I'm curious as to who I am, and how far my bloodline goes. Even though I am almost Khmer 100%, I don't really look khmer, judging by what some other khmers have said to me. My relatives and family on my dad's mother's side have some strong Indian phenotype facial features. Despite my dad's father being half Chinese, all of my other siblings except my youngest brother, have some very strong Indian phenotype facial features. My relatives on my mom's side of the family also have some Indian facial features. When I look at myself in the mirror, I'm surprised by how much Indian I look. My eyes are big, I'm tan, not that dark, and my hair is pretty wavy. My sister, and other female cousins resemble those Indian girls in the bollywood movie. Everytime we all go shopping in an Indian store, Indian people always confuse us with one of them, when they speak Hindi to us.

My grandma told me, that true khmer people are descendents of Indians who migrated from India thousands of years ago. She said that first Khmer Kingdom was created by an Indian prince, and the people that migrated with him, because they had lost a war in India by a neighboring kingdom. In order for them to survive, they migrated to what is present day Cambodia. Whether this is true or not, I'm just trying to find out. But the internet is pretty useless sometimes.

When I visited Cambodia back in 2001, it saddens my heart to know, that the ones with the dark, yet strong Indian facial features live in utter poverty, unable to find jobs, and are in a way segregated by those who look more mongoloid, and have lighter skin. I myself, was a victim of this sort of discrimination. They would call me " Khmer Klung ". Which is actually a derogatory term for khmers of Indian descent, or Khmers who look Indian. For those Khmers who have Indian blood, they are discriminated on a daily basis in Cambodia. In Cambodian society, they are thought of as being stupid, uneducated, and barbaric. Hence in classrooms in Cambodia, the students who look more mongoloid or Chinese, are favored, while the students who look more Indian, are likely ignored. In my travels across Cambodia, I've noticed how more than 50% of the country, is mixed with Chinese, Thai, Viet or are actually Chinese, or other mongoloid groups. Less than 30% have the Indian facial features. Yet in America, most Khmers, have that particular Indian facial features, or a mix of both Indian, and Mongoloid. My grandma in Cambodia, told me how a lot of real khmers, the ones with the Indian facial feature were massacred or killed during the Killing Fields of Cambodia. And that a majority of the Khmer rouge leaders were actually mixed with Chinese, and they deeply hated the darker skin Khmers who may have been of Indian descent.


Here are some Interesting Articles and Links I've found online, about the Khmer and Indian Connection.

http://www.punjabi.net/talk/messages/1/24210.html

http://khmer.cc/community/t.c?b=13&t=554

http://home.att.net/~khmerheritage/Kamboja.html

http://punjabi.net/talk/messages/1/15318.html?1019962867

Here is my personal opinio:

I know that khmers adopted indian culture and were influenced by indians but from my understanding it was Indigenous ppl of Khmer who adopted. Also ancient indians were forbidden from leaving india, so I don't think there can be a significant migration towards east. Although there were ppl from india who traded with cambodia u have 2 remember that they were outcasted from india, so direct migration by indians would be very limited. I can only think of one major eastern movement that was by Chola Emperors who wanted to annex S.E.Asia but besides that I can't think of any large movements.

And ur info on indian looking khmer being discriminated, there is nothing I can do about it. It is after all an internal khmer thing and discrimination like that exists everywhere. Even in india, lets just say not everyone is treated equally. Chinese were heavily discriminated(as it was posted one of the articles up in this forum), and mongloid looking ppl in NE hold some serious grudges against the Central Govt.

I have not come across a khmer or cambodian, so i will not comment on that. Most indians aren't aware of cambodia or don't know about it so I doubt u will get much information on what indians think abt khmer in general or if khmer are descendants from India.

Indians are if I read the census report most successful ethnic group in US. But cambodia's case is different most were refugees so that's the reason they are in poverty.

And what is wavy hair? I thought most indians have straight hair not wavy!

I don't know what u expect me or other indians to answer?

I think I can answer this question. You are not Indian. Following are the reasons why. India is a State comprising of different nationalities. If u undestand the difference between what is a State and a Nation, I think u will undestand my reply a lot more easily.

