people like to say khmer culture was copied from india.

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i know that our culture was deeply influenced by india but what are some of the aspects of our culture that is uniquely khmer? elements of our culture that are truly of khmer origin. like the thais and laos would rarely mention that their culture was influenced by khmers but india instead. such as the words the thais and laotians borrowed from us. i know that a lot of them are sanskrit in origin but there's got to be a lot of words that they borrowed that are khmer origin also. also the royal court etiquettes and writing system that the thais and laotians like to acknowledge they are of indian origin which is true but i doubt everything is of indian origin. khmers really shaped their own unique culture but i have to admit that i don't know many aspects of our culture that is of khmer origin.

[Message last modified 11-25-2004 11:22pm by jaya_kampuchea]

whats the origin of the apsara?

Pengchon got a good point, apsara is unique. i never seen indian temples same as khmer, the style is different. we might influence with the culture but not the arts and they are unique.

I wouldn't call it copy. Khmers didn't go to India and steal their religions, it's the Indians who brought their religion to the Khmer Empire.

quote:

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Originally posted by Pengchon
whats the origin of the apsara?

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the word apsara itself is devrived from Sankrit

what about our architecture
like the roofs, the old style houses and the style like the royal palace?
i always wondered where that came from, it dont look too chinese and it dont look too indian, must be khmer, it looks nice, i hope it's originally khmers'

[Message last modified 11-26-2004 03:09pm by ah_gho]

I agree

quote:

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Originally posted by MDKhmer
I wouldn't call it copy. Khmers didn't go to India and steal their religions, it's the Indians who brought their religion to the Khmer Empire.

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hmmm.....

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Don't india,chinese and french influences our cultures?how about our foods like pahok and salah machu isn't that originally khmer and our khmer dresses.We have our own ways of celebrating weddings,funerals and water festival.Of course, we influences thai,laos and vietamiese cultures these countries used to be part of the kingdom of cambodia.

 

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some of you are so ignorant when it comes to khmer history.

NO, apsara is not uniquely khmer. it is of indian origin. they are dancers of the hindu god indra.

and NO, khmers DID NOT influence vietnam culturally. these are the things that you guys should already know.

Our Arts prooved it all.

HAHA! It's still copying! Copying knows no locations...hehe.

Anyways, I wonder what Khmers were like before the indian influences?? What made us want to asimilate another culture so much??

quote:

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Originally posted by MDKhmer
I wouldn't call it copy. Khmers didn't go to India and steal their religions, it's the Indians who brought their religion to the Khmer Empire.

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From what I have read and heard, Khmer is union of Indian people and culture and the native people and culture. If you are to believe our origin story/myth whether you called the first Khmer King(Indian) and Queen(native) Preah Thaong and Neang Neak, Kaudyin (wrong spelling?) and Soma, or Huntien and Lievyi, our ancestors merge the two languages ( Khmer for commoner, Sanskrit noblity and royalty), cultures and beliefs. Many aspects of both surviving to this day as seen in the language, religious ceremonies, and arts. I do not see it as copying. I would not say a child copied from his parents, and also do not see them as the same. សំបូរ​ (Sambo)


[Message last modified 11-27-2004 11:40am by aphoap]

This is all I can think of right now, I hope its the final and i will solve your answer.

Pa' hok!!!
bok la hong!!!

Hello,

I think that the union between Khmers & Indians was a great one. It gave our people a unique look, gave us a cool language, and enhanced our tribal culture 100+ percent. The Angkor architecture was influenced by Hinduism & ancient Javanese engineer. Since Hinduism was one of our influences in building (among other things) then there is no doubt that we Khmers took a lot of knowledge from the Hindu ancient Hindu building manual called the Vaastu Shastra. The temple below was built on the rules of the Vaastu Shastra. However, I'm not sure if the Indians taught us directly or if we went through the Java first through the Indians teaching them.


Virupaksha Temple located in Hampi Village, India


If you wanna learn more about the Vasstu Shastra you can go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaastu_Shastra


Influence couldve went like:

Indian -> Java engineers -> Angkorian
Indian -> Funan/Chenla/Angkorian


Cycle Of Influence

I think what happened was that we got Indian influence over different periods times & during the those time gaps where the Indian influence wasn't that strong we added some of our own uniquely Khmer stuff to the mix which is why BOTH of those theories could pretty much be correct. For instance, the first Khmer state of Chenla already had a capital (called Isanapura) and was obviously Indian influenced from the Funan state (Chenla was under control of Funan. It was a vassal state of Funan. Chenla also had a list of Khmer kings.)

Once Chenla took over Funan the Khmers further absorbed Funan people & culture and became even more Indianized. Between the time Chenla existed & the time it fell this is probably when we Khmers mixed some of our own uniquely Khmer stuff. When the Javanese took down Chenla they then made us a vassal state of the Sailendra dynasty of Java. Then when Jayavarman II came back from exile in Java after being captured when Chenla was taken over he liberated the Khmer people and established Angkor. Once he got his *!#@^# together he probably established good relations with the Javanese & then this is when the Java engineers came and futher helped us developed our architecture. So this means that the influence cycle probably went like this:

IN THE BEGINNING

Mostly Indian/small Chinese/early Khmer tribal culture -> Funan -> Chenla (A Khmer State)

THEN

Chenla -> Javanese influence -> Angkor

Once Angkor was established then Khmers pretty much started doing their own thing but not forgetting the centuries of Indianization.

Things to keep in mind:

- The Javanese were also heavily influenced by Indians

- Funan also had small unique tribal cultures so some things couldve came from them but its probably not really worth mentioning because most of Funan was extremely Indianized as stated above.

The Chinese, Chenla, & Angkor

The first Jayavarman (Jayavarman I) was the Khmer King of Funan around 470s. Jayavarman had pretty good relations with the Chinese Emperor Wu-Ti. They would engage in trade and Jayavarman even sent a Buddhist monk by the name of Nagasena. Wu-ti even named Jayavarman "General of the Pacified South, King of Funan". The relationship between these two gave way to a small amount of influence in Funan.

Once Chenla had conquered Funan they also had relations with the Chinese but once Angkor was established the Chinese had little to do with Khmers.

The only other times the Chinese had came in contact with the Khmer Empire:

- Around 1066 during the rule of Harsavarman III when, according to Chinese sources, the Khmer & Chams joined them (the Chinese) to help fight against the Vietnamese because they had became a nuisance.

- Around 1117 when an embassy was sent by King Suryavarman to Chinese Imperial court.

- Around 1295 during the rule of Indravarman III. The Khmer are friendly towards the Chinese but had strict rules towards foreigners because they were afriad of other cultures wiping out Khmer culture. Indravarman III allows Zhou Daguan, a Chinese visitor, to come and visit. Zhou Daguan offers a great deal of concrete information about Angkor at the time. Zhou Daguan also takes note of the wars that were going on against the Thais.

Our superstitous mentality came from animism, our stilt houses, and knowledge of irrigation agriculture are uniquely Khmer.