Khmer Studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Built in the early twelfth century, Angkor Wat is one of the world’s largest ancient religious structures. Each year thousands of visitors make the pilgrimage to Angkor Wat to witness the equinox sunrise over the temple’s lotus-shaped towers. In addition to the equinox alignment, however, there are other alignments at Angkor Wat and many of the surrounding temples. In this article multiple solstice alignments are identified for Angkor Wat and eleven nearby temples to include: Bakong, Phnom Bakheng, Phnom Bok, Phnom Krom, East Mebon, Pre Rup, Banteay Srei, Ta Keo, Baphuon, Preah Khan, and Bayon.
Subsequent to ground and aerial reconnaissance of the above sites, archaeoastronomic assessments were made using Google Earth, with solstice azimuths calculated using standard protocols. More than seventy solstice alignments were thus identified.
The multiplicity of solstice alignments combined with other data suggest that it was important for Angkor temples to be connected to the sun. If, as endorsed here, Angkor temples were microcosmic models of the cosmos, then arguably, solstice alignments connected the temples to the cyclic movement of the cosmos as manifested by the solar cycle.

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- Southeast Asian Studies, Khmer Studies, Cambodia, Southeast Asian Archaeology

Nokor Reach is a present day Khmer national anthem. It probably became to be a national anthem after independence in 1953. In more than two decades after the coup in March 1970, there are three national anthems for Cambodia, change follow... more

- by Thibodi Buakamsri
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- Khmer Studies, Cambodia, Cambodian History

文化研究學會104場論壇 2014年6月12日
重新理解東南亞的多元：從抵抗精神談起

《從審判紅高棉的國際合作與不合作看柬埔寨人的歷史記憶、傷痛和解與後殖民抵抗》

- by Shihlun Allen Chen 陳世倫
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- Khmer Studies, Cambodia, Cambodian History, Khmer Rouge
- by Samnang Heng
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- Khmer Studies, Agricultural Economics, The Classical Tradition, Urban Sociology

Erik W. Davis’s book Deathpower: Buddhism’s Ritual Imagination in Cambodia is an important and brilliant study that seeks no less than “to represent a portion of the Cambodian religious imaginary through a study of rituals involved in the management of death and spirits” (pp. 8-9). Deathpower is a seminal contribution to the field of Mainland Southeast Asian religious studies as well as a superb ethnography of everyday religious life in contemporary Cambodia.

- by Benjamin Baumann
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- Religion, Buddhism, Southeast Asian Studies, Buddhist Studies

... Collapse and Regeneration from Funan to Angkor The history of the Khmer civilization is characterized by cycles of fragmen-tation, collapse, and reorganization. ... When the Thai army sacked the capital of Angkor in ad 1432, they... more

English-Khmer Phrasebook with Useful Word-list Center for Applied Linguistics

- by Hannay Gamal
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- Languages and Linguistics, English language, Khmer Studies, English

The Complex Layout and Construction Plan of the Angkor Wat

- by Dr. Uday Dokras
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- Khmer Studies, Cambodian History, Angkor, Cambodian Archaeology

Focusing exclusively on external forces risks producing an over-generalized account of a ubiquitous neoliberalism, which insufficiently accounts for the profusion of local variegations that currently comprise the neoliberal project as a series of articulations with existing political economic circumstances. Although neoliberal economics were initially promoted in the global south through the auspices of structural adjustment programs designed by the International Financial Institutions, powerful global south elites were only too happy to oblige. Neoliberalism frequently reveals opportunities for well-connected government officials to informally control market and material rewards, allowing them to easily line their own pockets. It is in this sense of the local appropriation of neoliberal ideas that scholars must go beyond conceiving of ‘neoliberalism-in-general’ as a singular and fully realized policy regime, ideological form, or regulatory framework, and work towards conceiving a plurality of ‘actually existing neoliberalisms’ with particular characteristics arising from mutable geohistorical outcomes that are embedded within national, regional, and local process of market-driven socio-spatial transformation. What constitutes ‘actually existing’ neoliberalism in Cambodia as distinctly Cambodian is the ways in which the patronage system has allowed local elites to co-opt, transform, and (re)articulate neoliberal reforms through a framework that ‘asset strips’ public resources, thereby increasing peoples’ exposure to corruption, coercion, and violence. It is to such an 'articulation agenda' that this article attends, as in seeking to provide a more nuanced reading to recent work on neoliberalism in Cambodia by outlining some of its salient characteristics, I reveal a more empirical basis to theorizations of ‘articulated neoliberalism’.

