LOST GODDESSES: The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History
by Dr. Trudy Jacobsen (NIAS Press, 2008)
Excerpts from Chapter Five: Hostages, Heroines and Hostilities:
The beginning of the [19th] century saw Thai and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodian political affairs lead to the almost total loss of Cambodian sovereignty and the eradication of Cambodian social norms […] The nineteenth century poses a dichotomy from the perspective of women and power. On one hand, an unmarried queen ruled Cambodia for over a decade; on the other, the Cbpab Srei, ‘Code of conduct for women’, was composed and a tradition of misogynist literature begun.
Thai forces burnt Phnom Penh to the ground in 1772 and virtually wiped out the Cambodian royal family […] After the razing of Phnom Penh, a Cambodian prince Ang Eng (1772-1796 or 1797), was placed on the throne at Udong at the age of seven, under the patronage of the Thai king. The ensuing period was marked by internal dissentions between oknha who supported either a Vietnamese prince, Nguyen Anh (later to rule as Gia Long), or the Tayson rebels of Central Vietnam […] The Cambodian royal family was thus polarised in subservience: Snguon, Im and Duong owing fealty to the Thai, and Chan indebted to the Vietnamese.
[p. 109-111]
The ‘Vietnamisation’ of Cambodian society, already underway during the reign of Ang Chan, continued during the reign of Ang Mei. All women ordered to grow their hair long in the Vietnamese style and to wear trousers instead of skirts. Cambodian dance assimilated elements of Vietnamese and Chinese traditions. The markets sold only Vietnamese food. Cambodian officials had to don Vietnamese ceremonial dress when summoned to Vietnamese officials. A form of Vietnamese had to be spoken to Vietnamese officials. At lease 5,000 Vietnamese relocated into Cambodia each year. Places received new Vietnamese names. Vietnamese notion of Confucian piety were applied to Cambodian society; an edict from the Vietnamese emperor Ming Mang exhorted Mei and her sisters to be loyal to their father’s memory, a Confucian virtue […] Masses of Cambodians were forced into corvee labour for Vietnamese construction projects. There were some resistance to the changes wrought by the Vietnamese during this period, however […] A Cambodian local official in an ethnically Khmer district of southern Vietnam who refused to implement regulations enforcing Vietnamisation policies was executed.
[p. 112-113]
I encourage you to read the whole chapter to better contextualize the above excerpts. Actually, I highly recommend the whole book written by a Khmer scholar of first rate.
A reader of KI Media
7 comments:
Publish this book and give them to CPP slave Viet, then maybe their brain will washed back to Xmer.
Yes, please have our children study this piece of history.
Khmer Woman are outstanding.
Som narb yong dey, srey yong bross!
If the woman is a witch, a husband is a Dracula.
We have seen examples already.
Khmer Dynasty...............PP
i don't care what anybody says, siem and viet/youn are the real historical enemies of cambodia and khmer people. khmer people cannot trust these neighboring countries. history has shown they always wanted to steal from cambodia and their offer to help is so deceptive in disguise, to say the least. they both wanted to colonize cambodia. khmer people are never fond of these neighboring countries. we prefer friends from far away lands like the EU, america, china, japan, australia, india, the middle east, etc, but most definitely not siem and youn, really! i hate siem and youn for stealing from cambodia! to hell with them!
Yes, our friends from away lands like the EU, america, china, japan, australia, etc are the best! They have never colonize anyone and only want to help others.
The youn and siem should wake up and better know that Khmers are not stupid.
We almost invented the Internet before Al Gore got to it!
Smart Khmer girl
1:44AM! never heard of French and japan colonize Indo China?????
neightbor allway have more problems but we have to live with them and time chance!
You your brain they will respect you, Stupid like ah Kwack and Shisranouk they sure look down on you!
Thank you Trudy for your revised history book of your very fine effort.
I hope the book will be taught cambodian children and inspire so many.
even the dark ages of cambodia have interesting history to learn from, etc...
i noted a seven year-old prince was put on the throne by siem? seven year old? the kid can barely walk, you know! no wonder this was called the dark ages of cambodia! i hope cambodia is not so naive anymore since...
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