Ethnic groups in Cambodia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The location of various ethnic groups within Cambodia in 1972

The largest of the ethnic groups in

Tonle Sap lake to the Cardamom Mountains, then continues back southeast to the mouth of the Mekong River in southeastern Vietnam
.

Ethnic groups in Cambodia other than the politically and socially dominant Khmer are classified as either "indigenous ethnic minorities" or "non-indigenous ethnic minorities". The indigenous ethnic minorities, more commonly collectively referred to as the

Kratie Province
.

Approximately 17-21 separate ethnic groups, most of whom speak

Chamic peoples who speak Austronesian languages descended from ancient Cham. These indigenous ethnic minorities haven't integrated into Khmer culture and follow their traditional animist
beliefs.

The non-indigenous ethnic minorities include immigrants and their descendants who live among the Khmer and have adopted, at least nominally, Khmer culture and language. The three groups most often included are the

Cham peoples. The Chinese have immigrated to Cambodia from different regions of China throughout Cambodia's history, integrating into Cambodian society and today Chinese Cambodians or Cambodians of mixed Sino-Khmer ancestry dominate the business community, politics and the media. The Cham are descendants of refugees from the various wars of the historical kingdom of Champa. The Cham live amongst the Khmer in the central plains but in contrast to the Khmer who are Theravada Buddhists, the vast majority of Cham follow Islam.[2]

There are also small numbers of other minority groups.

Pailin Province. Even smaller numbers of recent Hmong immigrants reside along the Lao border and various Burmese peoples
have immigrated to the capital, Phnom Penh.

Ethnic Khmer

Main article: Khmer people
A Khmer village meeting

The Khmers are one of the oldest ethnic groups in the area, having filtered into Southeast Asia around the same time as the Mon. Most archaeologists and linguists, and other specialists like Sinologists and crop experts, believe they arrived no later than 2000 BCE (over four thousand years ago) bringing with them the practice of agriculture and in particular the cultivation of rice. They were the builders of the later Khmer Empire which dominated Southeast Asia for six centuries beginning in 802 CE, and now form the mainstream of political, cultural, and economic Cambodia.

The Khmers developed the

Lao scripts. The Khmers are considered by most archaeologists and ethnologists to be indigenous to the contiguous regions of Isan, southernmost Laos, Cambodia and Southern Vietnam. That is to say the Khmer have historically been a lowland people who lived close to one of the tributaries of the Mekong
.

The Khmers see themselves as being one ethnicity connected through language, history and culture, but divided into three main subgroups based on national origin. The Khmer of Cambodia speak a dialect of the Khmer language. The Northern Khmer (Khmer Surin) are ethnic indigenous Khmers whose lands once belonged to the Khmer Empire but have since become part of Thailand. The Northern Khmer also speak the Isan language fluently.

Maintaining close relations with the Khmer of Cambodia, some now reside in Cambodia as a result of marriage. Similarly, the Khmer Krom are indigenous Khmers living in the regions of the former Khmer Empire that are now part of Vietnam. Fluent in both their particular dialect of Khmer and in Vietnamese, many have fled to Cambodia as a result of persecution and forced assimilation by Vietnam.

All three varieties of Khmer are mutually intelligible. While the Khmer language of Cambodia proper is non-tonal, surrounding languages such as Thai, Vietnamese and Lao are all highly tonal and have thus affected the dialects of Northern Khmer and Khmer Krom.

Vietnamese

Main article: Vietnamese Cambodians
Siem Reap Province
(2011)

Prior to the Cambodian Civil War, the Vietnamese were the most populous ethnic minority in Cambodia, with an estimated 450,000 living in provinces concentrated in the southeast of the country adjacent to the Mekong Delta. Vietnamese Cambodians also lived further upstream along the shores of the Tonlé Sap. During the war, the Vietnamese community in Cambodia was "entirely eradicated".[3] As of the 2019 census, speakers of Vietnamese accounted for 0.5% Cambodia's 15.6 million people.[1]

Most of these came to the country as a result of the post-civil war

socialist one-party state
hoping for better opportunities in Cambodia.

Although the

East Asian cultural sphere and adopted Chinese literary culture.[4]

Ethnic tensions between the two can be traced to the

Indochina. Control over Cambodia during this, its weakest point, fluctuated between Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam unlike Thailand, wanted Cambodia to adopt Vietnamese governmental practices, dress, and language. The Khmers resented and resisted until they were incorporated into the colonial French Indochina
.

During the colonial period, the French brought over Vietnamese middlemen to administer the local Cambodian government, causing further resentment and anti-Vietnamese sentiment that endures to the present.[4]

Due to the long history of the two countries, there is a significant amount of Cambodians of mixed Vietnamese and Khmer ancestry. Most of these Vietnamese-Cambodians no longer speak Vietnamese and have assimilated into Khmer society and identify as Khmer. They have engaged primarily in aquaculture in the Mekong Delta of the southeast.