- by Simon Springer
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- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Geography

In 1898, the 23-year-old Guillaume Henri Monod traveled to French Indochina to seek his destiny in the exotic Kingdom of Cambodia. Located at the crossroads between the great civilizations of India and China, the fabulous Khmer Empire... more

- by Kent Davis
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- Folklore, Khmer Studies, Southeast Asia, Cambodia

The Asian Kingdom of Cambodia has many ancient legends about powerful jungle animals. But in this surprising book you’ll meet an unlikely hero: a small rabbit! As you’ll discover in these 27 classic folktales, Mr. Hare uses his brain to make up for his size. Time and again he outsmarts huge elephants, hungry crocodiles, fierce tigers...and even men! In this book you’ll read how the Hare... Taught the Tiger to Play Music; Ate the Old Woman’s Bananas; Lost a Race to the Snails; Saved the Elephant’s Skin; Made a Four-Headed Man; Scared the Monkey and Tiger; Rode on the Crocodile’s Back; ...and 20 more adventures! Mr. Hare’s tales are here in Khmer and English, with side-by-side translation by Dr. Chhany Sak-Humphry, so students of both languages can continue his tradition.

- by Kent Davis
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- Folklore, Children's Literature, Khmer Studies, Cambodia

Depicted as a floating woman’s head with drawn out and bloody entrails dangling beneath it, phi krasue is one of the most iconic uncanny creatures of Thai horror cinema. However, despite its position as one of Thailand’s most striking and well-known phi, there is very little research investigating this specific phenomenon. This is remarkable given the commonality of encounters with this uncanny being in ‘real life’ and the continuous presence of its ghostly images in popular cultural media. Relating empirical data gathered during anthropological fieldwork in a rural community of Thailand’s lower north-east to the analysis of two Thai ghost films that take this ghostly image as their main subject and narrative force this article argues that the knowledge of vernacular ghostlore is essential to decipher the cinematic representations’ full symbolism. Thai ghost films are produced for the ‘knowing spectator’ who has implicit knowledge of the cultural logics structuring ghostly classification in contemporary Thailand. This embodied knowledge allows Thai audiences to make sense of phi krasue’s ghostly image despite its cinematic transformation from ‘Filth Ghost’ to ‘Khmer Witch’. Based on Kristeva’s theory of abjection I will show that Thai audiences continue to see phi krasue first and foremost as uncanny ‘matter out of place’.

- by Benjamin Baumann
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- Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, Thai Studies, Khmer Studies
- by Dara Neak
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- Architecture, Khmer Studies, Architectural History, Khmer art and architecture

Summary. A newly discovered coin of ancient Cambodia, issued by king Īśanavarman (Ishanavarman) I, c. AD 611–635, reveals many insights into the history of ancient Cambodia and its international connections. The coin copies its designs from a gold coin originating from the kingdom of Samatata in south eastern Bangladesh, issued by a contemporary king Śaśānka, c. AD 590–637. The new coin shows the Khmer king to be a worshipper of the Indian god Śiva, sharing his religious beliefs with kings across northern India. The new coin also contributes to the debate on the chronology of the introduction of coinage in South East Asia.

- by Joe Cribb and +1
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- Khmer Studies, Southeast Asian Archaeology, Southeast Asian history, Ancient History of Bengal

The canon in musical exoticism in Western Art music focuses mainly on East Asian countries, but scarce is literature intersecting Cambodian music, composition and cultural agency vis-à-vis the Western new music scene. This dissertation is... more

- by Bosba Panh
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- Music, Southeast Asian Studies, Khmer Studies, Cambodia

จารึกวัดจงกอเป็นจารึกหลักหนึ่งที่น่าสนใจ เพราะเป็นจารึกหลักเดียวของพระเจ้าชยวีรวรมัน หรือ ชัยวีรวรมัน ที่พบในประเทศไทย อีกทั้งตัวจารึกเอกก็ระบุปีศักราชไว้แน่นอน ซึ่งเป็นข้อมูลสําคัญ ในทางประวัติศาสตร์เกี่ยวกับอาณาจักรขอมเมืองพระนคร... more

- by Tain Gree
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- Khmer Studies, Cambodia, Cambodian Archaeology, Thailand Social History
- by Alexis Sanderson
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- Jainism, Khmer Studies, Sanskrit language and literature, Tantric Studies

The author offers the first complete English translation of the Old Khmer inscription K.557/600 from Angkor Borei, which dates from 611 CE. It is the earliest dated inscription of Cambodia known today. This source was first published by George Cœdès in 1942. He translated the inscription into French but omitted the names of servants. Since his edition there has been no attempt to produce the full translation, except the Russian translation by Anton O. Zakharov in 2016. The inscription sheds light on the ancient Khmer personal names and sobriquets. Names of servants or ‘slaves,’ who were granted to various gods, i.e. religious foundations, by various donators, were of Sanskrit, Old Khmer, Austronesian, and Austroasiatic origin. But servants who bore these names or sobriquets played similar social roles. Thus, names of different origin were not indicators of different social status.
Zakharov, Anton O. The earliest dated Cambodian inscription K. 557/600 from Angkor Borei, Cambodia: an English translation and commentary. Vostok (Oriens). 2019. No. 1. Pp. 66–80.

