Khom

Historical Thai term for the Khmer people and civilization

Khom is a Thai- and Lao-language term referring to the people and civilization of the ancient Khmer Empire. Its use is recorded as early as the 12th century, though its exact meaning—whether it refers to a specific empire, a certain historical period, or the Khmer people in general—has been unclear throughout history. The term has been used extensively in 20th-century Thai historiography, partly as a way to disassociate the historical Angkorian civilization—of which many archaeological sites are spread throughout present-day Thailand—from the present-day Khmer people who form the majority population of Cambodia, whom many Thais still believe to be an inferior race unrelated to the people of the ancient empire. This discourse was popularized by 20th-century Thai nationalist thinker Luang Wichitwathakan who asserted that contemporary Khmers are unrelated to the ethnic group responsible for the Angkorian civilization, coining the term "khom" for this purpose. By repurposing the term "khom" derived from the ancient Thai term "Khmer Krom" meaning "lowland Khmer", Wichitwathakan attempted to create a new ethnicity to accentuate a distinct separation between Angkor and Cambodia, despite the ethnic continuity between Angkor's builders and present-day Khmer being well-established.

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