Cambodia

Cambodia is a kingdom in mainland Southeast Asia, lying between Thailand, Laos and Vietnam with a coast on the Gulf of Thailand. Most of its 181,035 km2 (69,898 sq mi) is a low plain around the Mekong River and the Tonlé Sap, the biggest lake in Southeast Asia.

Phnom Penh is the capital and Khmer is the sole official language. Between the 3rd and 5th centuries the Indian-influenced kingdoms of Funan and then Chenla took shape in the region. In 802 Jayavarman II proclaimed himself king and brought the rival Khmer princes under one crown, the start of the Khmer Empire. Its rulers built capitals at Angkor, spread Hinduism and then Buddhism, and by the 12th century held the largest empire in Southeast Asia. King Norodom accepted French protection in 1863, the kingdom became part of French Indochina, and it won independence in 1953.

Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government: the king is head of state, and laws pass through a two-chamber parliament whose lower house is the National Assembly. The present constitution dates from 1993, when the monarchy was restored. Farming is the largest sector, above all wet rice on the plain of the Tonlé Sap, a lake that spreads several times wider in the rainy season. Garment making is the biggest branch of industry and the main export, tourism earns the second most foreign currency, and oil and gas deposits were found offshore in 2005.

Angkor Wat, in Siem Reap Province, was built in the Khmer Empire era, and a study in 2007 concluded that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city on earth, spread over 2,980 km2 (1,151 sq mi). Khmer classical dance grew up at the royal courts. Each year at the end of the rains, when the Tonle Sap River turns and flows back, the Bon Om Touk festival brings boat races, fireworks and thanks to the moon. Songs by Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea from the 1960s and 1970s are the classics of Cambodian pop,.