Place
Banteay Meanchey
បន្ទាយមានជ័យ
Banteay Meanchey (បន្ទាយមានជ័យ) is a province in northwestern Cambodia, on the border with Thailand. It lies 359 kilometers (223 miles) from Phnom Penh. Siem Reap (សៀមរាប) province is to its east, Battambang (បាត់ដំបង) province to its south, Oddar Meanchey (ឧត្តរមានជ័យ) province and Thailand to its north, and Thailand to its west. The Thai border runs for 153 kilometers (95 miles).[1]
Name
The provincial authorities explain the name as two parts. Banteay (បន្ទាយ) stands for the army bases that marked the area in the 1980s, and meanchey (មានជ័យ) means victorious or successful.[1]
History
The People's Republic of Kampuchea created Banteay Meanchey in 1987 as the country's 22nd province. Its administration began work on January 7, 1988, at a ceremony led by Bou Thong, a deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers.[1] The new province was cut out of Battambang. In 2013 Iv Sarun, head of the provincial culture department, named its districts for Koh Santepheap. They were Mongkol Borei (មង្គលបុរី), Serei Saophoan (សិរីសោភ័ណ), Svay Chek (ស្វាយចេក), Thma Puok (ថ្មពួក), Preah Netr Preah (ព្រះនេត្រព្រះ), Phnom Srok (ភ្នំស្រុក) and O Chrov (អូរជ្រៅ).[2] The provincial administration's account gives a slightly different count: five former northern districts of Battambang, with Banteay Ampil district from the old province of Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey.[1]
Towns and districts
The province has two cities, Serei Saophoan and Poipet (ប៉ោយប៉ែត). It has seven districts: Mongkol Borei, Preah Netr Preah, Phnom Srok, O Chrov, Svay Chek, Thma Puok and Malai (ម៉ាឡៃ). Malai, Poipet, O Chrov, Svay Chek and Thma Puok lie along the Thai border.[1]
Economy
Farming is the base of the province's economy. The provincial account puts farmers at 85 percent of the people, traders at 10 percent and other trades at 5 percent. Rice covers about 305,035 hectares (753,700 acres) and yields between 900,000 and 1 million tonnes a year.[1]
Two international crossings link the province with Thailand, at Poipet and Stueng Bot (ស្ទឹងបត់), and two regional crossings at Malai and Boeng Trakuon (បឹងត្រកួន). In 2022 the province had three special economic zones and an industrial park in Serei Saophoan.[1]
Places to visit
The provincial account lists 13 resorts and one community tourism project, at Banteay Chhmar.[1] Banteay Chhmar is a group of eight temples built for the 12th-century king Jayavarman VII, inside a moat and spread over 9 square kilometers (3.5 square miles). The World Monuments Fund calls it one of the largest Khmer complexes outside Angkor. After the Khmer Rouge period, looters took many of its carvings, and in 1999 thieves dismantled and carried off big parts of the western gallery, with their carvings. The site was on the World Monuments Watch in 1998 and 2000.[3]
Villagers near the temples started the Banteay Chhmar community tourism project in 2006, with help from the French group Agir pour le Cambodge. An elected committee runs it. Guests stay in village homes, ride ox carts to the rice harvest and learn to cook local dishes. More than 90 families earn money from it, and a village fund pays for English classes and plastic recycling. The project won a TO DO Award for responsible tourism in 2020.[4]
Population
The 2019 census counted 859,545 people in Banteay Meanchey, up from 677,872 in 2008, on 6,679 square kilometers (2,579 square miles). That is 129 people per square kilometer.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Kampuchea Thmey, Banteay Meanchey province, set up in 1987, was once an army base nearly 40 years ago (undated; in Khmer), from the provincial administration's records
- ↑ Koh Santepheap, The history of the founding and name of Banteay Meanchey province (September 12, 2013; in Khmer)
- ↑ World Monuments Fund, Banteay Chhmar Temple of Jayavarman VII (undated)
- ↑ TO DO Award 2020, Banteay Chhmar Community Based Tourism, Cambodia (2021)
- ↑ National Institute of Statistics, Provisional Population Census 2019 (2019)