Cambodia

The Southeast Asian country of Cambodia is famous both culturally and politically. Cambodia has the world’s largest group of religious buildings, a relic of the Hindu Khmer Empire (AD 802 to 1432). In the 1970s, it also saw an outbreak of communist fanaticism in which over 2 million people died. Under French rule from 1863, Cambodia won independence in 1954. In the late 1960s there was a short period of relative stability in which the country developed its agricultural resources and rubber plantations and managed to achieve self-sufficiency in food.

Political Cambodia

Years of internal political struggles, plus its involvement in the Vietnam War, led to a takeover by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot in 1975. With the aim of creating a classless agrarian society, money and private property were abolished, the professional classes were murdered (anyone with glasses was at risk), and townspeople were brutally moved into the countryside and left to fend for themselves. Half a million refugees fled to Thailand, and between one–eighth and a quarter of the entire population died. The regime fell in 1978 and Pol Pot went into hiding, but civil war continued for some years; Pol Pot died in 1998. A devastated and desperately poor nation, stripped of what little economic infrastructure and trained personnel it once had, Cambodia is now trying to put itself together again.

Land and Resources

The country’s heartland consists of a wide basin drained by the Mekong River. In the center in this lies the Tonle` Sap (Great Lake), surrounded by a broad plain. When the rain is meager and the Mekong is low (from November to June), the lake drains south toward the sea. But during the rainy season when the Mekong is high (from July to October), the flow reverses, and the lake doubles its area to become the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. The wealth of the fabled “gentle kingdom” of Cambodia consists of fish from the lake and rice from the flooded lowlands. A year-round water supply is provided by an extensive system of irrigation channels and reservoirs. Directly south of the lake, the Cardamom (Chour` Phnum Kraven) and Elephant (Chouor` Phnum Da`mrek) Mountains look out over a narrow coastal plain.

Cambodia’s Challenges

Reconstructing the Cambodian economy is bringing almost as many costs as benefits. Tropical rainforest timber, especially teak and rosewood, is Cambodia’s most important resource. For 20 years it was sold in huge quantities by all factions to finance their war efforts. Now indiscriminate tree felling is a major environmental problem, and a 1992 moratorium on logging is largely being ignored. Gems are another resource but strip mining is causing habitat loss. The destruction of mangrove swamps is threatening fisheries. Starting from a very low base, economic growth was strong in the early 1990’s, but a lack of skills at all levels of administration and management is slowing progress.

Religion of Cambodia

Cambodia’s chief religion is Buddhism. Buddhism is the third major proselytizing religion in the world. It is based on the enlightenment experienced by one man. According to tradition, this religion was started by a man named Siddhartha Gauatama who lived in northeastern India in the sixth century BC, and was reared in the royal household. In his adulthood, Siddhartha is said to have sought enlightenment, which he achieved through a night of meditation, thereby becoming the Buddha or enlightened one. For 45 years he traveled India as an itinerant teacher while formalizing his religious precepts. His teachings spread into southern Asia, where the first Buddhist tradition, the Theravada (meaning “doctrine of the elders”), began. This doctrine still prevails in Cambodia today.

Click the icon to download or print this article.
You will need Adobe® Reader® software installed on your computer in order to view this file. (Adobe, the Adobe PDF file icon and Reader are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.)