Mainland Southeast Asia: Turmoil and Peace - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 443

Cambodia: Beyond the Killing
Fields

Cambodia is famous for two things. It is highly noted
for the wonders of Angkor and it is highly notorious for
the genocide that took place from 1975 to 1978. What
happened in this small and compact country of South-
east Asia?
This land of the Khmer people is the fourth smallest
nation in the region after Timor-Leste, Brunei, and Singa-
pore. About 5 percent of Cambodia is rivers and lakes.
The plains of Cambodia are ringed by the last foothills of
the Himalayas, the Cardamom range in the west, the Ele-
phant Mountains to the southwest, and the lengthy Dan-
grek chain to the north. The eastern frontier with
Vietnam runs up into the high and inaccessible Moi
Mountains, which are crossed by only one highway . Ris-
ing out of the plains are ranges of hills called phnom .
These were worshipped and shelter numerous settle-
ments. The Mekong crosses the Cambodian Plain and
south of Phnom Penh, splits into the Bassac to the south-
west and the lower Mekong to the east. Inland, 340 miles
(550 km) from the sea, the Mekong is still navigable year
round in Cambodia.
Many thousands of years ago, Cambodia lay under
the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The action of the
Mekong River filled in the submerged land to form a fer-
tile plain. This plain, watered by rivers and tributaries,
formed natural irrigation systems. Where the land was
not uniform, large lakes such as T Tonle Sap were created.
These lakes are relics of the former ocean gulf. The civi-
lization of Cambodia developed on this moist plain.
The history of Cambodia is one of rivalries between
outside forces and internal power struggles. Although the
country has experienced periods of peace, the peace has
often been enforced. This is the situation today .

Figure 15-19
In periods of high inflation, money becomes close to worthless.
When I crossed the border into Laos from Thailand in 2002,
I went to a bank in Pakse to exchange dollars for kip. I was
stunned to see stacks of kip holding the door open. People were
bringing in wheelbarrows of black plastic bags filled with
money . Heaps of bills were being counted and tied into bundles
to be piled on the floor . Only a few of my dollars bought me
several stacks of kip, which I had to carry in my backpack.
Photo courtesy of B. A. Weightman.

relations with the United States in 2004 and is taking
steps required to join the WTO. The country also
launched an effort to ensure the collection of taxes in
2009 as the global economic meltdown reduced rev-
enues from mining projects. Simplified investment pro-
cedures and expanded bank credits for small farmers
and entrepreneurs are expected to improve Lao' s eco-
nomic prospects. The World Bank predicts that the
country' s goal of graduating from the UN Development
Program' is list of least-developed countries by 2020 is
achievable.

THE EARLY PERIOD
By the early centuries of the Christian era, the Khmer and
the related Mon peoples occupied a broad swath of land
stretching from Burma to Vietnam. This was Funan,
which flourished from the third to the seventh centuries.
Early records also mention the states of “water Chenla”
in the Mekong Delta and “land Chenla” further inland.
Chenla brought down Funan.
The consolidation of Khmer society was clearer by
the ninth century when Jayavarman II ruled over