CAMBO'DIA Skt. KamKjii Once a pow erful kingdom of extreme southeastern Asia; latterly a French possession, constituting one of the divisions of the general government of ludo China (Map: Shun, K 8). Two of its provinces, however, have become annexed to Siam, its neighbor on the northwest. Cambodia is bounded by Annam on the east and by Cochin-China and the Gulf of Siam on the south. The parallel of 12° N. crosses it about the middle. its area is about 37,500 square miles, divided among 57 na tive provinces. The country has scarcely been explored, and there is comparatively little known about it. It is generally level. The western, northwestern, and eastern portions, however, are more or less broken with wooded hills and plateaus, reaching a height of about 4000 feet in parts. The great waterway is the navigable Mekong Piver, which annually overflows and richly fertilizes a wide territory. An arm con nects the Mekong with an extensive lake on the borders of Siam, called Tonle Sap, which, accord ing to the alternations of low and high water, at one time discharges its surplus waters into that river and at another is replenished by the waters sent forth by the 'Mekong.
Despite the fact that Cambodia is in the tor rid zone and on the whole a low-lying region, its climate is not as intolerably hot as might be ex pected, the heavy rains moderating the tempera ture. The main climatic features are determined by the monsoons. There are two seasons, the wet and the dry. The flora and fauna are character istic of the Indo-Chinese reghm. Tigers, leopards, and elephants are found in ninny sections. Gold, sil•er-bearing lead, copper. iron, and lime exist, hint only the last two are profitably available. The fisheries form a notable industry, both along the islands of the coast and on the Tonle Sap (q.v.).
Agriculture is the leading occupation. The well-populated river plains and islands pro duce rice, the main food of the country. Cot ton, tobaeco, pepper, cardamom, beans, sugar cane, maize, indigo, the mulberry, coffee, cacao, and vanilla are grown. Cattle-raising is quite general. Some eighty kinds of valuable wood are found, such as ebony, rose, sapan, and The gathering of these woods, together with palm-sugar, wax, and gum, forms a noteworthy branch of industry. Silk-weaving is a large do mestic occupation. There are considerable fac tories for shelling cotton-seeds near the capital, Pnom-Penh (q.v.), a city of about 50,000 people, situated in the heart of the country. Cambodia has no seaport. of commercial importance, Kam pot having merely a local or inland trade. Gen erally speaking, however, easy communication is had, both by land and by wafer, with the in terior. Telegraph lines connect the principal towns with each other, and with Burma. But there are no railways. no modernized facilities for transporting articles of commerce. The ex port and import trade is through Saigon, the capital of Co•hin-China. The exports include chiefly rice, and still(d fish (about 13,0011 tons annually). Cotton, tobaceo, gum, and wood are exported. The imports embrace silk stuffs. salt. opium, textiles, and arms. The total an nual value of the commeree, including loth im ports and exports, as given by French authori ties, is agent $5,000,000.
Cambodia has been under the protection of France since I St13. The government is a mon archy. The King has five ministers. In 1884, under the new treaty signed with King Norodom, the administration was practioally handed over to France, the native functionaries being ap pointed by•the King with the approval of the local French officials, who are under the direc tion of the Governor-General of French Indo China, who is represented by a resident. The budget of Cambodia for m101 1 was fixed at 1,95 1, 48,7 piastres. The inhabitants are estimated at 1.500.000, nearly four-fifths of whom live in the river regions.
Outside of recent Annamite and Chinese im migrants and a considerable body of Malays, the population of Cambodia consists mainly of the Cambodians proper, or formerly wide spread over much of Indo-China, to whose half civilization belong the wonderful architectural remains of Angkor (now- in Siamese territory), etc.; the Penong, or 'savages,' of the eastern
table-lands and mountains, belonging, with the Mois of the adjacent regions, to a primitive ele ment of the population; the Khois, or Kuis, an other aboriginal group in the northwest ; and lastly, the Tsiain, or Chian, in the south, who seem to be the survivors of the extinct empire of Champa, once dominant over all eastern Indo China. All these peoples are now considerably mixed, the Khmers most, the mountain aborigines least, with Aryan (Hindu), Dravidian, Malay, and Tibeto-Chinese blood and with the llindu influence (the alphabet of the Camhodians and the sacerdotal vocabulary are of PAH origin) predoininating in religion, art, and literature among the more civilized sections. The Penong are rather short, doliehocephalie, much lighter skinned than the surrounding peoples; the Khois, darker-skinned, taller, and inclined to be short headed ; the Tsiam, dark-skinned and rather handsome in form and features, with some negroid suggestion in hair, etc. The are taller and less Mongoloid in appearance than the Annamese, Siamese, and closely related peo ples. in speech the Penong and Khois probably represent a primitive variety of Indo-Chinese stock. The Khmer language differs in certain marked respects from the latter, and, like that of Tshun, is said to have Malayan affinities, but this is not. clearly made out, and the speech of the Khmers is largely sal generi,s. Buddhism is the prevailing religion. Some of the Tsiam profess Islam. Christianity and education have scarcely made a beginning. The Khmers are peaceful and teachable, but phlegmatic. Polyg amy is practiced, but not more than three wives are permitted. The dwellings are mostly along the river-banks. Slavery has almost disappeared, having been abolished by the French in 1884.
That Cambodia once an extensive and powerful State and under a much higher grade of civilization than at present is shown by the superb architectural remains, the ruins of Angkor being especially noticeable. The early history of Cambodia, like that of Siam and Annam, with whose fortunes its own were often closely con fleeted. is extremely obscure; hut legend would seem to point to India as the source of the ear liest migrations into the country. From Chi nese notices it is known that a kingdom of Cam bodia was already in existence not. very long after the beginning of the Christian Era, and that, after a short period of submission to China, in the Sixth or Seventh Century, it attained to a high degree of splendor. \\all the of the Fourteenth Century, the period of de cadence set in, the kingdom grew exhausted in continuous warfare against Siam and Annam, and was forced to pay tribute to each in turn. or to both. The first Europeans in Cambodia were the Portuguese, who founded a mission there in 155:3. The attempts made by the Dutch and the English to establish themselves in the region proved unsuccessful, and when the French first turned their attention to the land, in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, European in fluence was non-existent there.
Consult: Verschuur, Aux colonies d'Asic et dans l'orean Indicn (Paris. 1900) Ileauclere, .1 trarcrs Cociiinchine, Cu HI bOdyt , Tonkin, Laos (Paris, 1900); Leelk.e. Corn bodge, conies ct legendles (Paris, 1895) Recherches star la legislation combo (Benne: Droit price (Paris. 1890) : Droit public (1894) : Legislation criminelle (1894) ; Wake, "Les Cambodgiens et leer origine," in the Recur d'Antbropologir (1 SS 0): Berga rgne, "L'ancien royaume du Camp." in the Recur Asiatigur (1888! : Fournereau. Les ruines kimeres (Paris, 1S90).