CAMBODIA, FLAG OF

horizontally striped blue-red-blue national flag featuring, in white, the main building of Angkor Wat, an ancient temple complex. The flag's width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3. In different artistic representations, the central building of Angkor Wat has appeared on Khmer national flags since the 19th century, in the early days of the French protectorate over Cambodia. The first flag was red bordered in blue with the temple in white. The flag was modernized in 1948 by adoption of unequal horizontal stripes of dark blue, red, and dark blue, and the temple was altered to correspond more closely to the original. That flag continued in use after Cambodia became independent. However, the end of the monarchy and the proclamation of the Khmer Republic resulted in a new flag in October 1970. The core flag became the canton, while the field was blue with three white stars. Flag of Cambodia (197992). Flag of Cambodia under UN administration (199293). Communist rebels first used the 194870 flag but came to power in April 1975 beneath a plain red flag. When their Democratic Kampuchea adopted its constitution in January 1976, a three-towered yellow temple silhouette was placed in the centre of the red flag, only to be replaced by a five-towered yellow temple when Vietnamese-supported forces proclaimed the People's Republic of Kampuchea in 1979. Rival State of Cambodia (Khmer Rouge) and Cambodia (Vietnamese) governments established further flag adaptations prior to the United Nations administration, which flew a light blue flag with a silhouette map of the country in the centre. The United Nations helped bring an end to civil strife, and it led the country to free elections by 1993. The flag of 194870 was again hoisted on June 30 of that year. Whitney Smith History The importance of Cambodia's contributions to mainland Southeast Asia is out of proportion to its present reduced territory and limited political power. Between the 11th and the 13th century, the Khmer (Cambodian) state included much of the Indochinese Peninsula and incorporated large parts of present-day southern Vietnam, Laos, and eastern Thailand. The cultural influence of Cambodia on other countries, particularly Laos and Thailand, has been enormous. Early history It is not known for certain how long people have lived in what is now Cambodia, where they came from, or what languages they spoke before writing was introduced (using a Sanskrit-style alphabet) about the 3rd century AD. Dates based on carbon-14 measurements have established that people able to make pottery inhabited Cambodia as early as 4000 BC. These and subsequent finds have suggested that these early people, like Cambodians today, were of slight to medium build, constructed their houses on wooden piles, consumed a considerable quantity of fish, and raised pigs and water buffalo. Whether the early inhabitants of Cambodia came originally or primarily from the north, west, or south is still debated, as are theories about waves of different peoples moving through the region in prehistoric times. The notion of distinct Asian races that was popular until the 1950s has been discredited, and subsequent archaeological finds have suggested that prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, had a comparatively sophisticated culture. Some scholars even have attributed the first cultivation of rice and the first casting of bronze to the region. The economy Even before 1975, Cambodia's economy was one of the least-developed of the Southeast Asian region. It was heavily dependent on two major productsrice and rubberand consequently was vulnerable to profound annual fluctuations caused by vagaries in the weather and world market prices. Agriculture dominated the economy, with most rural families engaged in rice cultivation. Although the tradition of landownership was strong, family landholdings were relatively small. But, even with small family farms, the rural population was largely self-sufficient. Two and a half acres (one hectare) of rice paddy provided for the needs of a family of five people, and supplementary requirements were traditionally satisfied by fishing, cultivating fruit and vegetables, and raising livestock. Famine was rare in Cambodia, but the self-sufficiency of the rural family produced a conservatism that proved resistant to government efforts before 1975 to modernize the country's primitive agricultural methods. The collectivization of agriculture under the rulers of Democratic Kampuchea was dismantled after the collapse of that regime, but it remained an ideal of the communist-led government that came to power in 1979. Voluntary cooperative groupings called krom samaki subsequently replaced collective farms in many areas, but the vast majority of Cambodian farming continued to be carried out by family units growing crops for subsistence and small surpluses for cash or barter. A law enacted in 1989 permitted Cambodians to buy and sell real estate for the first time. An immediate effect of the law was a speculative boom in urban areas and an increase in investment, particularly in Phnom Penh. In rural areas laws also were implemented that restored traditional rights of land tenure and inheritance. Resources Cambodia has few known mineral resources. Some limestone and phosphate deposits are found in Kmpt province, and precious stones are mined in Batdmbng province. Cambodia's small quantities of iron and coal have not justified commercial exploitation. Electric power sources are mainly dependent on imported oil. Prospecting for oil and natural gas has been initiated at offshore areas adjacent to sites being exploited by Vietnam. The land Relief Cambodia's maximum extent is about 280 miles (450 kilometres) from north to south and 360 miles from east to west. The central region is a low-lying alluvial plain surrounding