Welcome to the Cambodia Portal / សូមស្វាគមន៍
Geographic map of Cambodia
Cambodia (; Khmer : កម្ពុជា ; UNGEGN : Kâmpŭchéa ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia (Khmer : ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា ; UNGEGN : Preâh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchéa ), is a country in Mainland Southeast Asia , spanning an area of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 square miles ), bordered by Thailand to the northwest , Laos to the north , Vietnam to the east , and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The capital and most populous city is Phnom Penh .
In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name "Kambuja". This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire . The Indianised kingdom facilitated the spread of first Hinduism and then Buddhism to Southeast Asia and undertook religious infrastructural projects throughout the region. In the fifteenth century, Cambodia experienced a decline of power , and in 1863, it became a protectorate of France . After a period of Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Cambodia gained independence in 1953. The Vietnam War extended into the country in 1965 via the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk trails . A 1970 coup installed the US-aligned Khmer Republic , which was overthrown by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. The Khmer Rouge ruled the country and carried out the Cambodian genocide from 1975 until 1979, when they were ousted in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War . The Vietnamese-occupied People's Republic of Kampuchea became the de facto government. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords which formally ended the war with Vietnam , Cambodia was governed by a United Nations mission (1992–93). The UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90% of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup d'état consolidated power under Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). While constitutionally a multi-party state, CPP dominates the political system and dissolved its main opposition party in 2017, making Cambodia a de facto one-party state . (Full article... )
Front side of the main complex
Angkor Wat (; Khmer : អង្គរវត្ត , "City/Capital of Temples") is a temple complex in Cambodia , located on a site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m2 ; 402 acres). The Guinness World Records considers it as the largest religious structure in the world . Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire by King Suryavarman II during the 12th century, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple towards the end of the century; as such, it is also described as a "Hindu-Buddhist" temple.
Angkor Wat was built at the behest of the Khmer King
Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in
Yaśodharapura (
Khmer :
យសោធរបុរៈ , present-day
Angkor ), the capital of the
Khmer Empire , as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the
temple-mountain and the later
galleried temple . It is designed to represent
Mount Meru , home of the
devas in
Hindu mythology : within a
moat more than 5 kilometres (3 mi) long and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a
quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive
bas-reliefs , and for the numerous
devatas adorning its walls. The modern name Angkor Wat, alternatively Nokor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in
Khmer .
Angkor (
អង្គរ ângkôr ) meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word
nokor (
នគរ nôkôr ), which comes from the
Sanskrit /
Pali word
nagara (
Devanāgarī : नगर).
Wat (
វត្ត vôtt ) is the word for "temple grounds", also derived from Sanskrit/Pali
vāṭa (
Devanāgarī : वाट), meaning "enclosure". (
Full article... )
List of selected articles
General images
The following are images from various Cambodia-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1 Emblem of the Salvation Front at the former head office in Phnom Penh (from History of Cambodia )
Image 4 Archers mounted on elephants (from History of Cambodia )
Image 6 A map of forests, vegetation and land use in Cambodia (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 7 Coronation of Norodom Sihanouk in 1941 (from History of Cambodia )
Image 8 Nang Sbek Thom figure plate. (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 9 Phnom Penh noodles with soup on the side. (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 10 Worldwide zones of tropical monsoon climate (Am). (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 11 Map of South-east Asia c. 900 CE, showing the Khmer Empire in red, Champa in yellow and Haripunjaya in light green, plus additional surrounding states (from History of Cambodia )
Image 12 Cambodian farmers planting rice (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 13 Collection of Khmer silk cloths (sompot phamuong) (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 14 Masks and shadow puppets (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 18 Choeung Ek Monument contains more than 5,000 human skulls. (from History of Cambodia )
Image 19 A fishing hut on the Tonle Sap (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 21 Tatai River, draining the southern slopes of the Cardamom Mountains (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 22 1780 map of Cambodia and Southeast Asia (from History of Cambodia )
Image 23 Cambodian musical instruments (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 24 Traditional male clothing (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 25 Musical instruments and costumes (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 26 Southern Annamites montane rain forests: ecoregion territory (in purple) (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 27 Longvek , the former capital of Cambodia (from History of Cambodia )
Image 28 Win-Win Memorial , dedicated to the ending of the Cambodian Civil War in 1998 (from History of Cambodia )
Image 29 Aromatic long-grain (សែនក្រអូប , sên krâ-op ) rice, one of the best paddy rice varieties of Cambodia (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 30 Cambodian Pidan (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 31 The mainland of Southeast Asia at the end of the 13th century (from History of Cambodia )
Image 32 Map of Funan at around the 3rd century (from History of Cambodia )
Image 33 The volume of Tonle Sap Lake over the course of one year
Image 35 Mountain panorama view in Mondulkiri Province , north-eastern Cambodia, November 2012 (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 36 The tale of Vorvong & Sorvong illustration, a Khmer 19th century drawing. (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 38 Agricultural fields in the Kampong Cham province, aerial (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 39 Rooms of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum contain thousands of photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their victims. (from History of Cambodia )
Image 41 A farm in Kampot province (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 42 Some styles of sbai clothing (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 43 A polluted estuary near Ream commune in Sihanoukville province, Cambodia 2014 (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 44 Cambodian chicken rice congee (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 45 A map of rainfall regimes in Cambodia, source: DANIDA (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 47 Worldwide zones of Tropical savanna climate (Aw). (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 48 Floating homes on the Mekong (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 49 Pre-wedding photographs of Cambodian couple at Angkor Wat (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 51 Norodom Sihanouk and his wife with Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena Ceauşescu, 1974 (from History of Cambodia )
Image 52 Pchum Ben , also known as "Ancestors' Day". (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 53 The territories of Eastern Wu (in green), 262 CE (from History of Cambodia )
Image 54 Unauthorized sand mining at the Tatai River in the Koh Kong Conservation Corridor, Cambodia 2012 (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 55 Portrait statue of Jayavarman VII (from History of Cambodia )
Image 56 Rice fields in Takeo Province (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 57 Angkor Wat , the most famous Cambodian heritage site. (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 58 An aerial view of bomb craters in Cambodia (2014) (from History of Cambodia )
Image 59 A Buddhist celebration at a Buddhist temple. (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 60 Cham Muslim in Cambodia (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 61 Water buffalos in the paddy fields (from Agriculture in Cambodia )
Image 64 Jacqueline Kennedy, Sisowath Kossamak, and Norodom Sihanouk in 1967. (from Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970) )
Image 65 Norodom Sihanouk and his wife in Indonesia, 1964 (from History of Cambodia )
Image 66 Topography of Cambodia
(from
Geography of Cambodia )
Image 67 Geographic map of Cambodia (from Geography of Cambodia )
Image 68 A welcoming ceremony for Sihanouk in China, 1956 (from Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970) )
Image 69 Roman trade with India according to the Periplus Maris Erythraei , 1st century CE (from History of Cambodia )
Image 70 Bakong , one of the earliest temple mountain in Khmer architecture (from History of Cambodia )
Image 71 Khmer Wedding Dress (from Culture of Cambodia )
Image 73 Flag of Cambodia pre-1864 (from History of Cambodia )
Did you know (auto-generated)
...that Sisowath Monivong was the king of Cambodia from 1927 until his death in 1941?
...that the primary rainforest of Cambodia went from 70% in the 1970s to 3% in today's time?
...that there were 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims in Cambodia as late as 1975? Read more at Islam in Cambodia .
Notable Cambodians include:
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