By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News
My columns on culturally embedded behaviors common among the Khmers have led some readers to react spontaneously to comments they see as an attack.But a considered analysis is distinct from an attack, which many have appreciated. A Western reader thinks I have dealt with an aspect relevant to the situation in which Cambodia finds herself. And so I will expand a bit on the same topic today.
Once a regionally powerful empire, the Khmer Empire of Angkor collapsed in 1434, its royal capital sacked in 1431 by neighboring Ayudhya to the West. Khmer kings moved the capital between Chaktomuk (the "Four Faces" in Phnom Penh) and Longvek, aka Lovek, and Oudong until 1866, when King Norodom moved his royal court back to Chaktomuk.
When the French colonialists arrived in 1882, Khmer elitist conservatives already produced poems, advice and codes of behavior, teaching respect for customs, traditions, the establishment and authority.
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