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Angkor Wat

Angkor is a name conventionally applied to the region of Cambodia serving as the seat of the Khmer Empire that flourished from approximately the 9th century to the 15th century A.D. (The word "Angkor" itself is derived from the Sanskrit "nagara," meaning "city.") More precisely, the Angkorian period may be defined as the period from 802 A.D., when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself the "universal monarch" and "god-king" of Cambodia, until 1431 A.D., when Thai invaders sacked the Khmer capital, causing its population to migrate south to the area of Phnom Penh.

The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern day Siem Reap (13°24'N, 103°51'E), and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. Visitor numbers approach one million annually.

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Portal:Cambodia/Featured article/2 Phnom Penh (Khmer: ភ្ន៓ពេញ; official Romanization: Phnum Pénh; IPA: [pʰnum peːɲ]) is the largest, most populous and capital city of Cambodia. It is also the capital of the Phnom Penh municipality.

Once known as the "Pearl of Asia" in the 1920s, Phnom Penh, along with Siem Reap, is a significant global and domestic tourist destination for Cambodia. Phnom Penh is known for its traditional Khmer and French influenced architecture.

Phnom Penh is the wealthiest and most populous city in Cambodia. It is also the commercial, political and cultural hub of Cambodia and is home to more than 2 million of Cambodia's population of almost 15 million.

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Jayavarman VII (1125?-1215?) was a king of the Khmer Empire in present day Cambodia. He was the son of Dharanindravarman II (r. 1150 - 1160) and his wife Sri Jayarajacudamani. He married Jayarajadevi and that after her death, he then married her sister Indradevi. The two women are commonly thought to have been a great inspiration to him, particularly in his unusual devotion to Buddhism. Only one previous Khmer king had been a Buddhist.

Over the 30 some years of his reign, Jayavarman VII embarked on a grand program of construction that included both public works and monuments. As a Mahayana Buddhist, his declared aim was to alleviate the suffering of his people. One inscription tells us, "He suffered from the illnesses of his subjects more than from his own; the pain that affected men's bodies was for him a spiritual pain, and thus more piercing." This declaration must be read in light of the undeniable fact that the numerous monuments erected by Jayavarman must have required the labor of thousands of workers, and that Jayavarman's reign was marked by the centralization of the state and the herding of people into ever greater population centers.

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Portal:Cambodia/Featured article/4 The Khmer Rouge (Khmer: ) was the Communist party that ruled Cambodia -- which it renamed to Democratic Kampuchea -- from 1975 to 1979. The term "Khmer Rouge," meaning "Red Khmer" in French, was coined by Cambodian head of state Norodom Sihanouk and was later adopted in English. It was used to refer to a succession of Communist parties in Cambodia which evolved into the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and later the Party of Democratic Kampuchea. The organization was also known as the Khmer Communist Party and the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea.

The Khmer Rouge is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (estimates range from 850,000 to 3 million) under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor. Although directly responsible for the death of a large amount of that number, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led many others to die from starvation and displacement. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. One of their mottos, in reference to the New People, was: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss."

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Sinn Sisamouth (Khmer: ស៊ីន ស៊ីសាមុត, 1935–c.1975) was a famous and highly prolific Cambodian singer-songwriter in the 1950s to the 1970s.

Widely considered the "King of Khmer music", Samouth, along with Ros Sereysothea, Pan Ron, and other artists, was part of a thriving pop music scene in Phnom Penh that blended elements of Khmer traditional music with the sounds of rhythm and blues and rock and roll to make a Westernized sound akin to psychedelic or garage rock. Samouth is believed to have been killed under the Khmer Rouge regime.

Samouth possessed a clear crooning voice which, combined with his own compositions about the pleasures and pains of romance, made him an idol. He sang many ballads, as well uptempo rock numbers that featured prominent, distortion-laden guitar, pumping organ and loud, driving drums. Other arrangements were more Latin jazz-sounding, featuring woodwinds, brass, and auxiliary percussion.

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Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The largest and best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre—first Hindu, then Buddhist—since its foundation. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temples. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the gods in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 km (2.2 miles) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. As well as for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, the temple is admired for its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

According to Guinness World Records, it is the largest religious structure in the world.

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Portal:Cambodia/Featured article/7 The Cambodian Civil War was a conflict that pitted the forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (known as the Khmer Rouge) and their allies the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (NLF) against the government forces of Cambodia (after October 1970, the Khmer Republic), which were supported by the United States (U.S.) and the Republic of Vietnam.

The struggle was exacerbated by the influence and actions of the allies of the two warring sides. North Vietnamese involvement was designed to protect its base areas and sanctuaries in eastern Cambodia, without which the prosecution of its military effort in South Vietnam would have been more difficult. The U.S. was motivated by the need to buy time for its withdrawal from Southeast Asia and to protect its ally, South Vietnam. American, South Vietnamese, and North Vietnamese forces directly participated (at one time or another) in the fighting. The central government was mainly assisted by the application of massive U.S. aerial bombing campaigns and direct material and financial aid.

The Republican government, after five years of savage fighting (and after suffering massive casualties, the destruction of its economy, the starvation of its population, and grievous atrocities committed by its enemy), was defeated on 17 April 1975. The victorious Khmer Rouge proclaimed the establishment of Democratic Kampuchea.

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Portal:Cambodia/Featured article/8 Khmer classical dance is a form of dance in Cambodia. The name for this type of dance is known by various names in English, from Khmer royal ballet to Khmer court dance; UNESCO lists it as the Royal Ballet of Cambodia but also mentions "Khmer classical dance." In Khmer, it is formally known as robam preah reachea trop which means 'dances of royal wealth'. During the Lon Nol regime of Cambodia, its name was changed to robam kbach boran khmer, literally 'Khmer dance of the ancient style', a term which does not make any reference to its royal past. Highly stylized and performed mainly by females, Khmer classical dance was originally mainly confined to the courts of royal palaces. This dance form is also showcased in the many forms of Khmer theatre (lkhaon) such as Lkhaon Kbach Boran (a genre of dance drama, performed by women). Khmer classical dancers are often referred to as apsara dancers, which is incorrect as the Apsarases are celestial nymphs seen on the many ruins of Angkor.

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Face towers on the upper terrace of Bayon in Angkor.

The Bayon is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia. It was built in the 13th century as the state temple of king Jayavarman VII, and stands at the centre of his capital, Angkor Thom. Its most distinctive feature is the multitude of smiling faces on the towers which rise up to its central peak. It also possesses two sets of bas-reliefs, which depict an unusual combination of mythological, historical and mundane events. The main current conservatory body, the JSA, has described the temple as "the most striking expression of the 'baroque' style", compared to the classical style of Angkor Wat.