The Kingdom of Cambodia (
pronounced
/kæmˈboʊdɪə/
, formerly known as Kampuchea (
/kampuˈtɕiːə/
,
,
transliterated
: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in
Southeast Asia
with a population of over million people.
Phnom Penh
is the capital city. Cambodia is the
successor state
of the once powerful
Hindu
and
Buddhist
Khmer Empire
, which ruled most of the
Indochinese Peninsula
between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.
A citizen of Cambodia is usually identified as "Cambodian" or "Khmer," though the latter strictly refers to
ethnic Khmers
. Most Cambodians are
Theravada Buddhists
of Khmer extraction, but the country also has a substantial number of predominantly
Muslim
Cham
, as well as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and small
animist
hill tribes.
The country borders
Thailand
to its west and northwest,
Laos
to its northeast, and
Vietnam
to its east and southeast. In the south it faces the
Gulf of Thailand
. The geography of Cambodia is dominated by the
Mekong
river (colloquial
Khmer
: Tonle Thom or "the great river") and the
Tonlé Sap
("the fresh water lake"), an important source of fish. Much of Cambodia sits near sea level, and consequently the Tonle Sap River reverses its water flow in the wet season, carrying water from the Mekong back into the Tonlé Sap Lake and surrounding flood plain.
Cambodia's main industries are
garments
and
tourism
. In , foreign visitors had surpassed the . million mark.
In , oil and natural gas deposits were found beneath Cambodia's territorial water, and once commercial extraction begins in or early , the oil revenues could profoundly affect Cambodia's economy.
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