Khmer life is built around relationships. These rural people are in no hurry to leave a good conversation, yet keep most of their thoughts and feelings hidden. The wars, slaughter and oppression of the last 30 years have devastated their race as well as their farm land. The mine-filled soil maims thousands every month. They are a people in recovery. Many are disabled, widowed or orphaned. What work there is rarely provides the needs for one, let alone a family.
Ethnicity
The Khmer are one of the oldest population groups in Indochina. The Khmer originated from peoples that migrated from southern India to Cambodia in the first century AD. Following the course of the Mekong river, they settled in the fertile plain south of the Laotian and west of the Vietnamese mountains. Their Hindu roots are seen in their classical balletic-style dance and theater.
Location
When the Khmer Rouge (a radical communist regime) took over Cambodia in 1975, many Cambodians fled to other countries. Some 290,000 Cambodian refugees have been living in Thailand since 1975, while 100,000 have emigrated to America, Europe, and other parts of Asia. There are also about 895,000 Khmer living in Vietnam.
Population
The Khmer are the largest ethnic group in Cambodia, where they constitute about 92% of the 13.6 million population - about 12.5 million. Exact number are difficult to ascertain due to the high death rate and flight of refugees.
Language
Khmer is part of the Mon-Khmer sub-group and the Austro-asiatic languages, with large-scale borrowing from Sanskrit and Pali. Khmer is related to languages spoken by hilltribe people of Laos and Vietnam, but is very different to Thai or Lao.
Culture
The Khmer developed a highly sophisticated culture that dominated the entire Indochinese peninsula by 10th century AD. The flowering of Khmer culture is embodied by Angkor Wat, a temple complex built in the 12th century. Today, this temple is the national symbol of Cambodia. There is a strong tradition of classical dance, and the dances are very symbolic. The national dance is called the lamthon which is characterized by slow graceful movements of the hands and arms. Because of the importance of dance to the ancient royal Khmer court, music was also central to Cambodian court and religious life. Singers and musicians were often attached to specific temples.
Khmer society is traditionally egalitarian. However, years of war and brutal killings have so skewed morality and trust that the family unit is suffering. The children, forced into independence too quickly, see little need for parental authority. Likewise, due to years of separation, many wives have lost trust in their husbands. Only 12% of Cambodia is urban. Most Khmer live in raised wooden houses on family farms. Villagers share in harvest and other heavy tasks. They learn best by rote, which gives them fantastic memory skills but slows their creativity.
Livelihood
The Khmer are primarily engaged in agricultural activities and rice is the main crop grown. Riverbank dwellers often emphasize fruit and vegetable production. Mechanized agriculture is very rare and cultivation is carried out with simple implements. Villagers obtain additional food from trees and gardens that produce a variety of herbs, vegetables and fruits. Khmer villagers sell surplus produce or vend other items to one another, to itinerant merchants, or in local or urban markets. Industrial manufacturing and processing of goods are very limited, although there is a growing garment industry. Major exports are rubber and timber.
The rich agricultural potential of Cambodia has been reduced to bare subsistence because of the devastation to land and people by war, massacres, political isolation and socialist bureaucracy for over 20 years. In recent years, however, the economy has been gradually improving with the introduction of new banking, tax and investment laws.
Political
The Khmer people first came to power in Cambodia in the 6th century. They ruled the Southeast Asian Peninsula from the 9th to 14th century, the peak of the Cambodian empire. Since then the Khmer struggled with theri Thai and Vietnamese neighbors until finally accepting a French protectorate in 1863. The French ruled through World War II. The recent generation of Khmer has endured suffering that is almost unprecedented in history. This includes civil war as well as the oppression of being crushed and plagued by outside enemies.
Religion
During the empire of Angkor, the reigning monarch was identified with Siva, king of Hindu gods. In the 13th century Theravada Buddhism undermined the prestige of kings and priests, and eventually in 1432 the Angkor empire fell. Theravada Buddhism remained the dominant and unchallenged faith until 1975. In Pol Pot's regime, 90 percent of all Buddhist monks were killed. In 1989 the Hun Sen government reintroduced Buddhism as the national religion. Today more than 94 percent of the population is Buddhist. Cambodian Buddhism is an easygoing faith and tolerates ancestor and spirit worship. Cambodians often wear charms which are believed to control external magical forces.
Christianity
Christianity made little impact on the Khmer until the early 1970s when revival broke out. Church growth was phenomenal for three years but it was halted by the communist takeover in 1975. Ten thousand Christians were killed during the Pol Pot regime, and less than 1,000 survived.
Freedom of religion was made a constitutional right in 1990. Since 1996 the Protestant church has doubled in size every two years. In 2004 the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia estimated that there are now more than 200,000 Protestant Christians in Cambodia in more than 2,000 churches. There are now several Bible schools and a widely used Theological Education by Extension program. However, there is still a great need for discipleship and leadership training. There are many churches among the overseas Khmer communities in the USA and Canada. Khmer believers are returning to Cambodia to help the church, but need wisdom in seeing how westernized they have become and how to appropriately to reach the Khmer there.
Many different mission agencies are now serving in Phnom Penh, but more missionaries are needed for church planting and Bible teaching, as well as for social development work.
