Place

Trà Vinh province

Trà Vinh province is a former province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta with a large Khmer Krom (ខ្មែរក្រោម) community.[1][2][3] It became part of the new Vĩnh Long province with Vĩnh Long and Bến Tre in 2025; the new local administration began on July 1.[4][3]

A golden Khmer temple hall with a tiered red roof and ornate pointed gable, its carved balustrades and steps lit by late sun among tall trees
The main hall of Ang pagoda (Angkorajaborey) in Trà Vinh province, 2013

Khmer community

Dated accounts give different Khmer population shares: 31 percent in 2022 and 2023, but more than 32 percent in 2024. The 2022 count was nearly 330,000; the later two accounts put the province’s overall population at about one million or more.[2][1][5]

Pagodas and Ao Bà Om

Khmer Theravada pagoda counts differ too: 143 in a 2018 account and 141 in a 2020 account.[6][7] Chùa Âng, Ao Bà Om pond and the Khmer Culture Museum form a cultural complex in Trà Vinh city.[8] The museum displays farm tools, instruments, clothing and ceremonial dress from Khmer life.[8] The pond and pagoda received national historical and cultural relic recognition in 1994.[8][3]

Accounts place the pagoda’s founding in 990, while another treats the tenth-century origin as legend and suggests a bamboo-and-leaf structure from 1695.[8][3][7] It has served as a monastic school for Pali and Khmer script.[3]

Festivals

Major Khmer celebrations include Chol Chnam Thmay, Sene Dolta and Ok Om Bok, the moon festival.[2] Gatherings at Ao Bà Om bring together Khmer, Kinh and Hoa people from the province and neighboring areas.[7] The 2022 Ngo boat race opened on November 6 with eight teams and more than 800 athletes.[2]

Khmer education

Khmer language (ភាសាខ្មែរ) classes are held in schools and Buddhist pagodas.[5] In the 2023 to 2024 school year, 125 schools taught nearly 36,000 students in these classes.[5] Monks and achars also lead supplementary teaching in Khmer Theravada Wats.[5] Trà Vinh University opened its Faculty of Southern Khmer Language, Culture and Art on June 23, 2013.[9]

References 9
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 VietnamPlus (Vietnam News Agency), Tra Vinh province improves lives of ethnic people (May 19, 2023)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 VOV (Voice of Vietnam), Boat race within Ok Om Bok Festival opens in Tra Vinh province (November 6, 2022)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism (Tourism Information Technology Center), Ang Pagoda – A Magnificent Ancient Khmer Temple in Vinh Long (undated)
  4. ↑ Cổng thông tin điện tử tỉnh Vĩnh Long (Vĩnh Long Provincial People's Committee), Lịch sử hình thành tỉnh Vĩnh Long (undated)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Việt Nam News (Vietnam News Agency), Effort concerted to promote Khmer language in Trà Vinh (March 5, 2024)
  6. ↑ Báo Đại Đoàn Kết, Chủ tịch Trần Thanh Mẫn chúc Tết Chôl Chnăm Thmây tại tỉnh Trà Vinh (April 9, 2018)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Báo Pháp luật Việt Nam, Truyền thuyết về ao Bà Om và ngôi cổ tự linh thiêng bậc nhất miền Tây (March 10, 2020)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 VOV World (Voice of Vietnam), Relic complex of Ao Ba pond, Ang pagoda, Khmer Culture Museum (August 25, 2022)
  9. ↑ Nhân Dân (Nhan Dan Online), Faculty of Southern Khmer Language inaugurated (June 24, 2013)


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This page was last edited on 14 November 2026, at 08:48.