The State of India consists of different nations. These nations include telugus, tamils, kannadigas, punjabis, hindi (and their different dialects), marathis and etc...

The ppl who speak telugu live in area called Andhra Pradesh, Punjabis in Punjab etc.

I think u are a khmer and the language belongs to mon-khmer family and I don't think any of the speakers are living in india, which makes u not indian.

India is nothing but a bunch of different countries with different cultures, languges deciding to join together to form one Union, like EU. Except we were more frigging successful.

The only thing we all have in common is hinduism. Even hinduism itself we follow different religious belifs. It can range from atheist hindus to monist hindus.

Come to think of it India is a weird country.

Another Example is Canada.

Canada is a dual nation society consisting of the french and english nations. But Canada is 1 state but 2 nations. India is 1 state 20 change nations.


EDIT: So, in order to be an Indian u must belong to a nationality that is a part of the Indian Union otherwise, like in ur case u r a cambodian.

For Ex: Tamillians from malaysia are called Malay Indians(or whatever the term is) because tamillians are part of the Indian Union. If Tamil Nadu(state tamils live in) was a seperate country they would be called Malay Tamilians not Malay Indians. Since, no such thing exist for khmer in India u can't say that true khmers are indians.

Sorry for such a long post.

I THINK I HAVE GONE WAY OFF TOPIC.

That's a bs. philosophy adopted after the Muslims invaded India during the 12th century and traditional ties with SEA were cut significantly. There was nothing that forbid Hindus from migrating overseas to SEA or anywhere else. I've been to Bali myself and have seen quite a few Indonesians with Indian features like noses, faces etc. In fact, India in pre-muslim times India had a great mariner tradition of trading with east africa, SEA, middle east etc.

But who cares about features and blood, what unites us all is Hindu-Buddhist culture and religion. I've been to Thailand, to a place called Nakhon Ratchasima, where some Khmer sculptures clearly had Indian features i.e Gurus (teachers) etc. I read at the local museum that Khmer had a lot of administrators from India. It's no secret that there were adventurers, missionaries, traders, settlers, princes looking for new lands etc.

I think SEA was called Suvarnabhumi, land of gold. You can pm me KhmerCuriosity and I can give you some links if you want.

I sympathise with your plight KhmerCuriosity, do you have any concrete suggestions or plan of action what can be done to help Khmers today? It's tragic that the riches of Angkor Wat are being sold overseas. There are links to organisations that perhaps could help you, if u want a pm for that.

B.S again. India was founded as a nation by the first Emperor, Bharat (Mahabharat). Bharat is the real name for India, which included Afghanistan. There were numerous empires that covered large parts of the subcontinent, another well known person being Emperor Ashok- responsible for spreading Buddhism to other asian countries and building the nation.

What "kkdkckr"l is referring to is the diversification from one language (Sanskrit) into various regional languages.

THAT IS NO BS! That's fu-king fact. India may have existed b4 under mauryans, mughals, and guptas but India is A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT NATIONS UNITING UNDER ONE BANNER!

Are u telling me southern languages come from Sanskrit?

Sanskrit was never a language of the commoners, it was a language of elite. Prakrit is the language of commoners.

You're talking about the Republic of India. As a historical nation, it has always been there.



I'm sure you read Marxist/western mumbo jumbo, but these languages are from Sanskrit as well. Linguistics is not a science my dear.

Man, do u seriously think Tamil came out of Sanskrit ! I have common sense and u are really stupid to believe that tamil came out of sanskrit. And don't disrespect tamilians and their culture by telling them tamil came out of sanskrit.

In any case Khmercuriousity, Sanskrit was used by priests, academics and royalty throughout SEA and Tibet. Quite a few loan words are even used today in SEA countries.

As far as you being Indian, I agree that you're technically not. You may very well have some Indian in you, but your ethnicity is clearly Cambodian. Being Indian is also a nationality, not a race. There are also some Indians with mongoloid genes (this is apparent in some of the Bengali Bollywood actresses). Yet, they proudly consider themselves Indian, even when they don't look like a "typical Indian."




