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Volume 3 No.5:
Feature Stories:
Natural Salt of Cambodia
The Khmer Flute
Cultural Day Celebrated
Khmer Script Evolved
Sach Krark - Khmer
Sausage
Khmer Delicacies
What's The Doctor Says
Japan Lends A Hand
What's Up:
WHAT'S UP
Places Of Interest:
Koh Takiev &Koh Russei
Parts of the Sea Restore
The Light of Life
Phrase Of The Month:
Impact of Visitor
Expenditures on Local
Revenues
Overheard:
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
By: Srey Mom.  

Only the people who live to tell it can report the true story of a country's past. But with the passage of time, oral histories fade into legend, leaving behind more questions than written accounts.
Cambodia's rich historical culture speaks volumes. Khmer Script development is one among the interesting stories that Leisure wants to tell readers how its character and features is changed from one period to another.
Our Khmer forebears recorded information for future generations on animal skins using fried chalk. These documents could not withstand the hunger of starving insects like termites, however, so historians had to seek new methods to record their findings. Rock and stone proved to be an effective replacement for the chalk, and the results have been everlasting.
According to documents recorded in rock, it can be surmised that Khmer script has evolved ten times and is characterized by the following features, names and years:

Type 1: Han Chey writing rock script, approximately 6th century BC

Type 2: Veal Kan Teng writing rock script, end of the 6th or early 7th century BC

Type 3: Ang Chomney Kor writing rock script, 667 BC

Type 4: Inn Kor Sey writing rock script, 970 BC

Type 5: Preash Keo writing rock script, 1002 BC

Type 6: Nor Korr writing rock script, 1066 BC

Type 7:
Banteay Chmar writing rock script, early 12th or 13th century BC

Type 8:
Angkor Watt writing rock script, 13th century BC.

Type 9:
Angkor script, 1702 BC

Type 10:
the present script style

While rocks may appear to be primitive, outdated tools, it is these blunt objects that have shed the most light on Cambodia's past. These writing tools provided past generations with immediate instructions on how to survive and will offer future generations a perspective on what and who made their country what it is today. Without the rock script, Cambodia's culture, traditions and literature could easily have morphed into myth. Now, the writing of history depends on commitment of future generations to report the truth.

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