07/10/2025
Lifestyle
For many older Cambodians, life is centred on family, faith and food, a timeless existence that has stayed the same for centuries. Family is more than the nuclear family we know in the west-it’s the extended family of third cosines and obscure aunts (as long as there is bloodline there is a bond). Families stick together, solve problems collectively, listen to the wisdom of the elders and pool resources. The extended family come together during times of trouble or time of joy, celebrating festivals and successes, mourning deaths or disappointments. Whether the Cambodian house is big or small, one things is certain: there will be a lot of people living inside.
For the majority of the population still living in the countryside, these constants carry on as they have: serveral generations sharing the same roof, the same rice and the same religion. But during the dark decades of the 1970s and 1980s, this routine was ripped apart by war and ideology, as the peasants were dragged from all they help dear to fight the bloody civil war and later forced into slavery. Angar, the Khmer Rouge organization, took over as the moral and social beacon in the lives of the people and families were forced apart, children turned against parents, brother against sister. The bond of trust was broken and is slowly being rebuild today.
Faith is an other rock in the lives of many older Cambodians, and Buddhism has help them to rebuild their shattered lives after waking from nightmare that was the Khmer Rouge. Most Cambodians house contain a small shrine to pray for luck and the wats are throning with the faithful come Buddhist day.
Food is more importaint to Cambodians than the most, as they have tasted what is it like to be without. Famine stalked the country in the late 1970s, and even today, malnutrition and food shortages are common during time of drought. Rice is khmer staple served with every meal and many a Cambodian driver can’t go on without his or her daily fix. For country folk, still the majority of the Cambodian population, we must not forget their fields. Farmers are attached to their land, their very survival dependent on it, and the harvest cycle dictates the rhythm of rural life.
But the young generation of teenagers brought up in post –conflict, post-communist period of relative freedom, it’s a different story-arguably thanks to their steady diet of MTV and steamy soaps. Like the other part of Asia before it, Cambodia is experiencing its very own 60s swing as the young generation stand up for the different lifestyle than the one their parents had to swallow. This is creating plenty of feisty friction in the cities, as rebellious teen dress as they like, date who they want and hit the town until all hours. But the few actually live on their own, they still come home to Ma and Pa at the end of the day the arguments start again, particularly about marriage and settling down, as their older generation don’t like to see the younger generation living the single life.
Cambodia is one the country undergoing rapid change, but for now the traditionalists are just holding their own, although the onslaughts of Karaoke is proving hard to resist. Cambodia is set for major demographic change in the next couple of decades. Currently, just 15% of the population live in urban areas, which contrasts starkly with the country more –development neighbors like Malaysia and Thailand. In creating number of young people are likely to migrate to the cities in search of opportunity, changing forever the face of contemporary Cambodian society. However, for now, Cambodian society remains much more traditional than in Thailand and Vietnam, and visitors need to keep this in mind.
Thanks you for your attention.
Copyright from lonely planet ( Nick Ray)
