Place

Kampong Thom

កំពង់ធំ

Kampong Thom (កំពង់ធំ) is a province in central Cambodia, on the Stung Sen river and the eastern side of the Tonle Sap.[1][2] Its capital, Stueng Saen, lies on National Road 6, about halfway between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.[2][3] The province holds Sambor Prei Kuk, the remains of Ishanapura, a capital of the Chenla period and a World Heritage site since 2017.[4]

Geography

Into Cambodia gives the province's neighbors as Preah Vihear, Stung Treng, Kratie, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, the Tonle Sap and Siem Reap, going clockwise from the north.[5] The National Institute of Statistics counts it among the provinces of the Tonle Sap zone, and gives its area as 13,814 square kilometers.[3] Into Cambodia and Tourism of Cambodia describe two parts: forests and plateaus over about 70 percent of the land in the east, and a floodplain reaching to the lake in the west.[5][6]

The Stung Sen (ស្ទឹងសែន) rises in the hills of Preah Vihear and runs for more than 520 kilometers through the province before it reaches the Tonle Sap. Cambodge Mag writes that its basin, 16,344 square kilometers, is the largest of the lake's eleven main tributaries.[2]

Several protected areas lie in the province. The Stung Sen Ramsar Site, 9,293 hectares of seasonally flooded swamp forest on the southeastern edge of the lake, was declared in November 2018 as Cambodia's fifth wetland of international importance.[7][8] Boeng Chhmar, a lake in flooded forest on the lake's northeast fringe, has been a Ramsar site since 1999, shared with Siem Reap.[8] Stung Sen and Boeng Chhmar are also two of the three core areas of the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve.[9] In 2023 a government sub-decree enlarged the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, which spreads over Kampong Thom, Kratie, Stung Treng and Preah Vihear, to 489,663 hectares.[10]

Districts

In the 2019 census the province had the municipality of Stueng Saen and eight districts: Baray, Kampong Svay, Prasat Ballangk, Prasat Sambour, Sandan, Santuk, Stoung and Taing Kouk.[3] The official list for the 2011 economic census had seven districts and the town, without Taing Kouk.[11]

People

The final results of the 2019 census counted 681,549 people, up from 631,409 in 2008, a growth of 0.7 percent a year. The province had 49 people per square kilometer, and 98.6 percent of its people were Buddhist.[3] Into Cambodia counts 3,284 families of the Indigenous Kuy people in the province.[5]

History

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) identifies Sambor Prei Kuk as Ishanapura, the capital of Chenla in the late 6th and early 7th centuries. The site has more than a hundred temples, ten of them octagonal, a form found nowhere else in Southeast Asia.[4] The historian Lawrence Palmer Briggs wrote in 1947 that Isanapura, the capital of King Isanavarman, stood on a northern arm of the Tonle Sap.[12] Sambor Prei Kuk lies about 30 kilometers north of the provincial capital.[13][2]

Preah Khan Kampong Svay was listed in French inventories under the Kampong Svay region of Kampong Thom, although the temple stands in Preah Vihear province.[14][15]

Economy

Into Cambodia describes the western floodplain as rich land for growing rice and for fishing.[5] In July 2020 Radio Free Asia Khmer wrote that more than 3,000 hectares of early wet-season rice in Baray and Taing Kouk districts had gone about two weeks without rain. The province and two ministries had sent machines to clear old canals.[1]

Places

Phnom Santuk (ភ្នំសន្ទុក), in Santuk district, is a hill with old and new pagodas and many Buddhas carved in the rock. Hello Angkor writes that it has been a sacred mountain since at least the 15th century.[16] In Stueng Saen, Wat Kampong Thom (វត្តកំពង់ធំ) is also known as Indrisamvora Pagoda.[5] Into Cambodia writes that the Kampong Thom Museum opened in January 2010.[5] Phat Sanday, a floating village, lies where the Stung Sen meets the lake.[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Radio Free Asia Khmer, សេក បណ្ឌិត, អាជ្ញាធរខេត្តកំពង់ធំកំពុងសង្គ្រោះស្រូវជាង ៣ពាន់ហិកតារដែលជួបគ្រោះរាំងស្ងួត (July 15, 2020)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cambodge Mag, Cambodia & Tourism: Stung Sen, the River That Carried Two Capitals (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 National Institute of Statistics, General Population Census of the Kingdom of Cambodia 2019: Final Report (undated)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Temple Zone of Sambor Prei Kuk, Archaeological Site of Ancient Ishanapura (undated)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Into Cambodia, Kampong Thom Province (undated)
  6. ↑ Tourism of Cambodia, Kampong Thom (undated)
  7. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, from the Ministry of Environment, Press release: Stung Sen was internationally recognized as a fifth Ramsar Site in Cambodia (November 6, 2018)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ramsar Sites Information Service, Annotated List of Wetlands of International Importance: Cambodia (undated)
  9. ↑ Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia, The Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve (December 31, 2009)
  10. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Sub-Decree no. 181 on reclassifying Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary (July 17, 2023)
  11. ↑ Statistics Bureau of Japan, District Profile of Cambodian 2011 Economic Census: 06 Kampong Thom Province (December 11, 2012)
  12. ↑ Lawrence Palmer Briggs, A Sketch of Cambodian History (1947)
  13. ↑ Hello Angkor, Rodney Charles L'Huillier, Sambor Prei Kuk Group: Visiting Guide, History & More (January 1, 2026)
  14. ↑ Cambodge Mag, Cambodia & Discovery: The unique atmosphere of Preah Khan Kompong Svay (undated)
  15. ↑ Hello Angkor, Preah Khan of Kampong Svay (undated)
  16. ↑ Hello Angkor, Rodney Charles L'Huillier, Phnom Santuk (undated)


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This page was last edited on 9 October 2026, at 15:38.