Khmer Buddhism

Buddhism has existed in Cambodia since at least the 5th century CE, with some sources placing its origin as early as the 3rd century BCE.[citation needed] Theravada Buddhism has been the Cambodian state religion since the 13th century CE (excepting the Khmer Rouge period), and is currently estimated to be the faith of 95% of the population.
The history of Buddhism in Cambodia spans nearly two thousand years, across a number of successive kingdoms and empires. Buddhism entered Cambodia through two different streams. The earliest forms of Buddhism, along with Hindu influences, entered the Funan kingdom 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 Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati and Haripunchai.
For the first thousand years of Khmer history, Cambodia was ruled by a series of Hindu kings with an occasional Buddhist king, such as Jayavarman of Funan, and Suryavarman I. A variety of Buddhist traditions co-existed peacefully throughout Cambodian lands, under the tolerant auspices of Hindu kings and the neighboring Mon-Theravada kingdoms.

History is Kmer Rouge

All schools and universities, pagodas and mosques, banks and
businesses were forced to close. Freedom of religion, press, private property,
speech and movement were eliminated by the Maoist-inspired Khmer Rouge.
And with the emptying of the cities came the first wave of killings. Those
associated with the previous Lon Nol regime were the first to die. Next came
the Khmer Rouge’s perceived enemies: supposed members or associates of
the US CIA, Russia’s KGB, and the Vietnamese. Later, the regime turned on
itself, seeing enemies everywhere within its own ranks and killing many of its
own.
Over the next four years, the Communist Party of Kampuchea was
directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of at least 1.7 million
Cambodians from starvation, disease, overwork, and outright execution.
Throughout history, other governments have killed large numbers of their
own people but none has approached the almost unimaginable toll exacted by
the Khmer Rouge. The Nazis, for example, killed about 6% of the people in
the parts of Europe they occupied, and Rwandans butchered 14% of their
people in 1994. In contrast, the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths
of between a quarter and a third of Cambodia’s population.
Another distinguishing feature of this period of Cambodian history is
that not a single credible trial of its former leaders has ever been held.
Members of Hitler’s Nazi regime were brought to justice in the late 1940s, and
more recently, international tribunals have been held about atrocities in the
former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, and elsewhere. But with the
exception of what have been widely regarded as “absentia trials” held by the
successor government to the
Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s
and a few cases where villagers
took justice into their own hands
after the regime fell in 1979.

wellcome to Agkor Wat

Angkor provides wonderful photographic opportunities. the monuments and the surrounding jungle afford unlimited textural and lighting opportunities for composing a picture.
Clouds are common and tend to diffuse the light which is somewhat flat even though it is intense. As most of the temples face east the best lighting conditions are in the morning except for Angkor Wat where the best light is in the afternoon because it faces west. the temples surrounded by jungle such as Ta Prohm and Prah Khan can be photographed with good results when the sun is directly overhead and shining through the foliage. Just as one is never prepared for the enormous size and overwhelming beauty of Angkor, one is never ready to leave it. With photographs and visions etched in memory, one need never say good-by to Angkor, for its magic will go with you wherever fate and the gods may take you to colour your thoughts and dreams to life's very end. The name of the monuments at Angkor are often modern ones designated by Cambodians or early European travellers. In publications by the French the enclosures of a temple are numbered starting from the central sanctuary and progressing towards the enclosing walls. The system used in this book reverses the order for the convenience of the visitor. Thus the first enclosing wall the visitor encounters when entering a temple is number one. the numbers ascend from the exterior to the interior of the monument. In many distances, though, only traces of the enclosing walls, particularly the outer one, remain.