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Cambodia's modern-day culture has its
roots in the 1st to 6th centuries
in a state referred to as Funan, known as the oldest
Indianized state in southeast Asia. It is from this period
that evolved. Cambodia's language, part of the Mon-Khmer
family, which contains elements of Sanskrit, its ancient
religion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Historians have noted, for
examples, that Cambodians can be distinguished from
their neighbors by their clothing - checkered scarves known as kramas are worn instead of straw
hats. Funan gave way to the Angkor Empire with the
rise to power of King Jayavarman II in 802. The following
600 years saw powerful Khmer kings dominate
much of
present day Southeast Asia, from the borders of Myanmar east
to the South China Sea and north to Laos. It was during this
period that
Khmer king built the most extensive concentration of religious
temple complex. The most successful of Angkor's king,
Jayavarman II, Indravarman I, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman
VII, also devised a masterpiece of ancient engineering: a
sophisticated irrigation system that includes barays (gigantic
man-made lakes) and canals that ensured as many as three rice
crops a year. Part of this system is still in use
today.
As the Angkor period ended, Cambodia's capital
moved south to Longvek, then to Udong, and finally to the
present-day capital of Phnom Penh. Among the main features of the
capital, was a widespread conversion to Theravada Buddhism,
illustrated on temple carvings, where Buddhist features gradually
replaced Hindu features.The 15th to
17th centuries represented a time of feign influence,
when expansionists Siam and Vietnam fought over Cambodia by the mid-
1800, Cambodia, like most other countries in Asia, came under
increasing pressure from European colonial powers. In 1863, the
country agreed to protection from France. King Norodom signed a
Protectate Treaty between King Norodom and the French. |