The name of

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

in Khmer is (

UNGEGN The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) is one of the nine expert groups of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and deals with the national and international standardization of geographical names. Ev ...

: , ALA-LC: ), officially (

: , ALA-LC: ; ). This term derives from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

(

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: ), which means the "land of Kambuja".

History

The same name (i.e. Kamboj/Kambuja) is also found in Burmese and Thai chronicles referring to regions within those kingdoms. An origin-myth recorded in the

Baksei Chamkrong Baksei Chamkrong (also spelled Baksey Chamkrong, km, បក្សីចាំក្រុង) is a legendary monarch of Cambodia, whose life and rule are known from the ''Cambodian Royal Chronicles''. Despite a lack of historicity, the narra ...

inscription, dated AD 947, derives ''Kambuja'' from Svayambhuva Kamboj, a legendary Indian sage under whose gotra later, the merchant

Kaundinya I Kaundinya I ( km, កៅណ្ឌិន្យ, Odia: କୌଣ୍ଡିନ୍ୟ, sa, कौण्डिन्य, ), also known as Hùntián (混塡) and Preah Thong ( Khmer: ព្រះថោង), was the second monarch of Funan (reigned c. 1s ...

reached the

Indochinese peninsula Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

and married a

Nāga The Nagas (IAST: ''nāga''; Devanāgarī: नाग) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. ...

princess named

Soma Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...

, thus uniting the Indian and local Southeast Asian

Funan Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...

ese cultures. In this story Kambuja derives from Kambu+''ja'', and means "descendants of Kambu."George Coedes, ''Inscriptions du Cambodge'', II, pp. 10, 155 ''Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchéa'' means "Kingdom of Cambodia". Etymologically, its components are: ''preăh'' ("sacred"); ''réach-'' ("king, royal, realm", from Sanskrit); ''-éana-'' (from Pāli ', "authority, command, power"); ''-châkr'' (from Sanskrit ''

chakra Chakras (, ; sa , text=चक्र , translit=cakra , translit-std=IAST , lit=wheel, circle; pi, cakka) are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or ...

'', meaning "wheel", a symbol of power and rule). The name used on formal occasions, such as political speeches and news programs, is , literally "the Country of Cambodia". The colloquial name most used by Cambodians is , literally "Land of the Khmers" or "Khmer’s Land". ''srŏk'' is a Mon-Khmer word roughly equal to the Sanskritic ''Prâtés'', but less formal.

Official names of Cambodia since independence

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Names Of Cambodia History of Cambodia

History

Official names of Cambodia since independence

See also

References