The Khmer people (Khmer: ជនជាតិខ្មែរ, UNGEGN: Chônchéatĕ Khmêr, ALA-LC: Janajāti Khmaer [cɔn.ciət kʰmae]) are an Austroasiatic ethnic group native to Cambodia. They comprise over 95% of Cambodia’s population of 17 million. They speak the Khmer language, which is part of the larger Austroasiatic language family alongside Mon and Vietnamese.
The majority of Khmer people follow Theravada Buddhism. Significant populations of Khmers reside in adjacent areas of Thailand (Northern Khmer) and the Mekong Delta region of neighboring Vietnam (Khmer Krom), while there are over one million Khmers in the Khmer diaspora living mainly in France, the United States, and Australia.
Istribution
The majority of the world’s Khmers live in Cambodia, the population of which is over 95% Khmer.
Thailand, Vietnam and Laos
There are also significant Khmer populations native to Thailand and Vietnam. In Thailand, there are over one million Khmers (known as the Khmer Surin), mainly in Surin (Sorin), Buriram (Borei Rom) and Sisaket (Srei Saket) provinces. Estimates for the number of the Khmers in Vietnam (known as the Khmer Krom) vary from the 1.3 million given by government data to 7 million advocated by the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation. The Khmer population native to Laos is less significant than in Thailand and Vietnam, those communities reside in the southwestern tip of Laos, at the borders of Thailand and Cambodia.
Western nations
Due to migration as a result of the Cambodian Civil War and Cambodian Genocide, there is a large Khmer diaspora residing in the United States, Canada, Australia and France.
History
Origin myths
According to one Khmer legend attributed by George Coedes to a tenth century inscription, the Khmers arose from the union of the Brahmana Kambu Swayambhuva and the apsara (“celestial nymph”) Mera. Their marriage is said to have given rise to the name Khmer and founded the Varman dynasty of ancient Cambodia.
A more popular legend, reenacted to this day in the traditional Khmer wedding ceremony and taught in elementary school, holds that Cambodia was created when a merchant named Kaundinya I (commonly referred to as Preah Thong) married Princess Soma, a Nāga (Neang Neak) princess. Kaundinya sailed to Southeast Asia following an arrow he saw in a dream. Upon arrival he found an island called Kok Thlok and, after conquering Soma’s Naga army, he fell in love with her. As a dowry, the father of princess Soma drank the waters around the island, which was revealed to be the top of a mountain, and the land below that was uncovered became Cambodia. Kaundinya and Soma and their descendants became known as the Khmers and are said to have been the rulers of Funan, Chenla and the Khmer Empire. This myth further explains why the oldest Khmer wats, or temples, were always built on mountaintops, and why today mountains themselves are still revered as holy places.
Arrival in Southeast Asia
The Khmers, an Austroasiatic people, are one of the oldest ethnic groups in the area, having filtered into Southeast Asia from southern China, possibly Yunnan, or from Northeast India around the same time as the Mon, who settled further west on the Indochinese Peninsula and to whom the Khmer are ancestrally related. Most archaeologists and linguists, and other specialists like Sinologists and crop experts, believe that 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. This region is also one of the first places in the world to use bronze. They were the builders of the later Khmer Empire, which dominated Southeast Asia for six centuries beginning in 802, and now form the mainstream of political, cultural, and economic Cambodia.
Culture and society
The culture of the ethnic Khmers is fairly homogeneous throughout their geographic range. Regional dialects exist, but are mutually intelligible. The standard is based on the dialect spoken throughout the Central Plain, a region encompassed by the northwest and central provinces. The varieties of Khmer spoken in this region are representative of the speech of the majority of the population. A unique and immediately recognizable dialect has developed in Phnom Penh that, due to the city’s status as the national capital, has been modestly affected by recent French and Vietnamese influence. Other dialects are Northern Khmer dialect, called Khmer Surin by Khmers, spoken by over a million Khmer native to Northeast Thailand; and Khmer Krom spoken by the millions of Khmer native to the Mekong Delta regions of Vietnam adjacent to Cambodia and their descendants abroad. A little-studied dialect known as Western Khmer, or Cardamom Khmer, is spoken by a small, isolated population in the Cardamom Mountain range extending from Cambodia into eastern Central Thailand. Although little studied, it is unique in that it maintains a definite system of vocal register that has all but disappeared in other dialects of modern Khmer. The modern Khmer strongly identify their ethnic identity with their religious beliefs and practices, which combine the tenets of Theravada Buddhism with elements of indigenous ancestor-spirit worship, animism and shamanism. Most Cambodians, whether or not they profess to be Buddhists or other faiths, believe in a rich supernatural world. Several types of supernatural entities are believed to exist; they make themselves known by means of inexplicable sounds or happenings. Among these phenomena are kmaoch ខ្មោច (ghosts), pret ប្រែត (comes in many forms depending on their punishments) and beisach បិសាច(monsters) [these are usually the spirits of people who have died a violently, untimely, or unnatural deaths]; arak អារក្ស (evil spirits, devils), ahp krasue, neak ta អ្នកតា (tutelary spirit or entity residing in inanimate objects; land, water, trees etc.), chomneang/mneang phteah ជំនាងផ្ទះ/ម្នាងផ្ទះ(house guardians), meba មេបា (ancestral spirits), and mrenh kongveal ម្រេញគង្វាល (little mischief spirit guardians dressed in red). All spirits must be shown proper respect, and, with the exception of the mneang phteah and mrenh kongveal, they can cause trouble ranging from mischief to serious life-threatening illnesses.
The majority of the Cambodians live in rural villages either as rice farmers or fishermen. Their life revolves around the Wat (temple) and the various Buddhist ceremonies throughout the year. However, if Cambodians become ill, they will frequently see a kru khmae (shaman/healer), whom they believe can diagnose which of the many spirits has caused the illness and recommend a course of action to propitiate the offended spirit, thereby curing the illness.The kru khmae is also learned in herb lore and is often sought to prepare various “medicines” and potions or for a magical tattoo, all believed to endow one with special prowess and ward off evil spirits or general bad luck.Khmer beliefs also rely heavily on astrology, a remnant of Hinduism. A fortune teller, called hao-ra (astrologists) or kru teay in Khmer, is often consulted before major events, like choosing a spouse, beginning an important journey or business venture, setting the date for a wedding and determining the proper location for building new structures. Throughout the year, the Cambodian celebrate many holidays, most of a religious or spiritual nature, some of which are also observed as public holidays. The two most important are Chol Chhnam (Cambodian New Year) and Pchum Ben (“Ancestor Day”). The Cambodian Buddhist calendar is divided into 12 months with the traditional new year beginning on the first day of khae chaet, which coincides with the first new moon of April in the western calendar. The modern celebration has been standardized to coincide with April 13. Dance occupies a central place for the Khmer people, one of its earliest records dates back to the 7th century, where performances were used as a funeral rite for kings. In the 20th century, the use of dancers is also attested in funerary processions, such as that for King Sisowath Monivong. During the Angkor period, dance was ritually performed at temples. The temple dancers came to be considered as apsaras, who served as entertainers and messengers to divinities.Ancient stone inscriptions describe thousands of apsara dancers assigned to temples and performing divine rites as well as for the public.The Khmer classical dance was placed in 2003 on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Cambodian culture has influenced Thai and Lao cultures and vice versa. Many Khmer loanwords are found in Thai and Lao, while many Lao and Thai loanwords are found in Khmer. The Thai and Lao alphabets are also derived from the Khmer script.