I can understand that, as your situation is the reverse for my Indian bf. While we haven't met any Cambodians, Chinese and Koreans have assumed that he was Cambodian and a couple of Phillipinos would talk to him in Tagolog. Even some Indians don't think he's Indian on first impression. Few Indian-Americans will even say stupid things like "Bullsh*t you're full Indian. I think your dad had an affair with a Chinese person." I also have an Indian friend that gets mistaken for being black, and Indians also gossip about her that she's just an adopted black girl. I also have another Indian friend with naturally green eyes, and some Indians don't believe him.








Wow. I'm sorry to hear that.

King Jayavarman II......i think his mom was a native Cambodian Princess while his father was an Indian prince? Or was that Jayavarman the First?

Either way.....Angkor Wat rocks!

What is your definition of typical Indian?
Being Indian is referring to Hindu religion, history and culture.

Are you talking to me? If you notice, I put that in quotation marks. I don't think there is a set definition of a "typical Indian," but some other Indians may think that.

For example, I've heard some Indians say that Aishwarya Rai doesn't look like a "typical Indian." What they mean is that she probably doesn't represent the majority of Indians, hence the so-called "typical Indian look."

So what does a typical Indian look like?

Good, now help him if you really mean it.

I told you that I don't think there is such a thing.

Maybe you can ask somebody like agnis-to-agnis or kkdkckrl

I just reread your other post, and I think you can answer that question on your own. You said that some Khmer statues and some Indonesians have "Indian features."

Yup, and Rai is Indian. You must be referring to those blue lenses she's wearing.

So the Indian Khmer were the intellectuals, urban dwellers, traders, educated people and elite of society before, and the khmer rogues leaders were chinese peasant people?

Tsk tsk.

I'll tell you what you are, you're a fu-king troll.

the people of ancient indo-china looked nothing like the present people........the people in the past in countries such as thailand, indonesia, vietnam and some other indo-chinese countries were 3/4 indian or more with a light sprinkle of chinese .........but after the indian princes in thailand started marrying chinese brides i think this totally changed the situation.......although you will find remnants very very rarely for eg. i only met two girls one was from indonesia and the other from vietnam who had a rare indo-chinese beauty, it was amazing they were fair with like an indian flavour but a slight sprinkle of chinese ....absolutely beautiful........

but they are very rare........people say indians are exotic but indians just look one way ........but the ancient people in indo-china were truly exotic....... although there is hardly any left

tamil does have some borrowings from sanskrit but its largely different jus like hungarian and finnish have some borrowings from EU but its largely different languages.......

what do typical indians look like i thought i just posted it .........damn ok ill copy and paste.........here u go........

tamils......

Bangladeshis













punjabis, gujaratis, hyderabadis.....etc etc.......

do bengal hindus worship kali?

Dude, I'm Indian too. I know she's Indian. I never said she didn't look "typical." It's just that other Indians do. Look at agnis. He thinks Indians only look one way.


I know she wears lenses, but I've seen Desis with light eyes and ivory skin before.

It's late, this is turning to a flamefest. Sry to hear about your people, KC. It may be that some Khmer folk are related to to people from South Asia but it's been so long I dunno how it spells out nowadays.

they dont look like average looking khmers i dunno theres a distinct look to them then just skin color u know

^ express yourself the du*b indian wannabe.......

indians look indian, they DO NOT look chinese and they DO NOT look african/australoid/or whatever other BS u like to talk about......indians look indian ....

and by the way its agnis to ignis not agnis to agnis.........agni in hindi means fire from which u get the latin word ignis from which u get the english word ignite......i know my culture well dude.......

These are the kind of Desi guys that I'm talking about in the other thread.


Lord knows why is it so hard for you boys to talk nicely to a Desi girl, even when we don't say anything disrespectful to you.

My hubby is Khmer and don't look Khmer either. He's been told he looked Desi before but also been told he looked Hispanic or mix with black...so does that mean that Khmers have whatever nationality he was told that whatever he looked like was descentant from there.

I'm Hmong and don't look Hmong. I've been told I look anywhere from Mexican, Lao, Khmer, Filipino, to Eskimo, lol.....

This is becoming a flame topic!

