 |
| |
Clothing
Most Cambodians dress up casually except when
they are attending formal events. It is common
to see men and women using Krama, a Long, Narrow
checked cotton cloth round their neck. The krama
is just like a piece of clothe.
Lightweight, loose-fitting, cotton clothing is
recommended and long-sleeved items should be included
for protection from mosquitoes and the sun. During
the rainy season an umbrella is more convenient
than a rain coast. A jacket may be needed in hotels
and restaurants using excessive air-conditioning.
People and Culture
Ethnic Composition
The population of Cambodia today is about 10 million.
About 90-95 percent of the people are Khmer ethnic.
The remaining 5-10 percent include Chinese-Khmers,
Khmer Islam or Chams, ethnic hill-tribe people,
known as the Khmer Loeu, and Vietnamese. About
10 percent of the population lives in Phnom Penh,
the capital, making Cambodia largely a country
of rural dwellers, farmers and artisans.
The ethnic groups that constitute Cambodian society
possess a number of economic and demographic commonalties-
for example. Chinese merchants lived mainly in
urban centers and play middlemen in many economic
cycles, but they also preserve differences in
their social and cultural institutions. They were
concentrated mostly in central and in southeastern
Cambodia, the major differences among these groups
lie in social organization, language, and religion.
The majority of the inhabitants of Cambodia are
settled in fairly permanent villages near the
major bodies of water in the Tonle Sap Basin-Mekong
Lowlands region. The Khmer Loeu live in widely
scattered villages that are abandoned when the
cultivated land in the vicinity is exhausted.
The permanently settled Khmer and Cham villages
usually located on or near the banks of a river
or other bodies of water. Cham villages usually
are made up almost entirely of Cham, but Khmer
villages, especially in central and in southeastern
of Cambodia, typically include sizable Chinese
communities
The Khmer Loeu
The Khmer Loeu are the non-Khmer highland tribes
in Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu are found namely in
the northeastern provinces of Rattanakiri, Stung
Treng, Mondulkiri and Crate. Most Khmer Loeu live
in scattered temporary villages that have only
a few hundred inhabitants. These villages usually
are governed by a council of local elders or by
a village headman. The Khmer Loeu cultivate a
wide variety of plants, but the man crop is dry
or upland rice growth by the slash-and-burn method.
Hunting, fishing, and gathering supplement the
cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet.
Houses vary from huge multi-family long houses
to small single family structures. They may be
built close to the ground or on stilts. The major
Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are the Kuy, Phnong,
Brao, Jarai, and Rade. All but about 160,000 Kuy
lived in the northern Cambodia provinces of Kampong
Thom, Preah Vihear, and Stoeng as well as in adjacent
Thailand.
The Cham
 The
Cham people in Cambodia descend from refugees
of the Kingdom of Champa, which one ruled much
of Vietnam between Gao Ha in the north and Bien
Hao in the south. The Cambodian Chams are divided
into two groups, the orthodox and the traditional-
base on their religious practices. The orthodox
group, which make up about one-third of the total
number of Chams in the country, were located mainly
in Phnom Penh - Oudong area and in the provinces
of Takeo and Kapot. The traditional Chams were
scattered throughout the midsection of the country
in the provinces of Battambang, Kompong Thom,
Kompong Cham, and Pursat. The Chams of both groups
typically live in villages inhabited only by other
Chams; the villages may be along the shores of
watercourses, or they may be inland. The inhabitants
of the river villages engage in fishing and growing
vegetables. They trade fish to local Khmer for
rice. The women in these villages earn money by
weaving. The Chams who live inland support themselves
by various means, depending on the villages. Some
villages specialize in metalworking; others raise
fruit trees or vegetables. The Chams also often
serve as butchers of cattle for their Khmer Buddhist
neighbors and are, in some areas, regarded as
skillful water buffalo and ram breeders.
The Chinese
 The
Chinese in Cambodia formed the country 's largest
ethnic minority. Sixty percent of the Chinese
were urban dwellers engaged mainly in commerce;
the other 40 percent were rural residents working
as shopkeepers, as buyers and processors of rice,
palm sugar, fruit, and fish, and as money lenders.
It is estimated that 90 percent of the Chinese
in Cambodia were in commerce and that 92 percent
of those involved in commerce in Cambodia were
Chinese. In rural Cambodia, the Chinese were moneylenders,
and they wielded considerable economic power over
the ethnic Khmer peasants through usury. The Chinese
in Cambodia represented five major linguistic
groups, the largest of which was the Teochiu (accounting
about 60 percent), followed by the Cantonese (accounting
about 20 percent), the Hokkien (accounting about
7 percent), and the Hakka and the Hainanese (each
accounting for 4 percent). Those belonging to
the certain Chinese linguistic groups in Cambodia
tended to gravitate to certain occupations. The
Teochiu, who make up about 90 percent of the rural
Chinese population, ran village stores, control
rural credit and rice marketing facilities, and
grew vegetables. In urban areas they were often
engaged in such enterprises as the import-export
business, the sale of pharmaceuticals, and street
peddling. The Cantonese, who were the majority
of Chinese groups before Teochiu migrations began
in the late 1930s, live mainly in the city. Typically,
the Cantonese engages in transportation and in
constriction, for the most part as mechanics or
carpenters. The Hokkien community was involved
import-export and in banking, and it included
some of the country's richest Chinese. The Hainanese
started out as pepper growers in Kompot Province,
where they continued to dominate that business.
Many moved to Phnom Penh , where, in the late
1960s, they reportedly had virtual monopoly on
the hotel and restaurant business. They also often
operated tailor shops. In Phnom Penh, the newly
arrived Hakka were typically folk dentists, sellers
of traditional Chinese medicines, and shoemakers.
The Vietnamese
The Vietnamese community is scattered throughout
southeastern and central Cambodia. They were concentrated
in Phnom Penh, and in Kandal, Prey Veng, and Kampong
Cham provinces. No close cultural or religious
ties exist between Cambodia and Vietnam. The Vietnamese
fall within the Chinese culture sphere, rather
within the Indian, where the Thai and Khmer belong.
The Vietnamese differ from the Khmer in mode of
dress, in kinship organization, and in many other
ways- for example the Vietnamese are Mahayama
Buddhists while most of the Cambodians are Theravada
Buddhists. Although Vietnamese lived in urban
centers such as Phnom Penh, a substantial number
lived along the lower Mekong and Bassac rivers
as well as on the shores of the Tonle Sap, where
they engaged in fishing.
|
|
Cambodia 
