KHMERS, lcmerz, the earliest-known in habitants of Cambodia. In the course of time they have been forced to retreat to the low, marshy lands of the country and neighboring sections of Cochin-China and Siam. At this late date it is very difficult to tell whether they were originally a pure race consisting of one linguistic stock when they first came into the country they now occupy, or were then a mixed race. It is certain that they are now linguisti cally and ethnologically made up of different races; but this may be the result of their con stant contact for many years with the various races by which they have been surrounded and with which they have come into touch. In their language are to be found traces of Mongolian, Dravidian and Aryan influences; but to which of these races they originally belonged, if any, does not seem to have been definitely decided though much has been written on the subject and extensive investigations, chiefly of a lin guistic nature, have been undertaken. These would seem to place the Khmers either among the Malays or Polynesians or among both, mak ing them a hybrid race. Although their lan guage retains many Mongolian affinities, yet their appearance is not typically Mongolian; and they have normally neither Mongolian hair nor Mongolian eyes, the hair being inclined to be wavy and the eyes very like those of the Indo-European races. But these physical char acteristics are not a sure indication that they may not have originally been of Mongolian stock; for the Turks, for instance, have lost, through intermarriage and mixture of races, their very marked original racial characteristics. The Khmers are taller, darker and more slen der of form than the races among which they live or by which they are surrounded. That they have long been a cultured race there seems little room for doubt; and it is generally con ceded that they were the builders of the mag nificent ruins of very ancient edifices to be found in what is generally conceded to be the primitive area of Khmers occupation. These consist of noteworthy pyramids, temples, pal aces and other buildings executed with consid erable taste, skill and knowledge of the princi ples of architecture as generally known in the more primitive stages of Indian culture. These
edifices show progressive stages of develop ment, just as do the buildings of pre-Colum bian America, more especially those of Yuca tan, Central America and Peru. There are in dications that the later Khmers edifices were influenced by the lighter and more artistic In dian architecture and cultural taste. How far back the earliest existing Khmers ruins date is a much disputed question; some authorities claiming for them an existence in the pre Christian days, while others as stoutly main tain that they do not date further back than the 1st or 2d century of the present era, if in deed they were in existence at that time. Evi dence goes to show, however, that the best of their architectural age stretched from about 700 to 1400 A.D. This span of 700 years was un doubtedly influenced by the then prevailing In dian architecture; but the bases of all the Khmers building was undoubtedly indigenous and not, as has been claimed, derived from In dia; and the proof of this rests in the fact that these buildings are so different from anything that India produced at that time or since. The modern Khmers are still skilled mechanics and are especially noted as gold and silver smiths. See CAMBODIA ; SIAM ; COCHIN-CHINA.
Bibliography.—Aymonier, 'Tentes Khmers' (Paris 1878-91) ; (in Bulletin de la Societe des Etudes indo-chinoises de Saigon, No. LVII, Saigon 1909) ; Fournereau (and Por cher) 'Les ruines d'Angkor> (Paris 1890); 'Le Siam ancien) (Paris 1895) ; and various works on Cambodia, Cochin-China and Siam by Gamier, Lemire and Maura.