Cambodia's modern day culture in Phnom Penh

Cambodia's modern-day culture has its roots in the 1st to 6th centuries in a state referred to as Funan, know as the oldest Indianised state in Southeast Asia. It is from this period that evolved Cambodia's language, part of the Mon-khmer family, which contains elements of Sanskrit, its ancient religion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Historians have noted, for example, that Cambodians can be distinguished from their neighbours by their clothing - checkered scarves known as karmas are worn instead of straw hats.
Funan gave way to the Angkor Empire with the rise to power of King Jayavarman II in 802. The following 600 years saw powerful Khmer kings dominate much of present-day Southeast Asia, from the borders of Myanmar east to the South China Sea and north to Laos. It was during this period that the Khmer kings built the most extensive concentration of religious temples in the world - the Angkor temple complex. This complex covers an area of 400 square kilometers in the province of Siem Reap. The area contains more that 100 temples and more than 1080 temples across the country. The most successful of the Angkor's kings, Jayavarman II and Jayavarman I, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII, also devised a masterpiece of ancient engineering: a sophisticated irrigation system that includes barays (gigantic man-made lakes) and canals that ensured as many as three rice crops a year. Part of this system is still in use today.