Place
Stung Treng
ស្ទឹងត្រែង
Stung Treng (ស្ទឹងត្រែង) is a province in northeast Cambodia, on the border with Laos.[1][2] Its capital, also called Stung Treng, stands where the Sekong River flows into the Mekong.[3]
Geography
Stung Treng borders Laos and the provinces of Ratanakiri, Kratie, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear.[2] The Mekong crosses the province from the Lao border. South of the town, the Sesan and Srepok rivers, which come down from the highlands, also join it.[3][2] The National Institute of Statistics gives the province's area as 11,092 square kilometers (4,283 square miles).[4] The Into Cambodia guide gives 12,016 square kilometers (4,639 square miles).[2]
The province has five districts and one municipality, Stung Treng City. The districts are Sesan, Siem Bouk, Siem Pang, Thala Barivat and Borei O Svay Senchey.[2]
Name
The Into Cambodia guide gives a story of the name, drawn from older documents. In its telling, the province was first called Sa Teung Teng (សាទឹងទែង), after Seang Peng, a monk from Vientiane whom the Khmer king made governor. A later governor of the same family turned to the king of Siam, who made him ruler of Mueang Xiang Taeng. The name then changed to Xiang Taeng, and Khmer speakers turned it into Stung Treng.[2] The guide gives the meaning of Stung Treng as a river of reeds.[2]
People
The provisional count of the 2019 census found 159,565 people in 34,627 households, up from 111,671 in 2008, a growth of 3.2 percent a year. The census report puts the growth down to a fairly high birth rate and to people moving in from other provinces as farming and other work grew. Stung Treng had 108.7 men for every 100 women, the highest ratio among the provinces.[4]
The people are Khmer, Lao and members of Indigenous groups such as the Phnong, Tampuan and Kuy.[2] In 2015 Radio Free Asia cited a count by the Cambodian rights group ADHOC. By that count, ethnic Lao make up 20 to 60 percent of the people in each of the five districts, most of them in Sesan, Siem Pang and Siem Bouk. Lao villages line the Sekong (ទន្លេសេកុង) in Sesan district. The villagers keep Khmer festivals such as Khmer New Year, Pchum Ben (ភ្ជុំបិណ្ឌ) and boat racing. Their Lao dialect differs from that of Vientiane, and fewer people speak it.[1] On Koh L'ngor, an island in the Mekong facing Laos, Lao is still widely spoken.[3]
Sinn Sisamouth was born in Stung Treng province in 1933.[5]
History
During the war of the 1960s and 1970s the province was a center of communist rebel activity and was bombed by the United States.[2]
Mekong and wildlife
North of the town, a 40-kilometer stretch of the Mekong was listed under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands on June 23, 1999. The site covers 14,600 hectares of fast channels between rocky and sandy islands, beginning about 5 kilometers from the town and ending 4 kilometers short of the Lao border.[6] Its deep pools shelter the giant Mekong catfish and the Irrawaddy dolphin, and the white-shouldered ibis breeds there.[6] The Key Biodiversity Areas listing says the river from Kratie to the Lao border supports a large share of the world's Mekong wagtails.[7]
The Irrawaddy dolphins of the Cambodian Mekong live only along a 180-kilometer stretch of the river between Kratie and the Khone Falls in Laos. A survey by the World Wildlife Fund and the Fisheries Administration counted 89 of them in 2020.[8] In March 2026 officials estimated the population at 114.[9] The Anlong Cheuteal dolphin pool (អន្លង់ផ្សោតឈើទាល), near the Lao border, is one of the last places they live.[2] The Ramsar sheet lists dams, a growing network of infrastructure, cash crops and logging among the threats to the river.[6]
Economy
Most people in the province live from plantations, farm crops and fishing. Provincial officials said in 2023 that farm products had earned the province 700 to 800 million US dollars over five years.[10] The Stung Treng Women's Development Center keeps silk weaving alive and trains women in the craft.[3] The busiest land crossing between Cambodia and Laos is at the Trapaing Kriel and Voeung Kam checkpoint.[3]
Temples and sites
Preah Ko (ប្រាសាទព្រះគោ), also called Prasat Srei, stands in Thala Barivat district, about 10 kilometers from the town. It dates from the late sixth or early seventh century, and it is the temple in the province that keeps most of its original form.[2][3] Other pre-Angkorian ruins stand at Thala Barivat.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Radio Free Asia Khmer, Men Sothyr, Ethnic Lao in Stung Treng province keep traditions close to Khmer ones (August 18, 2015; in Khmer)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Into Cambodia, Stung Treng Province (2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Cambodge Mag, Stung Treng, the Quiet Gateway to the Wild Mekong (July 6, year not printed; undated)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 National Institute of Statistics, Provisional Population Census 2019 (2019)
- ↑ Cambodge Mag, Christophe Gargiulo, History & Tribute: Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea, icons of Cambodian pop music (February 23, 2025)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ramsar Sites Information Service, Middle Stretches of Mekong River North of Stoeng Treng (information sheet updated 2012)
- ↑ Key Biodiversity Areas, Mekong River from Kratie to Lao PDR (assessed 2012)
- ↑ WWF, Mekong River Dolphin Population Stabilizes at 89 (October 23, 2020)
- ↑ FISHBIO, Mekong Dolphin Population in Cambodia Rises to 114, Officials Say (March 10, 2026)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, from The Phnom Penh Post, Stung Treng agriculture achievements on display (April 26, 2023)