Khmer Loeu

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Khmer Leu
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Khmer Loeu
ជនជាតិខ្មែរលើ
Kreung, Suoy, Jarai and Por
Total population
179,193 (2008 census);[1] 142,700 (1996 est.)[2]

Significant groups:

Regions with significant populations
Theravada Buddhism, Animism
This article contains Khmer text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Khmer script.
Ethnic map of Cambodia (1972).

The Khmer Loeu (

Chamic peoples, a branch of the Austronesian peoples, and have a very different linguistic and cultural background. The Mon–Khmer-speaking tribes are the aboriginal inhabitants of mainland Southeast Asia, their ancestors having trickled into the area from the northwest during the prehistoric metal ages.[3] The Austronesian-speaking groups, Rade and Jarai, are descendants of the Malayo-Polynesian peoples who came to what is now coastal Vietnam; they established the Champa kingdoms, and after their decline migrated west over the Annamite Range, dispersing between the Mon–Khmer groups.[4][5]

The disparate groups that make up the Khmer Loeu are estimated to comprise 17-21 different ethnic groups speaking at least 17 different languages.[2] Unlike the Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese minorities of the lowlands, the Khmer Loeu groups haven't integrated into Khmer society or culture and remain politically unorganized and underrepresented in the Cambodian government. There have never been any treaties between a Khmer Loeu group and the government nor is Cambodia a signatory to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention.[2] Cambodia's landmark 2001 land law guarantees indigenous peoples communal rights to their traditional lands,[2] but the government is accused of routinely violating those provisions, confiscating land for purposes ranging from commercial logging to foreign development.[6][7][8]

Terminology

Traditionally, the ruling Khmer majority has referred to all the highland groups as phnong, a name of one of the groups that has come to mean "savage" in Khmer, or samre, the name of another group that has developed the meaning "bumpkin" or "hick".

colonial French administration
designated the highland ethnicities of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam "Montagnards".

The term "Khmer Loeu" was crafted by the

Cham inhabiting the central plains of Cambodia. Khmer Loeu was coined as a catch-all term to include all of the indigenous minority ethnic groups, most of which reside in the remote highlands of northeast Cambodia.[11]
The current government has used the term Choncheate Daeum Pheak Tech (ជនជាតិដើមភាគតិច; "Original Ethnic Minority") in official documents while referring to ethnic Khmer as Choncheate Daeum Pheak Chraeun (ជនជាតិដើមភាគច្រើន; "Original Ethnic Majority"). However "Khmer Loeu" still remains the colloquial and most common designation for these groups.

In the

Khorat plateau relative to those native to Cambodia, "Khmer Kandal", while Khmer native to the lower Mekong Delta region of Vietnam are called "Khmer Krom
" ("lower Khmer" or "southern Khmer").

Geography and demographics

Khmer Loeu form the majority population in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, and they also are present in substantial numbers in

Kratié Province and Stung Treng Province. Their total population in 1969 was estimated at 90,000 people. In 1971 the number of Khmer Loeu was estimated variously between 40,000 and 100,000 people. Population figures were unavailable in 1987, but the total probably was nearly 100,000 people. According to the General Population Census conducted in 2008, their total population was 179,193.[1]

Population
Ethnic group 2008[1]
Total 179,193
Bunong 37,507
Tampuan 31,013
Kuy 28,612
Jarai 26,335
Kreung 19,988
Brao 9,025
Stieng 6,541
Kavet 6,218
Kraol 4,202
Pear 1,827
Ro Ong 1,831
Mel 1,697
Thmoon 865
Suoy 857
Khogn 743
Klueng 702
Kchruk 408
Sa'och 445
Ta Mun 400
Lon 327
K'nuh 56 Mon 19 Rade 21
Kchak 10
K'jah 5

Culture

Most Khmer Loeu live in scattered temporary villages that have only a few hundred inhabitants. These villages usually are governed by a council of local elders or by a village headman.

The Khmer Loeu cultivate a wide variety of plants, but the main crop is dry or upland rice grown by the slash-and-burn method. Hunting, fishing, and gathering supplement the cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet. Houses vary from huge multifamily longhouses to small single-family structures. They may be built close to the ground or on stilts.[5]

History

During the period of the

Cambodian army
.

In the 1960s, the Cambodian government carried out a broad civic action program—for which the army had responsibility—among the Khmer Loeu in

Koh Kong provinces. The goals of this program were to educate the Khmer Loeu, to teach them Khmer
, and eventually to assimilate them into the mainstream of Cambodian society. There was some effort at resettlement; in other cases, civil servants went out to live with individual Khmer Loeu groups to teach their members Khmer ways. Schools were provided for some Khmer Loeu communities, and in each large village a resident government representative disseminated information and encouraged the Khmer Loeu to learn the lowland Khmer way of life. Civil servants sent to work among the Khmer Loeu often viewed the assignment as a kind of punishment.

