cambodian people2

Cambodia is bordered to the North by Thailand and Laos, to the East and the South by Vietnam and to the South and the West by the Gulf of Thailand.

Approx. population is 14,000,000 Million
Language Khmer, secondary languages: English and French
Religion 95% Buddhist with the balance being Muslim, Christian and animist.

About 90-95 percent of the people are Khmer ethnic. The remaining 5-10 percent include Chinese-Khmers, Khmer Islam or Chams, ethnic hill-tribe people, known as the Khmer Loeu and Vietnamese. 
Approximately 10 percent of the population lives in Phnom Penh, the capital, making Cambodia largely a country of rural dwellers, farmers and artisans.

The Khmer Loeu are the non-Khmer highland tribes in Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the north eastern provinces of Rattanakiri, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri and Crate.

Most Khmer Loeu live in scattered temporary villages that have only a few hundred inhabitants. These villages usually are governed by a council of local elders or by a village headman.
The Khmer Loeu cultivate a wide variety of plants, but the main crop is dry or upland rice growth by the slash and burn method.

Hunting, fishing and gathering supplement the cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet. 
Houses vary from huge multi family long houses to small single family structures. They may be built close to the ground or on stilts.

The major Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are the Kuy, Phnong, Brao, Jarai and Rade.  All but about 160,000 Kuy live in the northern Cambodian provinces of Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear and Stoeng as well as in adjacent Thailand.