Most of my female cousins and relatives look like these girls

http://www.bollywood2000.com/features/imag...pix10mahima.jpg
http://www.bollywood2000.com/features/images/05pix1aish.jpg
http://movies.indiainfo.com/features/images/cham.jpg
http://www.rumela.com/albums/bipasha/bipasha06.thumb.jpg


My sister looks almost 98% like this lady in the pic below
http://www.bollywood2000.com/features/imag...ix11kareena.jpg

I look almost like this guy, except I'm currently bald
http://movies.indiainfo.com/features/images/john.jpg

If you guys could wait, I'll show you guys some pics of most of my relatives, and myself

Sorry guys, I did not mean to cause any flaming on the board.

I believe so.

I can't do anything right now, but to build up my wealth, in the hope of maybe going back to Cambodia, to help fund and educate those who are improverished, and who's voices aren't being listened to. For those Khmers who are of Indian descent, I just feel so bad not being able to help them out right now. If I ever become successful in business, they'll be the first people I employ in Cambodia.

Why don't you show us pics of your cousins instead of Kareena, John, Bipasha, Mahima, etc? Just because you they may look like it doesn' t mean anything.

I know some Indians (and a couple of the AF members) that do think Bipasha looks Mongoloid.


So, I'm sure there must be SOME Khmers that wouldn't think your female relatives look totally Indian, if some people out there think Bipasha isn't all-the-way "Indian -looking."



BTW, John Abraham is half-Persian.

Is John Abraham Parsi or Full-blown Iranian(from Iran)? I think that there is considerable indian blood in parsis, even those who consider themselves pure. I know that one of the conditions parsis were allowed to settle was if they don't marry hindus but only marry amongst themselves.

I think his dad is Malayalam Catholic, and his biography just says his mom was Iranian.

being an indian myself

i get mistaken for hispanic alot thats only because around where i live there is a good amount of hispanics.

but no, there is no true definition of an indian. because while im tan my sisters and mom and cousins are all light. some of my cousins get mistaken for being white. so much that one of my cousins nickname is "whitegirl". for the rest of us, its mostly spanish.

u seriously cant classify an indian cuz they all come in diff features. the guy at my liquor store looks completely chinese, i was surprised when he told me he was indian.

a girl at a "wings to go" looked white, but she was indian. one of my co-worker i though was indian, but was brazilian. so

There's a lot of mix Indians in Bollywood

Half Indian and?

John Abraham - Persian
Celina Jaitley - Afghan
Dia Mirza - German
Katrina Kaif - British
Dino Morea - Italian
Lisa Ray - Polish
Fardeen Khan - Afghan
Lara Dutta - Scottish

I wouldn't consider afghans to be outsiders. They are also desis.

Regarding john Abrahams' mother, is she Parsi or Persian from iran?

John's mom is Persian from Iran.

I read that Lara Dutta is 1/4 Scottish? I wouldn't be able to tell though.









Regarding John Abraham, I have no idea if his mom is Parsi or not.

He is half Parsi yaar ,his father is a Christian from Kerala,and his mother belongs to the Indian Parsi community.

Khmer Klung are the khmer who looks more Arab or khmer/Indian.
I never heard of anyone in Cambodia would considered Khmer Klung as low people. We always admired Klung. We thought they are very beautiful.

Are you making up the story?

Unfortunately for Cambodians, the economy and seemingly everything else in Cambodia is controlled by the Chinese.
In fact I think maybe Chinese are nearly as populous as Khmers. If Cambodians want to progress, they need to take a leaf out of Malaysia's books and control their Chinese populations. The only way that ethnic Khmers will progress is if they get rid of their Chinese control..

Some Indians did colonise South East Asia as far as I know many years ago back then. South East Asia was called further India (Siam) I think this is the word used in Sanskrit correct me if I'am wrong.

It was the Khmer Empire that had strong connectioned with Indian at that time Siam was never been a country or never heard of until the late 12th century.

The only Indian empire to colonize parts of SE Asia was the Chola Empire sometime during the middle ages. It was ruled by Tamil kings of South India. There may have been other independant Indian kings that ruled other parts of SE Asia but I'm not too sure.