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During my brief trip to Thailand, I couldn’t help but notice similarities in temples, food, traditional clothing, etc.

But strong cultural differences. The sense I got from the tour guides is that Thai’s are big on preserving their culture, while Khmer are more into change. Even the tour guide and driver, talking amongst themselves are super soft spoken.

Khmer are always claiming that Khmer culture was stolen by the Thai. But it seems that Thai are preserving Khmer culture as it might have been before. And spreading it to the entire world.



Clothes, per missus, ancient style, no one wears anymore.

Temples. Similar style but adorned with gold and colorful pottery.





It seems a little like the Greeks accusing the Romans of stealing their culture and spreading it around the known world.

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newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Wed Dec 26, 2018 6:44 pm During my brief trip to Thailand, I couldn’t help but notice similarities in temples, food, traditional clothing, etc.

But strong cultural differences. The sense I got from the tour guides is that Thai’s are big on preserving their culture, while Khmer are more into change. Even the tour guide and driver, talking amongst themselves are super soft spoken.

Khmer are always claiming that Khmer culture was stolen by the Thai. But it seems that Thai are preserving Khmer culture as it might have been before. And spreading it to the entire world.



Clothes, per missus, ancient style, no one wears anymore.

Temples. Similar style but adorned with gold and colorful pottery.





It seems a little like the Greeks accusing the Romans of stealing their culture and spreading it around the known world.

Thailand was part of the Angkor Empire.

Put 2 and 2 together.

Beerinthemorning wrote: Thailand was part of the Angkor Empire.

Put 2 and 2 together.

So do you believe the Thais stole Khmer culture or are they the guardians/preservers of Khmer culture?

newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:49 am

Beerinthemorning wrote: Thailand was part of the Angkor Empire.

Put 2 and 2 together.

So do you believe the Thais stole Khmer culture or are they the guardians/preservers of Khmer culture?

You don't steal from another culture. You appropriate.

If you go back long enough, there were no borders, they were just villagers who lived not far from each other, and their culture was very similar.

My wife told me a story.

The Thais stole a boat and there was lots of Khmer writing on it (she doesn’t know why) and whilst in the salty water (Gulf of Thailand ironically) some of the writings were damaged.
That’s where the Thai alphabet is from!

It's a 5 minute read on Cambodian history on Wikipedia and then you don't have to guess with your wives. You should try it. They're taking a piss and you're cluelessly dancing along. A boat with writing Khmers, haha!

newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:49 am

Beerinthemorning wrote: Thailand was part of the Angkor Empire.

Put 2 and 2 together.

So do you believe the Thais stole Khmer culture or are they the guardians/preservers of Khmer culture?

The Thais were basically breakaway Khmers, so initially the Thais were culturally Khmers and any subsequent changes in culture were changes that the Thai made in the Khmer land they appropriated through conquest.

Thailand (Siam) did not exist before 1238 it was part of the Khmer empire. The following are snippets culled from Wiki."In 1238 a Tai chieftain, Sri Intraditya, declared his independence from Khmer overlords and established a kingdom at Sukhothai in the Chao Phraya Valley in central Thailand.""The Khmer Empire is conventionally dated to 802 CE when King Jayavarman II declared himself chakravartin ("king of the world", or "king of kings") on Phnom Kulen. The empire ended with the fall of Angkor in the 15th century.

"Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, the Khmer Empire and Malay states of the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra had ruled the region. The Thai established their own states: Ngoenyang, the Sukhothai Kingdom, the Kingdom of Chiang Mai, Lan Na, and the Ayutthaya Kingdom. These states fought each other and were under constant threat from the Khmers, Burma and Vietnam. Much later, the European colonial powers threatened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but Thailand survived as the only Southeast Asian state to avoid European colonial rule because the French and the British decided it would be a neutral territory to avoid conflicts between their colonies. After the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932"

fax wrote: ↑Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:52 am It's a 5 minute read on Cambodian history on Wikipedia and then you don't have to guess with your wives. You should try it. They're taking a piss and you're cluelessly dancing along. A boat with writing Khmers, haha!

Noone is dancing along. It’s just a quaint story I relayed.
Also, I think the term is “Taking the piss”.