In the late 1960s, an estimated 5,000 Khmer Loeu in eastern Cambodia rose in rebellion against the government and demanded self-determination and independence. The government press reported that local leaders loyal to the government had been assassinated. Following the rebellion, the hill people's widespread resentment of ethnic Khmer settlers caused them to refuse to cooperate with the Cambodian army in its suppression of rural unrest. Both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese communists took advantage of this disaffection, and they actively recruited Khmer Loeu into their ranks. In 1968, Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge fled to Khmer Loeu lands, who were seen as hostile to lowland Khmer and to the government. In late 1970, the government forces withdrew from Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces and abandoned the area to the rapidly growing Khmer Rouge

Cham
in Cambodia.

In the early 1980s,

Preah Vihear
. According to a 1984 resolution of the PRK National Cadres Conference entitled "Policy Toward Ethnic Minorities," the minorities were considered an integral part of the Cambodian nation, and they were to be encouraged to participate in collectivization. Government policy aimed to transform minority groups into modern Cambodians. The same resolution called for the elimination of illiteracy, with the stipulations that minority languages be respected and that each tribe be allowed to write, speak, and teach in its own language.

Groups

The major Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are the

Mon–Khmer languages
.

Kuy

Main article: Kuy people

In the late 1980s, about 160,000

Preah Vihear, and Stung Treng
as well as in adjacent Thailand. (Approximately 70,000 Kuy had been reported in Cambodia itself in 1978.) Most of the Kuy have been assimilated into the predominant culture of the country in which they live. Many are Buddhists, and the majority practice wet-rice cultivation. They have the reputation of being skilled blacksmiths.

Brao, Kreung, Kavet

The

Ratanakiri and adjacent Laos
. All three speak different, though mutually intelligible, dialects of the same language. They share a very similar culture, with matrilineal descent. In 1962 the Brao population in Laos was estimated at about 9,000. In 1984 it was reported that the total Brao population was between 10,000 and 15,000. About 3,000 Brao reportedly moved into Cambodia from Laos in the 1920s. The Brao live in large villages centered on a communal house. They cultivate dry-rice and produce some pottery. They appear to have a bilateral kinship system.

Tampuan

Main article: Tampuan people

The Tampuan number about 25,000, according to a 1998 census. They have a

matrilineal
descent.

The Tampuan live in the northeastern province of Cambodia,

Ban Lung, around a volcanic crater lake, Yeak Laom. Some live in scattered communities around the small town of Voeun Sai.[13]

Bunong, Stieng

A total of 23,000

Kampong Cham provinces in villages consisting of several longhouses each of which is divided into compartments that can house nuclear families. The Bunong practice dry-rice farming, and some also cultivate a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and other useful plants as secondary crops. Some subgroups weave cloth. At least two of the Bunong subgroups have matrilineal descent. Monogamy is the predominant form of marriage, and residence is usually matrilocal. Wealth distinctions are measured by the number of buffalo that a notable person sacrifices on a funereal or ceremonial occasion as a mark of status and as a means of eliciting social approval. Slavery
is known to have existed in the past, but the system allowed a slave to gain freedom.

The Stieng are closely related to the Bunong. Both groups straddle the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, and their languages belong to the same subfamily of Mon–Khmer. In 1978 the Cambodian Stieng numbered about 20,000 in all. The Stieng cultivate dry-field rice. Their society is apparently patriarchal, and residence after marriage is patrilocal if a bride-price was paid. The groups have a very loose political organization; each village has its own leaders and tribunals.

Pear, Chong, Saoch, Suoi (Pearic Group)

Several small groups, perhaps totalling no more than 10,000 people in Cambodia and eastern Thailand, make up the

Saoch, a corpse is buried instead of being burned as among the Khmer
.

Jarai

The Austronesian groups of

FULRO
movement, and many of the leaders in the movement are from these two groups.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Cambodia (August 2009). General Population Census of Cambodia 2008 - Final Census Results. National Institute of Statistics.
  2. ^ a b c d Kleger, Heinz (2004). The Theory of Multiculturalism and Cultural Diversity in Cambodia – Final Draft. Germany: University of Potsdam.
  3. ISBN 978-0-521-01647-6
    .
  4. ISBN 0-8248-2131-9
    . Retrieved 2015-07-23.
  5. ^ a b http://countrystudies.us/cambodia/44.htm retrieved July-21-2015
  6. ^ "Cambodia Land Cleared for Rubber Rights Bulldozed: The impact of rubber plantations by Socfin-KCD on indigenous communities in Bousra, Mondulkiri" (PDF). International Federation for Human Rights. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  7. ^ Mu, Sochua; Wilkstrom, Cecilia (18 July 2012). "Land Grabs in Cambodia". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  8. ^ "Submission to the UN's Universal Periodic Review, Cambodia" (PDF). Universal Periodic Review 2013. LICADHO. 2013. p. 1.
  9. ISBN 0-8132-0509-3
  10. JSTOR 23746937
    .
  11. doi:10.1111/apv.12034
    .
  12. ^ Tarr, Chou Meng (1992). "Changing Notions of Time and Money in a Peasant Community in Northeastern Thailand". Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice (31).
  13. ^ http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Tampuan Retrieved July-21-2015

External links

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

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