambodia already had a dispute over the Mekong delta region. So now you have the Khmer Rouge showing signs that they want to take back that region, you have Khmer Rouge members requesting Vietnam step in, and in general Vietnam was feeling imperialistic in its own right. Thus, Vietnam invaded. On December 25 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia and pushed Pol Pot from power within two weeks.
The Khmer Rouge fled to the hills. The Vietnamese set up a government including their allies amongst the Khmer Rouge leaders who were sympathetic to the Vietnamese agenda. Throughout the 80’s Cambodia was closed to the west and was essentially part of the Eastern-bloc. The economy was left in shambles and the country was broken in many ways. Finally, in 1989 after the fall of the Soviet Union Vietnam withdrew and Cambodia experienced a few years of democratic freedom. It was to be short lived unfortunately, for in 1997 a military coup took over. Since then Cambodia has a one party system that is controlled by the military. David W. Roberts explained the current Cambodian government nicely when he said, “Cambodia is a vaguely communist free-market state with a relatively authoritarian coalition ruling over a superficial democracy.”
In summary, the Cambodian people have lived through hell and are still healing from the past 100 years of abuse from other countries and from their own people. Thus far, I have found it extremely impressive the resilience of the people and the fact that they have pulled together and progressed in the healing process with one another’s support. Both the tour guides we met had lost a majority of their families. They told us stories of their youth and the horrors they witnessed. They also gave us the impression that they are just trying to make the best possible situation that they can for their children and for their families now. All they can do is look forward and not back.
