Countries

Cambodia

Also Known As Cambodian

Asia

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Cambodia." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/countries/cambodia.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Cambodia. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/countries/cambodia

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-cambodia,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Cambodia},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/countries/cambodia},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Cambodia is overwhelmingly Theravada Buddhist, a tradition that displaced an earlier Hindu and Mahayana Buddhist state religion once patronized by the Khmer Empire, whose temple complex at Angkor, built originally as a Hindu temple to Vishnu and later converted to Buddhist use, remains the country's defining religious monument. The Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s attacked Buddhist institutions directly, killing monks and destroying temples as part of a broader effort to eliminate traditional culture, and the country's monastic sangha has been rebuilding since. Cambodia's smaller Muslim Cham minority and Vietnamese Catholic communities exist alongside the Buddhist majority. Angkor's bas reliefs and inscriptions remain a major source for understanding both Hindu and Buddhist religious thought as practiced in premodern Southeast Asia.

Facts

Law and State

Establishment Status

Established 3

Buddhism is named the state religion under Cambodia's post-1991 constitution, which also nominally guarantees freedom of religious belief.

State Funding Mechanism

Cambodia's constitution names Buddhism the state religion, and the Ministry of Cults and Religions funds Buddhist training and education for monks and laypeople in the country's roughly 4,392 pagodas, including support to the Buddhist Institute, a government-linked body researching and publishing on Khmer culture and Buddhist tradition. No comparable funding reaches other religious groups, all of which, including Buddhist organizations, must register with the same ministry, which also controls leadership appointments for the country's primary Buddhist and Muslim organizations. 4

Registration or Recognition Regime

The Ministry of Cults and Religion, established in 1992, requires separate registration of every place of worship and every religious school, an approval process that runs through local, provincial and national offices and can take up to ninety days. No legal penalty attaches to operating unregistered, but an unregistered group forfeits the income tax exemption the Ministry of Economy and Finance grants a registered one. Human rights groups report the Ministry also exercises influence over leadership appointments within the country's main Buddhist and Muslim organizations. 5

Ban or Official Watchlist

Cambodia's Ministry of Cults and Religious Affairs bans door to door proselytizing, the use of loudspeakers for conversion and the offer of money or material incentives to convert, restrictions first directed in 2003, reissued in 2007 and still standing as of the 2018 reporting cycle, which limits distribution of non-Buddhist religious literature to inside a registered religious institution and requires government approval before any new place of worship or religious school is built. 5

Concordat Basis

Cambodia has no concordat with the Holy See. Article 43 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia establishes Buddhism as the religion of the State, while guaranteeing Khmer citizens full freedom of belief and religious practice provided it does not impinge on other beliefs, public order or security. 6

Demographics

Religious Composition

About 97% Theravada Buddhist; small Muslim Cham, Christian and animist minorities (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1

Geography

Latitude

12.6 degrees north 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Longitude

105 degrees east 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Government

Capital

Phnom Penh 2

Government Type

parliamentary constitutional monarchy 2

Sovereignty Status

Sovereign UN member state 2

Established Year

1953 2

9 November 1953 (from France)

Status

Legal Status

Buddhism is named the state religion under Cambodia's post-1991 constitution, which also nominally guarantees freedom of religious belief; the sangha and temple network were rebuilt largely from destruction under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime. 3

Location

Learn More

Religion and History in Cambodia

Cambodia is overwhelmingly Theravada Buddhist, around 97 percent per Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, with small Muslim Cham, Christian and animist minorities. Buddhism reached the Khmer lands by the early centuries CE, coexisting for centuries with Hindu court religion under the Khmer Empire, whose capital at Angkor produced Angkor Wat, built in the twelfth century by King Suryavarman II originally as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu before its gradual conversion to Buddhist use, making it among the largest religious monuments ever constructed. Theravada Buddhism became the dominant popular tradition from around the thirteenth century onward, displacing the Hindu-Mahayana court religion of the Angkorian elite, and the ordained sangha remained central to village education and social life into the modern era. The Cham minority, descended from the once-independent Hindu and later Muslim kingdom of Champa on the Vietnamese coast, practice a distinct form of Islam blending Sunni orthodoxy with older local custom, and were targeted with particular severity during the Khmer Rouge period for their distinct ethnic and religious identity.