- by Anton Zakharov
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- Southeast Asian Studies, Khmer Studies, Sanskrit language and literature, Cambodia

This paper asks why the predominant Buddhist icon of ancient Angkor was a Buddha seated on the coils of a giant multi-headed serpent with raised cobra hood. The Khmer Buddha has yet to be named or explained despite being the principal image in the central sanctuary of the Bayon, Angkor’s first Buddhist state temple. The icon is very widely taken to represent the Naga Mucalinda sheltering the Buddha from a storm six weeks after his enlightenment. Several scholars have expressed puzzlement at why this minor episode in the Sakyamuni biography should have found such favour with the Mahayanist ancient but few have dismissed it as a wrong interpretation. I will endorse rejection and suggest that the Khmer naga and Mucalinda are doppelgänger with quite different meanings -- a conclusion reached after examining the Buddhist contexts of the Khmer icon’s naga-enthroned (preferable to ‘protected’) predecessors in Amaravati, Sri Lanka, Malay Peninsula and northeast Thailand. The Angkorian Buddha, I will claim, should be seen as the Khmer Vairocana or ‘Sarvavid’ (‘Omniscient’, named in one key inscription) of the tantric Vajrayana and unrelated to the minor Mucalinda biographical episode which later occasionally appears in the southern Buddhism of modern Thailand, Burma and Cambodia. The latter we have allowed to interpose itself and distort our understanding of the centrally important earlier icon.

- by Peter D . Sharrock
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- Khmer Studies, Buddhist Art, Sri Lanka, Angkor

Chinese academic style, with a considerably higher percentage of quotes than might be expected in a western academic paper. The Chinese original version was then translated into English, by Antonio Graceffo. The quotes from Chinese language sources were also translated by Antonio. The quotes from Khmer media sources were originally written in English, ostensibly translated by the original journalists or staff who published the stories. The Khmer quotes are reprinted, exactly as they were originally published, including grammatical errors.

- by Antonio Graceffo
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- Combat Sports, Khmer Studies, Martial Arts, Cambodia

BiblioNewsChiangMai is a monthly newsletter produced as a hobby by Louis Gabaude in partnership with the École française d'Extrême-Orient library in Chiang Mai. It aims to spread informations on old and recent publications dealing with human and social sciences exploring the research domains of the EFEO (see below). These publications can be found either at the EFEO library in Chiang Mai, or at the editor's personal library, or on the Net.

- by Louis Gabaude
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- Buddhism, Southeast Asian Studies, Thai Studies, Buddhist Studies
- by Daro Oem
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- Physics, Quantum Physics, Khmer Studies, Physics Education
- by Kunthea Chhom
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- Khmer Studies, Epigraphy

First draft of IPA CHART IN KHMER LANGUAGE

- by chem vatho
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- Languages and Linguistics, Phonetics, Khmer Studies, Linguistics

BiblioNewsChiangMai is a monthly newsletter produced as a hobby by Louis Gabaude in partnership with the École française d'Extrême-Orient library in Chiang Mai. It aims to spread informations on old and recent
publications dealing with human and social sciences exploring the research domains of the EFEO (Anthropology - Archaeology - Architecture - Arts - Epigraphy - Ethnography - Ethnology - History - Literatures - Philology - Sciences of religions.). These publications can be found either at the EFEO library in Chiang Mai, or at the editor's personal
library, or on the Net.

- by Louis Gabaude
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- Buddhism, Southeast Asian Studies, Thai Studies, Buddhist Studies

Violent Neoliberalism explores the relationship between neoliberalism and violence through a critical poststructuralist perspective. Springer exposes the supposed humanitarianism of what has become the world's most dominant political economic model as a process of transformation that is shot through with a significant degree of cruelty. Employing a series of theoretical dialogues informed by the empirical experiences of development, discourse, and dispossession in contemporary Cambodia, Violent Neoliberalism engages as a diagnostic rupturing of commonsense to reveal the manifold ways in which ongoing patterns of neoliberalization have become engrossed with violence.

