Cambodia, or CAMBOJA, nominally a state in Indo-China under a French protectorate, but practically a French dependency, on the lower course of the Mekhong, between and lat., and and long., 220 miles from NE. to SW., and 150 miles broad, comprising an area of 32,390 sq. m. It is bounded on the SE. and S. by French Cochinchina; on the SW. by the Gulf of Siam; on the N. by Siam; on the E., towards Annam, where the frontier traversing imperfectly explored territories is vague, by the territories of independent Mois tribes. The coast, 156 miles long, indented about the middle by the bay of Kompong-Som, offers but one port, Kampot. Among the numerous islands along the coast are Kong, Rong, Hon-Nan-Trung, &c., most of them inhabited. In the north and west are some extreme ramifications of mountain-chains descending from the
Central Asian plateau; on the north the frontier-chain of Phnum (i.e. 'mountain') Dangrek; and, between the Great Lake and the Gulf of Siam, Crévanh, Tek-Liang, Pang-Chak, Thiang-Ho, Elephant Chain, Bombi Cone; some of them over 3000 feet high. The mountains generally contain iron, limestone, sandstone, and more sparingly, copper. The greater part, however, of Cambodia consists of alluvial plains, completely inundated during the rainy season. In the north-east are schistose forest-clad tracts. The principal river, the Mekhong (in Cambodian, Tonlé-Tom—i.e. 'great river'), flows through Cambodia from north to south as far as Chen-Tel-Pho, and thence southwards till, at the town of Pnom-Penh, it divides into two arms, the Han-Giang or Bassac, and the Tien-Giang or Anterior River, both flowing south. Above Pnom-Penh is a north-north-west outlet for the surcharge of the Great River, the Tonlé-Sap (i.e. 'river of sweet water'), expanding into the Great Lake, 100 miles by 25 miles in area, with a depth of 65 feet at its maximum magnitude. The periodical risings of the Great River deposit rich mud strata over the surrounding plain to a wide extent. Numerous tributaries discharge into the Mekhong and Tonlé-Sap. Flowing into the Gulf of Siam are Kompong-Som and Kampot. The climate is divided into the rainy season, from April to October, but interrupted in August, and the dry, from October to April. The thermometer ranges from to , but on the high plateaus sinks as low as The natural products are more numerous and varied than in French Cochinchina: rice, the principal cereal, cotton, maize, pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamoms, sugar-cane, indigo, manioc, ramee, sesame, gutta-percha, &c. The forests contain excellent timber. The fauna of Cambodia comprise the elephant, tiger, panther, bear, rhinoceros, ape, buffalo, &c. Cambodia supplies Cochinchina with a large part of the cattle it consumes. The horses of Cambodia are small and robust, with remarkably large heads. Birds, principally wading birds, abound. Crocodiles are found in most of the rivers. The Mekhong is also called Cambodia River.
The population of Cambodia was officially stated in 1891 at 814,754, of whom 492,479 were Cambodians, 120,019 Annamites, 137,837 Chinese, 60,633 Malays, 3603 Tagals (from the Philippines), &c., and 131 French. Pnom-Penh, the capital, at the junction of the 'Four Arms,' has a population of 35,000 of very mixed race. The Cambodians approach the Malay and Indian types, are less Mongoloid and more nearly resemble the Caucasian type than their neighbours. They are tall and robust, copper-coloured rather than yellow, the skull elongate, the nose, though flat, more prominent than in the Annamite, and the eyes very slightly oblique. Subject for centuries to foreign incursions and mandarin exactions, the Cambodian, long without foothold of his own, and restricting himself to the barest necessities, has grown indolent and passive, the more so that the rich loam yields its abundance for almost no cultivation. The principal industry is the fishing of the Great Lake, beginning in November, and employing annually some 15,000 persons. In Kompong-Soai are manufactures of iron. The total commerce of Cambodia is valued at from 10 to 12 million francs yearly. Kampot exports pepper and cardamoms. Lines of steamers connect Pnom-Penh with Saigon twice a week on one side, and with Battambang on the other. The religion of Cambodia is a development of Buddhism, in which the worship of ancestors forms a large part. Instruction is given by the priests. The common reckoning of time dates from 638 A.D. At Pnom-Penh is a large school with two French professors and a native teacher, attended by the king's sons and the mandarins. The Cambodian language has much in common with the other monosyllabic languages of Indo-China, especially those of Siam and Annam. It lacks, however, the varieties of tones, or inflections of voice, by which these discriminate between the different significations of the same monosyllable. The letters are borrowed from the Indian Pali, the parent of all the Indo-Chinese alphabets. Besides the current idiom there is a sort of literary language of Pali vocables used in official ceremonies by the bonzes and mandarins. By treaty with France in 1884 Cambodia is divided into eight provinces or residencies. The whole of the French possessions in Indo-China are now, by decree of 1887, united under the name of Indo-China, with a governor-general at its head, Cambodia having placed over it a resident-general under the governor-general.
