The so-called Khmer Kingdom or Khmer Empire had never existed since ancient times because Khmer people had been continually only people in the slave class under the rule of the Khom Empire until the end of the Khom Empire in 1336 AD.
Even Kingdom in the post-Phra Nakhon period, which just began in 1336 AD (Buddhist Era of 1879) after the Cham slaves having successfully seized power from Khom, should have been called “Champa Kingdom of Phra Nakhon” instead of Khmer Kingdom of Phra Nakhon because of the following reason:
1. Trasak Paem, who was the chief of the slaves, was a man of Cham descend and he was crowned as king by the Cham slaves after having successfully seized power from Khom.
2. There were only people of the slave class, (both people of the Cham ethnic group, who were herded from the Champa Kingdom into Khom slavery by King Jaya Varman VII of the Khom Empire, and the Khmer people), being the people under the rule of the Cham king (King Trasak Paem) because the Siam (Khom) people, who survived the rebellion which rose up by the slaves, had completely fled from Mueang Phra Nakhon.
3. King Trasak Paem, who was a man of Cham descend, would probably appoint people of the Cham ethnic group as the governing officials to replace the former Khom people of the ruling class who had completely fled to Mueang Lavo. The Khmer people were likely to be people under the rule as ever.
4. Even in modern times, fifteen million Cham people living in southern Vietnam have been still watching television programmes broadcast from Cambodia so far. This is even more likely that the Cham people living in southern Vietnam in the present day and the people living in present-day Cambodia are people of the same ethnic group because they speak the same language.
It can be noticed that Khmer people have never had their own kings ruling over them since ancient times, therefore, Khmer people do not have their long-time culture. Almost all of the present-day Khmer cultures were adopted from Siam Kingdom in the reign of King Rama I and King Rama III of the Chakri dynasty when Khmer kings came to seek a refuge under power of the Siam Kingdom, and also when a Khmer Buddhist monk called “Maha Paan” came to be ordained in Bangkok and consecrated himself as a disciple of Prince Mongkut (King Rama IV) while he was being in his monkhood and establishing the Dharma Yut sect of Buddhism.
Please press and hold “Ctrl” key on the keyboard, and then left click on any area of the link below to view a video on big difference between Thai culture and Khmer culture.
This is just a very short piece of writing extracted from the online Thai Culture E-bookstore.
Thai Culture E-bookstore - Payhip
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