Cambodia's ancient temple heritage extends beyond Angkor to Preah Vihear, an eleventh-century Hindu temple on the Thai border whose disputed sovereignty produced armed clashes between Cambodian and Thai forces as recently as 2011 before the International Court of Justice reaffirmed Cambodian sovereignty over the temple in a 2013 ruling.

Religion Under and After the Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 pursued one of the twentieth century's most severe attempts to eliminate organized religion outright, banning all religious practice, destroying or repurposing the great majority of the country's Buddhist temples, defrocking or killing most of the ordained sangha, and targeting the Muslim Cham and Christian minorities with especially intense violence as part of a broader genocide that killed an estimated one and a half to two million people. Of an estimated sixty thousand Buddhist monks before 1975, only a small fraction are thought to have survived the regime, and Buddhist ordination and temple life had to be substantially rebuilt from near-total destruction after the regime's fall in 1979, a process that continued through the 1980s under the Vietnamese-backed government and accelerated after the 1991 Paris Peace Accords restored Buddhism as the state religion under Cambodia's new constitution.

Angkor Wat and other Angkorian temple complexes, having survived largely intact despite the surrounding devastation, became central to a rebuilt national and religious identity, and Cambodia's constitution today names Buddhism the state religion while nominally guaranteeing freedom of religious belief for its Muslim, Christian and other minorities.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Buddhism

About 97% Theravada Buddhist.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Cao Dai

This source names Cambodia directly: "two million adherents in Vietnam, Cambodia, France and the United States, and that a United Nations finding as of January 2015 put the number of Caodaists in Vietnam at about 2.5 million, against..."

Source Cao Dai

Cao Dai (Wikipedia)

This source names Cambodia directly: "established in North America, Cambodia, Europe and Australia after 1975."

Source Cao Dai (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Cao Dai Diaspora (Wikipedia)

This source names Cambodia directly: "Reliable for the religion's early spread to Cambodia: Vietnamese settlers built the Kim Bien House of Gratitude in Phnom Penh during Cao Dai's formative years, and by 1927 missionary efforts had..."

Source Cao Dai Diaspora (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia (Constitutional Council of Cambodia)

This source names Cambodia directly: "The Constitutional Council of Cambodia's own official text of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, whose Article 43 establishes Buddhism as the religion of the State while guaranteeing Khmer..."

Source Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia (Constitutional Council of Cambodia)Kingdom of Cambodia

Democratic Kampuchea

This source names Cambodia directly: "Kampuchea was the official name of Cambodia under the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979."

Source Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 case record (eccc.gov.kh)Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

History, Buddhism, and New Religious Movements in Cambodia (Marston and Guthrie, eds.)

This source names Cambodia directly: "An edited scholarly volume on Cambodian religion published by the University of Hawaii Press in 2004, gathering essays by specialists in Khmer Buddhism and popular religion."

Source History, Buddhism, and New Religious Movements in Cambodia (Marston and Guthrie, eds.)John Marston and Elizabeth Guthrie (eds.)

Khmer

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Khmer Empire

The empire was centred on Angkor in present-day Cambodia, and its monuments remain the country's national symbol.

Source The Civilization of AngkorCharles Higham

King Bhadravarman Founds the My Son Sanctuary in Champa

This source names Cambodia directly: "Funan kingdom, whose Hindu presence in Cambodia is already recorded here, and Bhadravarman's foundation at My Son became the religious and political center the Champa kingdom would continue building..."

Source My Son Sanctuary (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Lakhon Khol

This source names Cambodia directly: "is an all-male masked dance drama of Cambodia, performed today by a single surviving troupe attached to Wat Svay Andet, a Buddhist monastery on the Mekong east of Phnom Penh."

