The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields (Khmer: វាលពិឃាត, Khmer pronunciation: [ʋiəl pikʰiət]) are a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than 1,000,000 people were killed and buried by the Communist Party of Kampuchea during Khmer Rouge rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War (1970–1975). The mass killings were part of the broad, state-sponsored Cambodian genocide.

Analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites by the DC-Cam Mapping Program and Yale University indicates at least 1,386,734 victims of execution.[1][2] Estimates of the total deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including death from disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a 1975 population of roughly 8 million. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea and toppled the Khmer Rouge regime, ending the genocide.

The Cambodian journalist Dith Pran coined the term "killing fields" after his escape from the regime.[3]

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Thai, ethnic Chinese, ethnic Cham, Cambodian Christians, and Buddhist monks were the demographic targets of persecution. As a result, Pol Pot has been described as "a genocidal tyrant".[4] Martin Shaw described the Cambodian genocide as "the purest genocide of the Cold War era".[5]

Ben Kiernan estimates that about 1.7 million people were killed.[6] Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After five years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, he concludes that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution".[7] A United Nations investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.[8] Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,[9] while Marek Sliwinski suggests that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.[10] Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion.[11] By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot",[12][13] who were saved by international aid after the Vietnamese invasion.

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Buddhism in Cambodia

Buddhism in Cambodia or Khmer Buddhism[2] (Khmer: ព្រះពុទ្ធសាសនានៅកម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: Preăh Pŭtthôsasânéa noŭ Kâmpŭchéa) has existed since at least the 5th century. In its earliest form it was a type of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Today, the predominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism. It is enshrined in the Cambodian constitution as the official religion of the country. Theravada Buddhism has been the Cambodian state religion since the 13th century (except during the Khmer Rouge period). As of 2019 it was estimated that 97. 1 percent of the population are Buddhists.[1][3] The history of Buddhism in Cambodia spans a number of successive kingdoms and empires. Buddhism entered Cambodia via two different streams. The earliest forms of Buddhism, along with Hindu influences, entered the Kingdom of Funan with Hindu merchants. In later history, a second stream of Buddhism entered Khmer culture during the Angkor empire when Cambodia absorbed the various Buddhist traditions of the...

Preah Vihear Temple Show

Preah Vihear Temple (Khmer: ប្រាសាទព្រះវិហារ Prasat Preah Vihear) is an ancient Khmer Hindu temple that was built by the Khmer Empire and is on the top of a 525-metre (1,722 ft) cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, in the Preah Vihear province, Cambodia. Affording a view for many kilometres across a plain, Prasat Preah Vihear has the most spectacular setting of all the temples built by the Khmer Empire. As a key edifice of the empire's spiritual life, it was supported and modified by successive kings and so bears elements of several architectural styles. Preah Vihear is unusual among Khmer temples in being constructed along a long north–south axis, rather than having the conventional rectangular plan with orientation toward the east. The temple gives its name to Cambodia's Preah Vihear Province in which it is now located, as well as the Khao Phra Wihan National Park, which borders it in Thailand's Sisaket Province though it is no longer accessible from Thailand. In 1962, aft...

The National Museum of Cambodia

The National Museum of Cambodia (Khmer: សារមន្ទីរជាតិ) is Cambodia's largest museum of cultural history and is the country's leading historical and archaeological museum. It is located in Chey Chumneas,[1] Phnom Penh. Aerila View of National Museum of Cambodia The museum houses one of the world's largest collections of Khmer art, including sculptural, Khmer ceramics, bronzes, and ethnographic objects. Its collection includes over 14,000 items, from prehistoric times to periods before, during and after the Khmer Empire, which at its height stretched from Thailand, across present-day Cambodia, to southern Vietnam. The National Museum of Cambodia is located on Street 10 in central Phnom Penh, to the north of the Royal Palace and on the west side of Veal Preah Man square. The visitors' entrance to the compound is at the corner of Streets 13 and 178. The Royal University of Fine Arts is located on the west side of the museum. The museum is under the authority of the Camb...

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