Modern Thai elites deny Cambodian descent from Angkor to justify contemporary bigotry

Evidence

Influenced in part by this kind of thinking, conservative Thai intellectuals, archaeologists, and officials persist to this day in attributing Angkor to the mysterious Khom, who vanished without a trace, and certainly have no connection with today’s despised Cambodians. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 709

Categorization

• XREF: A vivid case of the colonial ‘aerial view of the past’ being used to sever a living population from its monumental heritage — parallel to Orientalism’s construction of who properly ‘owns’ a heritage. — connects to: The arch-nationalist king had more Chinese blood than Thai — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 383

Related

• The arch-nationalist king had more Chinese blood than Thai (similarity 0.80)