Community
Chong people
Cambodian community with a recognition campaign in the Areng Valley
The Chong people are a Cambodian community whose Areng Valley villagers have sought recognition as Indigenous peoples of Cambodia.[1]
Names and oral tradition
The linguist Michel Ferlus traces Chong and the forms Song, Xong and Kasong to a name the Pearic peoples used for themselves. Ferlus identifies Tchouang in the late 13th-century account of Cambodia by Zhou Daguan (Tcheou Ta-kouan in Ferlus).[2] He also notes derogatory dictionary meanings for the Khmer form of the name (ជង).[2]
Ferlus cites the ethnologist Marie Martin on Samre oral traditions about a Chong kingdom before the Khmer arrival.[2]
Recognition campaign
VOA Khmer reported on April 5, 2018, that villagers in the Areng Valley of Koh Kong were seeking official Indigenous status. It described the group as unrecognized at that time and therefore outside the protection of laws for Indigenous people.[1] The report said the villagers had filed petitions with the United Nations and several embassies in Phnom Penh, saying the application process had taken more than a year.[1]
An undated report on Open Development Cambodia records a delegation of nearly 20 people gathering in Phnom Penh. They represented more than 100 families from Thma Baing district in Koh Kong and petitioned institutions to help secure recognition for the Chong of the Areng Valley.[3]
References 3
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 VOA Khmer, Hul Reaksmey, Villagers Accuse Authorities of Sabotaging Bid to Secure ‘Indigenous’ Status (April 5, 2018)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Mon-Khmer Studies, Michel Ferlus, Toward Proto Pearic: problems and historical implications (2011)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Indigenous people push for official recognition (undated)
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