Community

Pear people

Cambodian community recorded as Por in the national census

Green forested hills under low drifting cloud, a small stream running down from the forest edge into rice paddies, with tall sugar palms beside the fields
Illustration inspired by the Cardamom foothills at Phnom Krevanh, Pursat

The Pear people are a Cambodian ethnic community recorded as Por in the national census.[1]

The linguist Michel Ferlus traces the names Por and Pear to different Khmer forms of the Sanskrit word varna, meaning color or caste.[2]

Names

Ferlus explains Pear as the learned form and connects its use by Khmer and French administrations to the name of the Pearic language group.[2]

His table of historical word lists includes Porr in Pursat, recorded by Brengues in 1905, and Pear des Cardamomes at Phnom Krevanh, recorded by Morizon in 1936. It also lists Marie Martin's 1974 records of Somree at Peam Prus in Pursat and Somray at Kranhung in Battambang.[2]

Census counts

Table 2.3 of Cambodia's 2019 census report lists 1,827 Por people in 2008, comprising 883 males and 944 females. For 2019 it lists 944, comprising 453 males and 491 females.[1]

References 2
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Institute of Statistics, General Population Census of Cambodia 2019: Thematic Report on Ethnic Minorities, Table 2.3 (undated)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Mon-Khmer Studies, Michel Ferlus, Toward Proto Pearic: problems and historical implications (2011)
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This page was last edited on 30 October 2026, at 21:42.