Cambodia: A KHMER VIEW OF THE THAI VIEW OF THE KHMER [KH&EN]

WITH the historical description by Kenneth T So in "The Khmer home in Southeast Asia: A Wider View", (Post August 6-19, 1999). I do not think that Mr So is obsessed about the Khmer past, as C Rabour has alleged. Rather, Mr So was provoked by Don Pramudwinai who has asserted that Battambang and Siem Reap were historically part of Thailand or Siam.

Battambang, Siem Reap and Srei Sophorn, (later Serei Sophom, or Sisophon as the Thai pronunciation of it) never belonged to Siam (known as Thailand since 1939). Those regions have always belonged to Cambodia, but have been attacked and at certain times in history, annexed by Thailand. Most recently, these regions were invaded and taken by Siam/Thailand in 1795 and 1941. They remained under Thai control until 1946.

The first Siamese invasion and looting of Angkor was in about 1352 and again in the 1430s. Ayuthaya, the Siamese capital, itself was built on top of the demise of Sri Dvaravati, former kingdom of the Mons.

The provinces taken from the Khmers in 1795 were Battambang, Siem Reap/Angkor, Bongkol-Borei, Srei Sophorn, Siem Pang. In 1814 more provinces were annexed by Siam, namely Mlou Prei, Tole Peou, and Stung Treng.

Only in 1907 were most of these provinces returned to Cambodia. However, other Khmer borei, now called provinces or khet, such as Norkor Reachborie (Korat), Boreirom (Buriram), Sorint (Surin), Korkhan, Sisaket, Bascemborie (Prachinburi), Chantaborie (Chantaburi), Champasak and Trat annexed before 1790, have remained under Thai occupation till today.

Under the French-Thai treaty executed in 1907, the Thais were required to return to Cambodia only those provinces taken by the Thais after 1790. For this, Thais should thank the Anglo-French conflict, because Thailand was not part of French Indochina but was an ally of the English.

History from the Thai point of view, especially relating to the Angkorian legacy, was cultivated by King Mongkut and later his son, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, the "father of Thai modern history" and the architect of the Thai modern state.

It has been reinforced by people like Luang Vichitr Vadhakarn, the director of Department of Fine Arts in 1932 and his successor Dhanit Yupho in the 1960s when the Thais were engaged in nationalist and prejudicial policies toward their neighbors, especially the Khmers.

History as told by the leaders of Thailand has been an attempt to reinforce Thai nationalism and to clarify the confused national identity of the Thai people. Confused because the Yunan Thais, the Vietnamese and the Chinese have, to use David Chandler's phrase, an identity crisis. The Chinese are not worried but the other two are. The Thais began their identity crisis during the 1908-1910 riots when Chinese residents refused to pay Thai taxes. The Vietnamese crisis started when they split from Qin or China. One way to try to distinguish themselves from Chinese, Vietnamese women dyed their teeth black, a very painful process.

After the Siamese victory, with Khmer military assistance, in the long and destructive wars with Burma (1548-1592, 1760-1767); and the founding of the current Chakkri dynasty in 1782 (the current King is the ninth King of the dynasty) the Siamese began to attack the traditional boundaries of Cambodia.

In the 1850s, King Mongkut hired a Welsh governess, Anna Leonowens, to educate his children. As a result of this different education, lifestyle and Western way of thinking, successive Thai kings began to view Khmer traditions and lifestyle as outdated. The Chakkri kings began to view the Khmers to be Khmamen padong or "the jungle Khmers", hence the uncivilized Khmers.

The term "contemptible Khmamen" lives on today. This prejudice was so strong that many of the successive Thai generations did not want to have any thing to do with the Khmer people, which has led to the propagation in Thailand of a uniquely Thai version of history relating to the Khmers. History as taught to Thai children has encouraged a terrible prejudicial stereotyping of Khmers which continues, in my experience, to this day.

Another reason for the manipulation of history by the Thais came from the amazing evidence of Khmer civilization which, according to historians, was well advanced by the time Christianity came into existence.

This civilization encompassed the lands taken by Thailand from Cambodia - the architecture, court etiquette, culture and traditional religion and language. (The Pali language, used in Khmer scripts, was used by the Siamese until the 19th century.)

The Thais have adopted or appropriated much of the great Khmer legacy as their own and due to their view of Khmers as uncivilized, refuse to link their "history" with Cambodian history......

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Cambodia
• Kampuchea
• Bora
• Touch
• Battambang
• Pali
• Khom
• Preah
• Vihear
• Cambodja
• Thai
• Siem
• King
• Mongkut

[justinrojan]

He keeps saying Thailand is a shit country. Have you ever been to Cambodia dude. It's all fucked up. All you got is farms. No schools so what's shit. Your country kills one another and will never prosper.

[AhmekKhmer]

@justinrojan, a Khmer view of the Thai view of the Khmer, I guess you never been to Cambodia at all.

[llHyRaXll]

if thais just admit they copied then its not a big deal.. but they like to steal shit and act like nothing happened..idiots

[BurmeseThaiBoss]

Thais are blood thirsty. They like to invade and take other people's land. THAI LIKE WAR. A few year ago, they invaded Laos and were given a good lesson. Now, they want to invade Cambodia. Please do give them a very good lesson too. If Cambodia needs help, Burma can hit the north of Thailand while in the South, the Malay Patani are fighting for their independance. You can also ask Laos to hit the North-East. Inside Thailand, they are killing each other between Red and Yellow.

[Paulkhmer]

@justinrojan but 1 thing for sure..thai is gay nation..

[fartknocker31]

@justinrojan ....... Thailand is not bad. Cambodia is not bad. It's the greedy leaders of the past in Thailand that have distorted the view and given Thai people false understanding of who they are and where they come from. Leaders need to create false histories and fairy tales in order to maintain power. This strategy has been repeated throughout the history all over the world.

[narmheang]

Thx a lot for revealing the truth.

[kbalkhoch]

@justinrojan

just trojan

[TUFFGUNN]

@TreyRois nice one. thanks for clearing that up. i dont know much about indian culture but it makes sense that only their religion was passed to Khmers because our culture had been around before indian interaction.

[TreyRois]

@KensaiZen

Are there any temples like Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Preah Vihear, and others in India? The Khmers couldn't possibly copy Indian temples if India didn't even have like kinds! And I do know about Khmer numerals but I don't know what Indian numerals look like ... doubtful they are alike!

[TreyRois]

@justinrojan

MuyThai is a Thai copied Khmer Prodal Serey -- you have to be suspicious when the Thais speak of Southeast Asia history. In short, they were Chinese coming down and usurped Khmer lands; and you know Chinese culture is very different from Khmer culture(Khmer culture didn't derive from Indian culture like the other guy said; the Khmers mainly adopted Indian religions).

[TreyRois]

@justinrojan But look at present thai culture, it's not much reflected Chinese culture -- because the Thais incorporated much Khmer culture. Also, BauKaw is a Khmer Surin -- one of us Khmer race! So MuyThai is copied Khmer Prodal Serey, Ok?