the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and the beginnings of the Mekong River delta. Extending outward from this region are transitional plains, thinly forested and with prevailing elevations no higher than several hundred feet above sea level. On the north, along the border with Thailand, the Cambodian plain abuts a sandstone escarpment that marks the southern limit of the Dangrek (Khmer: Dngrk) Mountains. A southward-facing cliff, stretching for more than 200 miles from west to east, rises abruptly from the plain to heights ranging from 600 to 1,800 feet (180 to 550 metres), forming a natural frontier boundary. East of the Mekong the transitional plains gradually merge with the eastern highlands, a region of forested mountains and high plateaus that extend into Laos and Vietnam. In southwestern Cambodia two distinct upland blocks, comprising the Krvanh (Cardamom) Mountains and the Dmrei (Elephant) Mountains, form another highland region that covers much of the land area between the Tonle Sap and the Gulf of Thailand. In this remote and largely uninhabited area is found Mount Aral (5,949 feet; 1,813 metres), Cambodia's highest peak. The southern coastal region adjoining the Gulf of Thailand is a narrow lowland strip, heavily wooded and sparsely populated, which is isolated from the central plain by the southwestern highlands. Drainage and soils The two most dominant topographical features of Cambodia are the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap. Rising in the Plateau of Tibet and emptying into the South China Sea, the Mekong enters Cambodia from Laos at the Khone Falls and flows generally southward to the border with Vietnam, a distance inside Cambodia of approximately 315 miles. The Tonle Sap, joined to the Mekong by the Sab River, serves as a reservoir for the Mekong. During the rainy season (mid-May to early October), the Mekong's enormous volume of water backs up the connecting river for a distance of 65 miles and flows into the Tonle Sap, expanding the lake's surface area from the dry-season minimum of 1,200 square miles to a rainy-season maximum of more than 3,000 square miles. As the water level of the Mekong falls during the dry season, the process is reversed. Water drains from the Tonle Sap back into the Mekong, reversing its directional flow. As a result of this annual phenomenon, the Tonle Sap is one of the world's richest sources of freshwater fish. Most of Cambodia's soils are sandy and relatively poor in nutrients. The so-called red-soil areas in the eastern part of the country, however, are suitable for such commercial crops as rubber and cotton. The annual flooding of the Mekong during the rainy season deposits a rich alluvial sediment that accounts for the fertility of the central plain. The people Cambodia's first national census as an independent nation was taken in 1962, with a resulting total of about 5,700,000. Overall population density has been difficult to determine, because of the enormous losses and movements of people in the years after 1970. Because so much of the country is poorly watered and without inhabitants, the actual density in populated areas is quite high. Ethnic and linguistic composition The Khmer (Cambodians) account for the vast majority of the total population. This has produced a homogeneity that is unique in Southeast Asia and has encouraged a strong sense of national identity. Other traditional ethnic groups included the Chinese, Vietnamese, Cham-Malays, various tribal peoples, and Europeans. With the upheavals of the 1970s, the number of European residents declined precipitously, while many Chinese and local Vietnamese survivors emigrated overseas. The Khmer are concentrated in the lowland regions surrounding the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap, on the transitional plain, and along the coast. They belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnolinguistic group. A product of centuries of intricate cultural and racial blending, the Khmer moved southward before 200 BC into the fertile Mekong delta from the Khorat Plateau of what is now Thailand. They were Indianized by successive waves of Indian influence and in the 8th century AD were exposed to Indo-Malayan influences and perhaps immigration from Java. This was followed by migrations of Tai peoples from the 10th to the 15th century, by a Vietnamese migration beginning in the 17th century, and by Chinese migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. The typical Khmer family before 1975 consisted of a married couple and their unmarried children. Both sons and daughters usually left the parental home after marriage to establish their own households. Among the ethnic minorities in Cambodia before 1975, the Chinese were the most important, for they controlled the country's economic life. They were shunted aside in the communist-led revolution of the 1970s and made to become ordinary peasants. Those who did not seek refuge abroad after 1975 and others who subsequently returned regained some of their former influence as urban centres were revived. The Vietnamese minority occupied a somewhat lower status than the Chinese, and most of them fled or were repatriated to Vietnam after 1970. In the 1980s, however, a large number of Vietnamese migrants, many of them former residents of Cambodia, settled in the country. Centuries of mutual dislike and distrust have clouded Vietnamese-Khmer relations, and intermarriage has been infrequent. The next most important minority, the Cham-Malay group known in Cambodia as Khmer Islam, also maintained a high degree of ethnic homogeneity and was discriminated against under the regime of Democratic Kampuchea. Finally, the tribal people of Cambodia, living originally in the forested northeastern part of the country, received slightly better treatment than the Khmer Islam during that period.