Cambodia Thread

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   This thread will be all about Cambodia. Khmer history, culture, literature etc. 

To start out, let's start out with a brief tour of Cambodia, you can visit Cambodia in 2 1/2 minutes by viewing this video: http://ia311529.us.archive.org/2/items/Khmerland/Khmerland_Intro.wmv

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INTRODUCTION (From Wikipedia):
The Kingdom of Cambodia (Khmer: transliterated: Preăh R�ach�anach�kr K�mpŭchea) is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of almost 15 million people, with Phnom Penh being the capital city. Cambodia is the successor state of the once powerful Hindu and Buddhist Khmer Empire, which ruled most of the Indochinese Peninsula between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.

A citizen of Cambodia is usually identified as "Cambodian" or "Khmer", which strictly refers to ethnic Khmers. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists of Khmer extraction, but the country also has a substantial number of predominantly Muslim Cham, as well as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and small animist hill tribes.
The country shares a border with Thailand to its west and northwest, with Laos to its northeast, and with Vietnam to its east and southeast. In the south it faces the Gulf of Thailand. The geography of Cambodia is dominated by the Mekong river (colloquial Khmer: Tonle Thom or "the great river") and the Tonl� Sap ("the fresh water lake"), an important source of fish. The low geography of Cambodia's fertile areas means much of the country sits nearly below sea level, and consequently the Tonle Sap River reverses its water flow in the wet season, carrying water from the Mekong back into the Tonle Sap Lake and surrounding flood plain.
Cambodia's main industries are garment and tourism. In 2006, foreign visitors had surpassed the 1.7 million mark. In 2005, oil and natural gas deposits were found beneath Cambodia's territorial water, and once commercial extraction begins in 2009 or early 2010, the oil revenues could have a "profound" impact on the future of Cambodia's economy.
NAMING (From Wikipedia):

Cambodia is the traditional English transliteration, taken from the French Cambodge, while Kampuchea is the direct transliteration, more faithful to the Khmer pronunciation. The Khmer Kampuchea is derived from the ancient Khmer kingdom of Kambuja (Kambujadesa). Kambuja or Kamboja is the ancient Sanskrit name of the Kambojas, an early tribe of north India, named after their founder Kambu Svayambhuva, believed to be a variant of Cambyses. See Etymology of Kamboja.
In the Khmer Mul script the official name of the country is  (regular script ), Preahreachanach�k Kampuchea, meaning "Kingdom of Cambodia". Etymologically, its components are: Preah- ("sacred"); -reach- ("king, royal, realm", from Sanskrit); -ana- (from Pāli āṇā, "authority, command, power", itself from Sanskrit āj�ā, same meaning) -ch�k (from Sanskrit cakra, meaning "wheel", a symbol of power and rule).
The name used on formal occasions, such as political speeches and news programs, is  (regular script ), Pr�teh Kampuchea, literally "the Country of Cambodia". Pr�teh is a formal word meaning "country".
The colloquial name most used by Khmer people, is , Srok Khmae, literally "the Khmer Land". Srok is a Mon-Khmer word roughly equal to pr�teh, but less formal. Khmer is spelled with a final "r" in the Khmer alphabet, but the word-final "r" phoneme disappeared from most dialects of Khmer in the 19th century and is not pronounced in the contemporary speech of the standard dialect.
Since independence, the official name of Cambodia has changed several times, following the troubled history of the country. The following names have been used in English and French since 1954.

Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge under the rule of the monarchy from 1953 through 1970; 
Khmer Republic/R�publique Khm�re (a calque of French Republic) under the Lon Nol led government from 1970 to 1975; 
Democratic Kampuchea/Kampuchea d�mocratique under the rule of the communist Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979; 
People's Republic of Kampuchea/R�publique populaire du Kampuchea under the rule of the Vietnamese-sponsored government from 1979 to 1989; 
State of Cambodia/�tat du Cambodge (a neutral name, while deciding whether to return to monarchy) under the rule of the United Nations transitional authority from 1989 to 1993; 
Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge reused after the restoration of the monarchy in 1994. 