- by Simon Springer
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- Critical Theory, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography

Violence is a confounding concept. It frequently defies explanation and lacks an agreed upon definition. Yet geographers are well positioned to bring greater conceptual clarity to violence by thinking through its intersections with space. In setting the tone for this special issue on Violence and Space we highlight some of the key lines of flight that have shaped geographical thinking on violence. While there are a significant number of geographers interested in the question of violence, the field of ‘geographies of violence’ remains an emerging area of research that deserves greater attention and a more rigorous examination. By emphasizing the spatiality of violence, this special issue aims to contribute to a more sustained conversation on the violent geographies that shape our daily lives, our encounters with institutions, and the various structures that configure our social organization. This introduction is but an initial sketch of what we believe needs to be a much larger and unfolding research agenda dedicated to understanding violence from a geographical perspective.

- by Simon Springer
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- Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory

Note: this is Annex B (Pp. 128-141 [and with reference to Ethnolinguistic Map of Cambodia, p. 24]) in: World Bank Inspection Panel. Investigation Report (March 30, 2006): Cambodia: Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project (Credit No. 3365-KH and Trust Fund 26419-JPN).
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This Annex to the World Bank Inspection Panel’s report on Cambodia’s Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project (FCMCPP) summarizes recent literature, cited below, about the designation or classification of indigenous peoples of Cambodia. [...] While much advocacy and anthropological literature on indigenous peoples has concentrated on the Americas, a considerable body of recent literature also assesses the concept of “indigenous peoples” in Asia. There is also ample precedent within Cambodian ethnology, past Constitutions, and past and current legislation and political practice since the French colonial period for special consideration of the vulnerable status of Cambodian indigenous peoples in development projects, including those populations mentioned in the FCMCPP Request for Inspection.
Cambodia’s difficult, war-torn recent history, with changes in government associated with substantial changes in national legislation, has had significant implications for the status of Cambodia’s ethnic minorities. And yet, as Ovesen and Trankell (2004) point out, Cambodia is unusual within Southeast Asia for its small ethnic minority populations, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population. Of Cambodia’s approximately ten million inhabitants, almost 90 percent are ethnic Khmer. Furthermore, although the historic ethnic composition of Cambodia during the Angkor kingdom is unknown, the dominance of this historic Khmer kingdom within and beyond the current boundaries of Cambodia has very probably entailed many centuries of significant linguistic and ethnic “Khmerization” (or convergence of other languages and ethnic traditions toward those of the Khmer who were historically dominant in the region).

- by Paul Michael Taylor
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- Ethnic Studies, Indigenous Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Thai Studies

Employing a poststructuralist-meets-anarchist stance that advances conceptual insight into the nature of sovereign power, this article examines the dialectics of capitalism/primitive accumulation, civilization/savagery, and law/violence, which are argued to exist in a mutually reinforcing 'trilateral of logics'. In deciphering this triadic system, this article offers a radical (re)appraisal of capitalism, its legal process, and its civilizing effects, which together serve to mask the originary and ongoing violences of primitive accumulation and the property system. Such obfuscation suggests that wherever the trilateral of logics is enacted, so too is the state of exception called into being, exposing us all as potential homo sacer (life that does not count). Proceeding as a diagnostic assessment of sovereign power, where although signposted by Cambodia's contemporary experiences of violent land conflict, this article is not intended as a fine-grained empirical analysis. Instead, it forwards a theoretical dialogue where Cambodia's neoliberalizing processes offer a window on how sovereign power configures itself around the three discursive-institutional constellations (i.e., capitalism, civilization, and law) that form the trilateral of logics. Rather than formulating prescriptive solutions, the intention here is critique, where in particular it is argued that the preoccupation with strengthening Cambodia's legal system should not be read as a panacea for contemporary social ills, but as an imposition that serves to legitimize the violences of property.

- by Simon Springer
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- Critical Theory, History, Economic History, Sociology
- by Arlo Griffiths
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- Southeast Asian Studies, Indonesian History, Khmer Studies, Indonesian Studies

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Paris 2017

- by christophe Pottier
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- Khmer Studies, Angkor, Khmer art and architecture, Archeology
- by Trude Jacobsen
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- Geography, Gender Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Gender History

A paper in Proceeding of the 6th International Conference on “South East Asian Cultural Values: The Values of Cultural Heritage” December 16-17, 2010, Angkor Century Hotel, Siem Reap City, Cambodia organized by Asia Research Center,... more

- by Dr. Juan R. Céspedes, Ph.D.
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- Southeast Asian Studies, Khmer Studies, Southeast Asia, Vietnam War

Chinese annals and indigenous inscriptions document a succession of three early states in the lower Mekong basin during the first millennium A.D. The earliest (“Funan”) emerged in the Mekong delta; the next (“Chenla”) materialized c. 250 km north along the Mekong River; the third (the Khmer state) surfaced two centuries later along the bank of Lake Tonle Sap. Previous work has focused on the emergence of each polity, rather than on patterns of collapse and regeneration in this continuous but dynamic Khmer state. This paper examines evidence for continuities in economic, ideological and political structures in first millennium A.D. Cambodia.