Chinese

Main article:
Chinese Cambodian
Chinese in Cambodia
Linguistic Group percent
Teochew
 
 60%
Cantonese
 
 20%
Hokkien
 
 7%
Hainanese
 
 4%
Hakka
 
 4%
Other groups
 
 5%

French protectorate. Waves of Chinese migration have been recorded as early as the twelfth century during the time of the Khmer Empire
. Most are urban dwellers, engaged primarily in commerce.

The Chinese in Cambodia belong to five major linguistic groups, the largest of which is the

Hainanese
(4% each).

Intermarriage between the Chinese and Khmers has been common, in which case they would often assimilate into mainstream Khmer society, retaining few Chinese customs. Much of the Chinese population dwindled under Pol Pot during the Cambodian Civil War. The Chinese were not specifically targets for extermination, but suffered the same brutal treatment faced by the ethnic Khmers during the period.

Tai

Main articles: Tai peoples and Kula people (Asia)

Tai peoples present in Cambodia include the

Koh Kong Province and many were killed as spies.[6]

In modern times, Thai people are mainly to be found in the capital,

French Protectorate
. Descendants of the Thais and many people of Khmer-Thai ancestry reside in these provinces, but have mostly assimilated to Khmer culture and language and are indistinguishable from their fellow Khmer villagers.

Lao

Further information: Lao people and Khmer Lao people

Lao people reside in the far northeast of the country, inhabiting villages scattered among the hill tribes and along the Mekong and its tributaries in the mountainous regions near the Lao border. Historically part of

Middle Period as the Khmer Empire waned and the population moved south to more strategic and defensible positions.[7]

The area fell under the rule of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang in the 14th century and remained part of successive Lao kingdoms until, in 1904 during the French Indochina period, the region was returned to Cambodian administration. Consequently, notwithstanding the relatively recent immigration of Khmers back to the area, as of 2010, ethnic Lao constituted more than half the population of Stung Treng, a substantial number (up to 10%) in Ratanakiri and smaller communities in Preah Vihear and Mondulkiri.[7]

Lao speakers make up .17% of Cambodia's population,[5] but many Cambodians of Lao ancestry are becoming increasingly Khmerized. Lao born in Cambodia are considered Khmer according to government policy. The Cambodian Lao have little to no political organization or representation, leaving many hesitant to identify as Lao due to fears related to historical persecution.[7]

Kola

Further information: Kula people (Asia)

Little is known about the precise origins of the Kola people

Tai Nua) traders who began migrating south from the eastern Burma-China border in the 1800s.[citation needed
]

As they journeyed through Burma and

Chanthaburi Province and neighboring Pailin, which was then still governed by Thailand, working as miners.[10]

The success of the Kola in Pailin encouraged further immigration of Shan directly from Burma who then joined the Kola community. The Kola language, which is a

Karen,[citation needed] has influenced the local Khmer dialect in Pailin in both tone and pronunciation. Their Burmese influence can also be seen in the local style of dress, including the umbrellas women carry, as well as the local cuisine and Burmese style pagodas.[10]

The Kola in Pailin were historically active in the lucrative gem trading business and were the most prosperous ethnic group in the region before the war. As the Khmer Rouge, whose official policy was to persecute all non-Khmer ethnic groups, took control of Pailin, the Kola fled across the border into Thailand.[9] Since the breakup and surrender of the Khmer Rouge in the 1990s, many Kola have returned to Pailin, although preferring to keep a lower profile, most no longer outwardly identify as Kola.[10]

Phuan

Further information: Phuan people

In the northwest of the country, approximately 5000

Siam during the reign of Rama III (1824-1851) when Siam ruled most of Laos and Cambodia. As of 2012 they resided in ten villages and still spoke the Phuan language, a language closely related to Lao and Thai. The dialect of the Phuan people in Cambodia most closely resembles the Phuan spoken in Thailand.[12]

Nyo

Approximately 10,000

Ou Chrov District near the border with Thailand. They are so numerous in the province that many ethnic Khmer are able to speak some Nyo. The presence of the Nyo and the peculiarities of their language in western Cambodia is considered anomalous and has not yet been explained by scholars.[11]

Cham

Main article: Chams
The distribution of the Cham in southeast Asia in 1970

The Cham are descendants of a sea-faring

exerted influence
as far north as present-day Laos.

Primarily a coastal, maritime kingdom, Champa was a contemporary and rival of the

Dai Viet (Vietnam) in the late 15th century and much of its territory was annexed while thousands of Cham were enslaved or executed.[15]

This resulted in mass migrations of Chams. The Cham king fled to Cambodia with thousands of his people while others escaped by boat to

Utsuls) and Aceh (Acehnese people
). These migrations continued for the next 400 years as the Vietnamese slowly chipped away at the remains of Champa until the last vestige of the kingdom was annexed by Vietnam in the late 19th century.

The Cham in Cambodia number approximately a quarter of a million and often maintain separate villages although in many areas they live alongside ethnic Khmers. Cham have historically been concentrated in the southeast of the country where they've lent their name to

Kampong Cham Province
which, prior to a provincial restructuring in 2013, extended to the Vietnamese border and was the second most populated province in Cambodia.

