Khmer Krom People in Vietnam

The world in general is still ignorant about what is Kampuchea Krom. Today, the origin of Kampuchea Krom is being systematically effaced from the world history by the Vietnamese colonialist government and its supporters. Kampuchea Krom history, its geography, its people, its culture, and its people identity are now being questioned by even the scholars. According to the July 12-25, 1996 issue of Phnom Penh Post which cover the "Angkor Borei: The Cradle of Cambodia ? " It said: "Vietnamese scholars are quoted as saying : " The Funan (Nokor Phnom) empire existed before Khmer ethnicity arose.

Linguistic evidence that these people were indeed Khmer is simply lacking'. " Supporting this statement was an American scholar, Miriam Stark, who said: " There is no question that the people of Angkor empire were Khmer.

But as to Funan (Nokor Phnom), we don't know what language they spoke, though we can fin out how old the site is (Angkor Borei), What agriculture was engaged in, what the demographic potential of the site was.

We can learn bow they lived, and what they did. But whether they were Khmer is perhaps an unanswering question. " As a child of the Khmer Krom, the indigenous people of this land which known to us as Kampuchea Krom., when I learned from these above quotations, they hurt very, very deeply.

I would like therefore to demonstrate facts and evidences of the existences of my people, the Khmer Krom, to the world and our rightful ownership to this land, the ancient Nokor Phnom (Funan) or the current Kampuchea Krom. Kampuchea Krom is an un-official Khmer name for the Mekong delta region, comprised the entire southern part of Vietnam. Its territory measures up to 65,000 square kilometers. The indigenous people of Kampuchea Krom as Nokor Phnom (or Funan, in the corrupt Chinese translation).

As a commercial power, Nokor Phnom was well know for its deep-sea city of O Keo (historians also used the corrupt term, Oc-eo). It exact location is in the Kramoun Sar (Rach Gia) province. O Keo was a trading center in Southeast Asia where the Indian, the Arabs, the Roman, the Chines and Japanese met. Many Khmer and Mon-Khmer coins, including those of Rome have been foung at O Keo in the suurounding provinces. Economically, the Khmer of Nokor Phnom were geniuses in their own right as is shown by their mastery of water management. One can still find hundreds if not thousands of canals today in the Mekong delta of Kampuchea Krom.

They were built by the ancient Khmers of Nokor Phnom. In fact, Khmer Krom do not call their water streams as "Stung " as the Khmer in Cambodia called them. But they know only " Prek." for "Prek " means canal and " Stung " means natural streams. This demonstrated that the Khmer Krom have their water management schemes being built into their cultural psychology long ago. They were the masters of the wet rice culture. During the Nokor Phnom period, Chinese and Indian sources proved that " Buddhism in Kampuchea was old as Brahmanism, " said Peter Gyallay-Pap, in Radical Conservatism, 1990. Archaeologists discovered statutes of Buddha as well as Lokecsvara, Vishnu, shiva, Harihara, and many others scattered throughout Kampuchea Krom.

During the Khmer Empire, according to Malleret, in his La Minorite Cambodgien de Chochine, hospitals bult by the thirteen century Khmer King Jayavarman VII have been located near Prek Russey (today can Tho). Histo-rically Nokor Phnom was the Khmer Em-pire's 1st state, that is Kampuchea Krom today.

Kampuchea Krom was part of the present Cambodia until May 21, 1949, when the colonialist French ceded it illegally to Vietnam. Thus today, Cambodia continues to have its legal rights over this former terriory. The author of this article is also a Khmer Krom. Not long ago, we Khmer children enjoyed singing a song then "den dei Khmer pre tha Socannaphum " (Khmer nation means Sovannabhumi). It was a nationalistic song that touched our hearts very deeply.

Our song evoked in us a nostalgia for the glorious Khmer past. As children we had learned that, the time of Buddha, 500 BC., Sovannaphum was what today is called mainland Southeast Asia, and the Khmer Empire encompassed the main part of that. We had also learned that evidence has been discovered showing that the Khmer civilization can be found in Laos, in Thailand, and in Vietnam, where millions of ethnic Khmer civilization to today's regional geopolitical realities.

Westerners came to know the land of the first Khmer state Nokor Phnom was in a simonized term Funan. Later they knew it was the " Lower Cochin-China " which the Khmer Called it Kampuchea Krom (Lower Cambodia ). In 1861, during which time the Vietnamese invaded this Khmer land, French scholars Cortambert and de Rosny in their Le Kamboge Annanmite, wrote: " Lower Cochin-China, or Vietnam's Cambodia, which is the part of Cambodia which had submitted to the Annamit Empire, is the southern most part of this empire before the French conquest. It is today (1861) almost in our hands. It extends to the edge of " Cap de Kambodge (today Ca Mau) and swings to the northeast with the rest of the Kingdom of Cambodia. we can compare its extent with that of Britain. This country (Kampuchea Krom) is extremely fertile, formed entirely of the Mekong delta, and it is watered by the Dong Nai and the river of Prei Nokor (today Bo Chi Minh City). It is a great place for commerce.

It is the connection between Thailand, Cambodia, Englsh India, the Malaka Strait, and Burma on one side, and so the other side with Cochinchina proper (Annam), China, the Philippines, and others (author's translation from French). " Later, in 1940s, French archaeologists such as Louis Malleret devoted his research to the past history of Kampuchea Krom. According to Malleret, in the B.S.E.I., Vol.12, p.8, said: From the beginning of the first century to the thirteenth century, Kampuchea Krom was then part of the Khmer Empire. One map, Compiled with scientific proof in very recent years (1942) show about two hundred Khmer sites scattered around the delta. This map reveled the existence of the ancient canals, and the basins where today are the vast rive fields.

After the 6th century, Nokor Phnom joined its sister state of Chen Lea (the known corrupt term is also Chenla) to form two Chen Lea (s): Chen lea tuk (Chenla Water ) and Chen lea kauk (Chenla Dru or land). This union lasted for a brief period they were both being dominated by Java until 802 when a united Khmer Empire emerged. It was the work of a Khmer monarch Jayarman II (802-869). He was a Khmer prince who had been sent to Java to study. Upon his return, Jayavarman II brought home not only the Javancese polity which he freed the Khmers from Javanese conquerors. And the Khmer Empire was formed (9th to 13th century). Since then, Khmer Empire flourished not only economically but culturally as recognized today by the art and architecture of Angkor Wat which was built by the Khmer King, Suriyavarman II (1113-11150).

The Khmer Kings were not only followers of Hinduism (devaraja) but Mahayana Buddhism (Buddharaja), including Suriyavarman (1050) and Jayavarman VII (d.1218?). By13th century, the Khmer Empire began to crumble when faced with the newcomers from the north. First were the Thai. John Cady, in his Thailand, Burma, Laos, & Cambodia, 1966, said: "His reign ( SuriyavarmanII ) witness the beginning s of the infiltration of Thai-Laos people by inclusion of Thai mercenary troops in the Cambodian army.

"David Steingberg, in his Cambodia: Is people, its society, its culture 1957, also said: (to be continued)