Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The National Psyche
Cambodian attitudes towards the Thais and Vietnamese are complex. The Thais aren't al-
ways popular, as some Cambodians feel they fail to acknowledge their cultural debt to
Cambodia and generally look down on their less affluent neighbour. Cambodian attitudes
towards the Vietnamese are more ambivalent. There is a certain level of mistrust, as many
feel the Vietnamese aspire to colonise their country. (Many Khmers still call the lost
Mekong Delta 'Kampuchea Krom', meaning 'Lower Cambodia'.) However, this mistrust is
balanced with a grudging respect for the Vietnamese role in Cambodia's 'liberation' from
the Khmer Rouge in 1979. But when liberation became occupation in the 1980s, the rela-
tionship soured once more.
At first glance, Cambodia appears to be a nation of shiny, happy people, but look deeper
and it is a country of evident contradictions. Light and dark, rich and poor, love and hate,
life and death - all are visible on a journey through the kingdom. Most telling of all is the
evidence of the nation's glorious past set against the more recent tragedy of its present.
Jayavarman VII was a Mahayana Buddhist who directed his faith towards improving the lot of
his people, with the construction of hospitals, universities, roads and shelters.
Angkor is everywhere: on the flag, the national beer, cigarettes, hotels and guesthouses -
anything and everything. It's a symbol of nationhood and fierce pride - no matter how ugly
things got in the bad old days, the Cambodians built Angkor Wat and it doesn't come better
than that.
Contrast this with the abyss into which the nation was sucked during the years of the Kh-
mer Rouge. Pol Pot is a dirty word in Cambodia due to the death and suffering he inflicted
on the country.
Lowland Khmers are being encouraged to migrate to Cambodia's northeast where there is
plenty of available land. But this is home to the country's minority peoples, who have no indi-
genous concepts of property rights or land ownership, so this may see their culture marginal-
ised in coming years.