Primarily fishermen or farmers, the Cham are believed by many Khmer to be especially adept at certain spiritual practices and will sometimes be sought out for healing or

Cham alphabet
, but it is no longer in use, having been replaced by an Arabic-based script.

Cham Muslims in Cambodia

While the Cham in Vietnam still follow traditional

Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia. Their very existence was declared to be illegal.[16] Cham villages were destroyed and the people were either forced to assimilate or summarily executed. Estimates of Chams killed from 1975 to 1979 range as high as 90,000, including 92 of the country's 113 imams.[3][17]

Since the end of the war and the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen's government has made overtures to the Cham people and now many Cham serve in government or other official positions. However, in spite of the moderate Malay form of Islam traditionally practiced by the Cham, the Cham community has recently turned to the Middle East for funding to build mosques and religious schools, which has brought imams from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait teaching fundamentalist interpretations including Da'Wah Tabligh and Wahhabism.[17] These newly introduced forms of Islam have also influenced Cham dress; Many Cham are forgoing their traditional formal attire in favor of more Middle Eastern or South Asian dress.

Khmer Loeu

Main article: Khmer Loeu

The indigenous ethnic groups of the mountains are known collectively as

Montagnards or Khmer Loeu
, a term meaning "Highland Khmer". They are descended from neolithic migrations of Mon–Khmer speakers via southern China and Austronesian speakers from insular Southeast Asia. Being isolated in the highlands, the various Khmer Loeu groups were not Indianized like their Khmer cousins and consequently are culturally distant from modern Khmers and often from each other, observing many pre-Indian-contact customs and beliefs. Most are matrileneal, tracing ancestry through maternal rather than paternal bloodlines. They grow rice and live in tribal villages.

Historically, as the Khmer Empire advanced, they were obliged to seek safety and independence in the highlands or become slaves and laborers for the empire.

Mondulkiri
.

Their languages belong to two groups, Mon–Khmer and Austronesian. The Mon–Khmers are

Rhade and Jarai
. Once thought to be a mixed group, the Austronesians have been heavily influenced by the Mon–Khmer tribes.

French Colons and Post-Conflict Arrivals

Prior to the

was ruled by the French for nearly a century until independence in 1953 and French language and culture
still retains a prestigious position amongst the Khmer elite.

After the

Soviet bloc
trickled into the country in (albeit) small numbers.

In post-conflict Cambodia today, many other ethnic groups can be found, particularly in Phnom Penh, in statistically significant numbers. After the United Nations helped restore the monarchy in the early 1990s, the number of Western individuals (termed barang by the Khmer) living in the country swelled into the tens of thousands. And due to the further economic boom of the 21st century (Cambodia's economic growth has averaged over 7% in the decade after 2001), these numbers have only risen.

Expatriate workers from across the globe probably number around 150,000 in the capital of

NGO employees include sizeable numbers of Europeans, Americans and Australians, as well as those from neighbouring Southeast Asian states
, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and Russians, along with smaller numbers of Africans.

Ethnic groups

Ethnic group
 % of total*
Khmer 95.8%
Chams 1.8%
Chinese
 0.6%
Vietnamese
 0.5%
Other 1.3%

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c https://nis.gov.kh/nis/Census2019/Final%20General%20Population%20Census%202019-English.pdf
  2. ^ "Cambodia Ethnic Groups". Cambodia-travel.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2012-09-02.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1135245504
    . Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b David Chandler (2000). A History of Cambodia. Westview Press.
  5. ^ a b "Cambodia Inter-Censal Population Survey 2013 Final Report" (PDF). United Nation Population Fund, United Nation Cooperation Agency. National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. November 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  6. ISBN 978-0300142990
    . Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  7. ^
    S2CID 154683966
    .
  8. ^ Koizumi, Junko (September 1990). "Why the Kula Wept: A Report on the Trade Activities of the Kula in Isan at the End of the 19th Century". Southeast Asian Studies. 28 (2).
  9. ^ a b Aung, Shin; May, Sandy (12 March 2012). "Expat businessman restores remote pagoda in Cambodia". Myanmar Times. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  10. ^ a b c Lewis, Simon; Phorn, Bopha (9 January 2015). "Cambodia's Kola Trace Myanmar Roots". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-9744801791
    . Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  12. ISSN 2159-2152
    .
  13. ^ Thananan, Trongdee (2014). "The Lao-speaking Nyo in Banteay Meanchey Province of Cambodia" (PDF). Research Findings in Southeast Asian Linguistics, A Festschrift in Honor of Professor Pranee Kullavanijaya. Manusya (Special Issue 20). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  14. ISBN 0824821319
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-300-14425-3
    . Retrieved 2011-01-09.
  16. ^ Gellately, Robert; Kiernan, Ben (2003). The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 313–314.
  17. ^ a b Cain, Geoffrey (9 October 2008). "Cambodia's Muslims as geopolitical pawns". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2015.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

Further reading

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