The ancient kingdom of Cambodia or Khmer formerly extended over a large part of Indo-China. Buddhism would appear to have been introduced in the 4th century. The Portuguese in the 16th century were the first Europeans to explore the valley of Tonlé-Tom, and to this day descendants of the Portuguese are to be found in Cambodia. Close on the Portuguese followed Spaniards from Manila, and about 1650 the Dutch set up their factories at the mouth of the Mekhong. The Khmer kingdom became dismembered in the 17th century, when Annam took successively Baria, Bien-Hoa, Saigon, Mytho, and Vinh-Long, and in 1715 Chandoc and Hatien. A century later (1812) Siam wrested the provinces west of the Great Lake: Battambang, Angkor, Toulé-Repon, and Melu-Prey. In 1858 France first appeared in Indo-China. Having made herself mistress of the Annam provinces of the delta of the Mekhong, France on the 11th August 1863 concluded a treaty with the new king of Cambodia, Norodom, placing Cambodia under a French protectorate. This treaty has been superseded by that of the 17th June 1884, under which the king of Cambodia accepts all the reforms, administrative, judiciary, financial, and commercial, which the government of France may deem advisable.
Ancient Sculptures.—The most remarkable feature of Cambodia is the splendid ruins of Khmer architecture. The temples and palaces of Angkor were known to Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century. A graphic account of Cambodia by a Chinese traveller who spent two years (1295-97) in that kingdom, was translated by Abel Rémusat in 1819. In 1858-61 M. Mouhot, a French naturalist, explored the valley of the Mekhong, &c. He was followed by Dr Adolf Bastian. Later, J. Thomson took a plan of Angkor-Vaht, with 30 photographs of it and other places. The French next fitted out two expeditions, the first under Captain de Lagrée (1866), and the second (1873) under Captain Delaporte. The great piles explored number over 50, while the smaller isolated structures are counted by the hundreds. The temple of Angkor-Vaht occupies a larger area than that of Karnak in Egypt, and just as vast are the monuments of Préa-Khan (near Angkor), of Méléa, and of Pontéay-Chma. Those of Baion, Préa-Khan (province of Kompong-Soai), Ta-Prohm, Ka-Kéo, and Ek-dey constitute likewise immense groups. More remarkable than their magnitude and number is their artistic value, the finest productions deserving to be ranked even with the masterpieces of the West. The Khmer structures are characterised by grandeur and unity of design, and are, moreover, for the most part entirely overlaid, profusely but unconfusedly, with delicate ornamentation. In a single temple of Angkor are 1532 columns, and the mountain yielding the stone is 32 miles distant.
The joinings are scarcely perceptible—no sign of mortar, no mark of chisel, the surface as polished as marble. Pale or fallow sandstone, bright-red brick, and Bien-Hoa stone of sombre rusty colour, are blended in the Khmer architecture for polychromatic effect. Among the ruins are massive stone bridges so solidly constructed as to have almost all resisted the periodical inundations and shock of huge tree-trunks hurled against them. The bridge of Spean-Tenk measures 470 feet in length, and has 34 arches. Monuments so vast, so numerous, and so diverse are calculated by Delaporte to range from the beginning of our era to the 15th and 16th centuries, the finest dating from between the 8th and 13th or 14th. The present degenerate descendants of those Khmer architects look up to these structures from which they are now so far aloof as the work of 'angels' or 'giants,' if not the product of spontaneous generation.
See E. F. Aymonier, Géographie de Cambodge (Paris, 1876), and for the language, his Dictionnaire Français-Cambodgien (Paris, 1875); H. Mager, Atlas Colonial; A. Bouinais and Paulus, L'Indo-Chine Française (2d. ed. 1885); A. H. Mouhot, Travels in Indo-China; J. Moura, Cambodge (2 vols. Paris, 1882); L. Delaporte, Voyage au Cambodge; F. Garnier, Excursions et Reconnaissances (Saigon), vols. viii. and xiii.; Fergusson, History of Architecture.