Cambodia has been through many critical periods and has brought many people with different culture into the country. From the dawn of Khmer Emperor, Hinduism was the state religion for every single citizen. Once the king off his throne, there would be another king come to replace the old king. There was no guarantee that the new king would respect the former religion. Notable the king Suryavarman II who worshipped Hinduism in 1112 to 1152 and the new king Jayavarman VII worshipped Buddhism 1181 to 1219. Later on there were many minorities groups came to the country. As the result today there are many religion in Cambodia but among them Buddhism is considered as state religion.
Buddhism
There are two ways in respecting Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. The word Theravada means “small vehicle” which is practiced in Cambodia. Mahayana means “big vehicle” which can carry a larger group of people. Mahayana is very much harder to follow than Theravada because there are many strict rules and regulation so not many people can reach the final goal of learning Mahayana. Theravada was lately born with many rules and regulations were adjusted for many people prefer following Theravada than Mahayana. The final goal of Theravada is to reach Nirvana for reincarnation.
Buddhism first came to Cambodia in the 12 century and was taken as state religion until today. Since the 12 century, every king followed Buddhism except during Khmer Rouge regime. The absence of Buddhism brought a very crucial society, the time when million of lives lost innocently. To gain total control over Cambodia, Pol Pot Khmer Rouge number one leader led Cambodia in communist way. Pol Pot thought that educated people can trigger revolutionary so they best way to keep everything in order is to terminate every learning institutions and keep people in blind ideology. As the result, monks were killed and pagodas were demolished. Even the absence of Buddhism for almost 4 years, Cambodian people still follow Buddhism when they got freedom in 1975. Today Buddhism is still a state religion and many pagodas were restored and built.
Buddhism has been playing a very important role in developing Cambodia. During the ancient time, pagodas were considered as schools and monks were teachers. Every boys or men who wish to gain knowledge would spend their time at pagodas day and night. They would stay in pagodas for weeks or years up to their desire to learn. Usually the subjects of learning were related to religion and the purposes were to be a good person in society. Today young men would spend their time as monks to show respect to their parents.
Hinduism
Hinduism is the first religion came to Cambodia since the very first century until 14 century. Till now some people still follow Hinduism. During Pre-Angkorean period Hinduism was state religion which was followed by majority group of people. With Hinduism, many temples were built to worship God, Shiva and Vishnu. Most of those temples were built on mountains or high land to show great respect to God. Nowadays the shrine temples are the main tourist attractions.
Islam (Muslim)
Muslim was never been Cambodian state religion at all. This religion came to Cambodia by migration of Chams when the kingdom of Champa was defeated by Vietnam. The minorities formed many groups living in different places in Cambodia until today.
Christianity
Christianity was introduced to Cambodia by western people. It is a mission of westerners to spread Christianity in Cambodia. Today there are some churches in Phnom Penh and some other parts of Cambodia. During the last decade, there is an increase of Christianity followers in Cambodia. Christianity charities have helped Cambodia very much in rescuing poor people, especially young people and widowers. Many organizations implemented in name of Christianity many projects to built a new Cambodia with charity funds. Christianity is a big help for Cambodian people.