Source Lakhon Khol (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet, UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

This source names Cambodia directly: "for Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet of Cambodia, inscribed 2018, consulted 2026-08-13."

Source Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet, UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent SafeguardingUNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Neak Ta

This source names Cambodia directly: "central to Khmer village religion in Cambodia."

Source History, Buddhism, and New Religious Movements in Cambodia (Marston and Guthrie, eds.)John Marston and Elizabeth Guthrie (eds.)

Rajaraja I Dedicates the Brihadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur

This source names Cambodia directly: "raised Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around 1113, both already recorded here, South India's Chola dynasty raised the grandest Shaivite temple its architects had yet attempted."

Source Great Living Chola Temples (Archaeological Survey of India)

Sivaskandavarman Performs the Ashvamedha and Grants Land to Brahmins at Kanchipuram

This source names Cambodia directly: "hundred years after Hinduism reached Cambodia with the Kingdom of Funan around 100, already recorded here, and roughly eighty years before King Bhadravarman founded the My Son sanctuary in Champa in..."

Source K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (Oxford University Press)K.A. Nilakanta Sastri

Songkran, 13 April

This source names Cambodia directly: "in Myanmar, Choul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia and Pi Mai Lao in Laos."

Source Songkran in Thailand, Traditional Thai New Year FestivalUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia

This source names Cambodia directly: "across Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, written for readers who need to convert or verify historical dates rather than for general audiences."

Source The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East AsiaJ. C. Eade

The Khmer Rouge Persecution of Cambodia's Cham Muslims

Source Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Case 002/02 case record (eccc.gov.kh)Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha (World History Encyclopedia)

This source names Cambodia directly: "journey through India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and the northern Thai kingdoms, its 1434 discovery at Chiang Rai and its installation in its purpose built Bangkok temple in 1784 under Rama I."

Source The Temple of the Emerald Buddha (World History Encyclopedia)Kim Martins

Theravada

This source names Cambodia directly: "Sri Lanka (about 13 million) and Cambodia (about 12 million), and that Theravadins accept as authoritative the Pali canon and trace their lineage to the Elders of the first Buddhist sangha."

Source Theravada

Theravada Buddhism Consolidates in Southeast Asia

This source names Cambodia directly: "spread into Thailand, then into Cambodia and Laos, until Theravada stood as the dominant, eventually state, religion across the region, a position Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos all still hold."

Source Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern ColomboRichard Gombrich

US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Cambodia

This source names Cambodia directly: "The State Department's 2023 report on Cambodia describes the constitution naming Buddhism the state religion and the government's Ministry of Cults and Religions funding Buddhist training and..."

Source US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: CambodiaUnited States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom

Vietnam Grants Cao Dai Legal Recognition

This source names Cambodia directly: "grow independently in North America, Cambodia, Europe and Australia."

Source The Creation Of The 1997 Cao Dai Sect (Vietnam FORB Roundtable)

Vietnam's Communist Government Bans Cao Dai

This source names Cambodia directly: "diaspora communities in North America, Cambodia, Europe and Australia."

Source Cao Dai (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Contains

Angkor Thom

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Angkor Wat

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Originated Here

Pchum Ben

The Cambodian fortnight of offerings for the ancestors.

Spread Events Here

Angkor Wat Is Built As A Hindu Temple

Source Angkor Wat (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Buddhism Displaces Hinduism At Angkor

Source Angkor Wat (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Cao Dai Completes Its First Temple In Cambodia

Source Cao Dai Diaspora (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Hinduism Arrives In Cambodia With The Kingdom Of Funan

The Mekong Delta, in what is now Cambodia.

Source Funan (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Isanavarman I Founds Isanapura and Its Shiva Temples

Source Isanavarman I (Wikipedia)

Sources

1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020

Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source

2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)

Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyView the Source

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)

Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source

4. US Department of State, 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Cambodia

United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of StateView the Source

5. International Religious Freedom Report

United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source

6. Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia (Constitutional Council of Cambodia)

Kingdom of Cambodia, Constitutional Council of the Kingdom of CambodiaView the Source

The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition

Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source

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