Hinduism in Cambodia

Cambodian Hindus
ហិណ្ឌូខ្មែរ
Thommanon temple in Siem Reap Province.
Religions
Hinduism
Majority:
Vaishnavism
Minority:
Shaivism
Languages
Sacred
Sanskrit
Majority
Khmer, Hindi, Punjabi, Cham and Tamil

Hinduism is a minority religion in Cambodia which is followed by about 1,000 to 15,000 individuals. Even being a small minority in the Buddhist majority nation it highly influences the vast culture and history of Cambodia with being a prominent religion under the Khmer Empire. Today most of the Cambodian Hindus are Indians in Cambodia. Cambodia had always been a Buddhist nation since its conception, but before its independence from French Indochina, it had a significant Hindu minority, and several hundred years before that, it had been the most dominant religion in Cambodia as well as Southeast Asia.

History

Hinduism has been said to be present in Cambodia from c. 500 AD through the trade routes and networks by traders from India and expansion of Greater India.[1] Hindu culture is said to have influenced the Cambodia and had been an important part of the Funan polity with Indosphere and it was characterised as: "high population and urban centers, the production of surplus food...socio-political stratification [and] legitimized by Indian religious ideologies".[2] There was also present of Purohita for the religious traditions and customs with mention of the land as 'Kambujadesha'.[3] Many Hindu cults were established with the patronisation of Hinduism in the Chenla Kingdom.

After the formation of Khmer Empire, the founder Jayavarman II in the 9th-century titled him as 'Devaraja' and declared as himself as 'Chakravartin' as per Hindu rituals, Hinduism was at the peak with construction of many Hindu temple in Khmer architecture and Sanskrit was used as sacred language.[4] Hinduism was at the peak under the Khmer Empire and was the official religion of the state, until the 14th-century after the conversion of the royal family to Theravada Buddhism and slowly causing the decline of the Hindu population in country replaced by Buddhism from Shaivism.[5]

Angkor Wat, one of the largest temple complexes in the world, was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman II, and it was dedicated to Lord Vishnu, one of the principal deities of Hinduism.[6][7]

Shaivism and syncretic cults

Of the two major neo-Brahmanical sects that flourished in Cambodia, the Shaivas and the Vaishnavas, Shaivism was by far the more influential. It exercised a profound influence on the whole course of religious development in the region. Shiva was represented both as a human figure and in his linga form, with the latter occurring more frequently, as in India. The diverse character of Cambodian Hinduism found expression in a range of syncretic cults that blended different deities into composite forms. The most significant of these was the Harihara denomination the combination of Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva) in a single image.[8] The conception borrowed from India but given its most enduring expression in Cambodia, where inscriptions from different parts of the Khmer territory praise the compound deity under names such as Harihara, Sambhu-Vishnu, Sankara-Narayana, and Hara-Acyuta.[9] The capital of Jayavarman II (802-850 CE) was itself names Harihara-alaya, present-day Roluos, reflecting the depth of this denomination's popularity. Other syncretic forms included the Ardhanarisvara (half-Shiva, half-Parvati), the Sivaditya faction combining Shaivism with sun worship, and most distinctively the Siva-Buddha composite, which Jash identifies as an uniquely Southeast Asian religious contribution with no clear parallel in India. The spread of Indian religious culture into Cambodia did not suppress indigenous ways of life but led to their transformation into new patterns, with the composite cults given a new orientation by the Cambodian people themselves.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Cambodian History | Cambodia Tribunal Monitor". cambodiatribunal.org. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  2. ↑ Stark, Miriam (2003). "Chapter III: Angkor Borei and the Archaeology of Cambodia's Mekong Delta" (PDF). Orchid Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2022-08-06.
  3. ↑ Puri, Baij Nath (1958). "BRAHMANISM IN ANCIENT KAMBUJADEŚA". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 21: 95–101. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44145174.
  4. ↑ Chandler, David (2008). A History of Cambodia. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. p. 39.
  5. ↑ Dagens, Bruno (1995). Angkor: Heart of an Asian Empire. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-30054-1.
  6. ↑ "Angkor Wat | Description, Location, History, Restoration, Map, & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  7. ↑ "Angkor Wat – Smarthistory". Smarthistory. Archived from the original on 2026-01-17. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  8. ↑ Lochan, Arhana (2025-10-31). "Art, inscriptions, and sacred space: A survey of Śaiva traditions in Southeast Asia". Dharmakirti : International Journal of Religion, Mind and Science. 3 (1): 1–19. doi:10.61511/ijroms.v3i1.2025.2028. ISSN 3030-8518.
  9. ↑ Briggs, Lawrence Palmer (1951). "The Syncretism of Religions in Southeast Asia, Especially in the Khmer Empire". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 71 (4): 230–249. doi:10.2307/596106. ISSN 0003-0279.
  10. ↑ Jash, Pranabananda (1978). "Syncretistic Cult in Cambodia". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 39: 924–929. ISSN 2249-1937.


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