Khmers
A mythical people of builders, artists and conquerors, the Khmers are positively the descendants of the legendary couple whose union transcended the future of their country. The love between the sublime snake-woman, daughter of the Nagaraja, and the adventurous prince Preah Thong symbolizes the fusion of two races that were soon to become one: the indigenous Austro-Asian peoples and the Aryan tribes descended from India became the Khmer people between the 4th and 2nd millennia BC. From an ethnological and linguistic point of view, the Khmers are related to the Mon peoples of Lower Burma, as well as to some of the peoples of the Annamite Cordillera.
Khmers Loeu
This term includes the Pear, groups originally from the Coromandel coast in southern India, who have settled in the Cardamom mountains, as well as peoples of Austronesian or Mon-Khmer origin such as Stieng, Braou, Tam Poun, Jarai, Phnong, etc., living in the almost deserted provinces of eastern and northeastern Cambodia. These ethnic groups, although all members of the same family, sometimes have very different cultures, far removed from the dominant Khmer culture. Isolated and little influenced by the central government, many of them still live according to ancestral customs. They are gatherers, fishermen, hunters and slash-and-burn farmers. Massive bombing by the US Air Force, then Khmer and Vietnamese communism (and now American missionaries and consumerism) have taken their toll on these populations.
Cham
The Cham (pronounced "tiam"), also known as Khmer Islam, are for the most part descendants of the Champa Empire, which once stretched along the east coast of Indochina and was completely wiped out by the Vietnamese in the 15th century. Welcomed by the Khmers, with whom they had fought for centuries (their epic battles are the main subject of the bas-reliefs at Bayon and Angkor Wat), the Cham became subjects of the Cambodian king, but retained their customs and the Muslim religion they had adopted in the 14th century. The Malay immigrants who arrived from Sumatra in the 12th century are considered an integral part of the Cham community. The Cham are traditionally fishermen, herders and butchers, the latter profession being forbidden to Buddhists. Under the Khmer Rouge regime, the Cham were systematically persecuted, their mosques razed to the ground or turned into pigsties. UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) ushered in a new era for the Cham, who saw a massive influx of aid from sister countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan, the Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia... Mosques are being built in areas with large Cham populations, such as Kompong Chnang, Pursat, Kampot and the banks of the Mekong from Phnom Penh to Kratie. Cham Islam is tinged with Buddhist, Hindu and even animist influences, which foreign preachers have successfully sought to eradicate. Today, the Cham population does not exceed one million individuals, who mostly live in communities separated from the rest of the population.
Chinese
They were, along with the Indians, the first foreigners to know Cambodia and to settle there. Chinese migration took place in two main waves: the first occurred in the early 17th century, following the troubles that marked the end of the Ming dynasty and the Manchu conquest; the second, more important, in the mid-19th century, after the failure of the Taiping revolution. This Chinese migration to Cambodia but also to Siam, Malaysia and Vietnam continued until the advent of the People's Republic of China. Siam is the old name of Thailand whose inhabitants were formerly called Siamese. They changed the name of their country to Thai Land during the 1930s, when they were allied with the Axis forces, and the name change was a claim on all border territories where Thai-speaking peoples lived, mainly Cambodia and Laos. Covered by the Japanese, who were then occupying French Indochina, they provoked numerous border incidents, launching deep military incursions to test French defenses. This aggressive policy culminated in 1941, forcing the French fleet in Saigon (Vichy) to sink the Thai fleet off the island of Koh Chang. It should be noted that the more the Axis suffered defeats, the closer the Thais became to the Americans, to whom they allied themselves at the end of the war. The Chinese in Cambodia came from the regions of Chaozhou (Trieu Chau, 80%), Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan. Often arriving in great poverty, the emigrants first devoted themselves to certain rich crops (betel, kapok and pepper) before turning to trade and industry. They too suffered greatly under the Khmer Rouge; the "fields of death" saw half of their population disappear, but today they have resumed their former place in Cambodian society. A particularly dynamic community, the Chinese do not practice ethnic withdrawal; on the contrary, they have always sought and practiced integration by marrying Khmers. Even today, it is common for a Chinese family to finance the studies of a promising young Khmer who, in return, will have to marry the family's daughter. At the same time, the Chinese remain very attached to their culture and language. Chinese schools are legion and are among the best in the country. Chinese immigration to Cambodia is currently taking on considerable proportions, and even worrying as far as the mafia is concerned. Some do not hesitate to compare the massive investments made by the Chinese government and its affiliates as a new form of de facto colonization. Traveling in Cambodia, you will not fail to notice the Chinese presence in some areas, especially around Sihanoukville, with for example the omnipresent signage of businesses in a double language, Khmer and Mandarin.
Vietnamese
Vietnamese began settling in Cambodia towards the end of the 18th century. The flow of immigrants increased from 1870 to 1953, under the aegis of a French protectorate anxious to recruit civil servants considered more zealous and capable than the supposedly carefree Cambodians. The Catholic episcopate also played its part in the colonization of certain regions of Cambodia by the Vietnamese. With little response from the Cambodian population, the Apostolic Mission organized the settlement of Annamite Christians by allocating them land. This policy was bound to create deep-seated antagonisms between the communities, aggravated by cultural and character differences, which quickly led to hatred between Khmers and Annamites. Like their Siamese, Laotian and Burmese neighbors, the Khmers are a homogeneous people thousands of years old, belonging to an Asia steeped in Indian culture. Occupied for a thousand years by China, the Vietnamese don't practice the same Buddhism, and are a fiercely nationalistic people, often contemptuous of, even outright hegemonic towards, their less numerous neighbors. It was they who wanted and (successfully) led all the wars in Indochina, forcing Khmer and Laotians into them to their great misfortune. When, in December 1978, they launched their divisions against Democratic Kampuchea, they were certainly putting an end to one of the most bloodthirsty and barbaric regimes the world has ever known, but, above all, they were annexing little Cambodia; they were going to plunder it for ten years and impose a second Stalinism on the rice paddies. The Khmers, who had never held them in their hearts, harbored a fierce hatred for them. Today, some 750,000 Vietnamese live in Cambodia. Driven out of their country by totalitarianism, overpopulation and unemployment, they find only fear and insecurity among the Khmers. Small craftsmen, mechanics, prostitutes... constantly tossed about by a fast-changing political situation, those who can be called the "Youn" (a pejorative Khmer term for Vietnamese) of Cambodia passively undergo the contractions of a history that never stops giving birth.
