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The term “Mon-Khmer” (mahn-kuh-MEHR) is usually used to refer to a family of languages spoken primarily in mainland Southeast Asia. These languages include Mon (primarily concentrated in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma), Khmer (also known as Cambodian), Muong, Khasi, Wa, and Vietnamese. Speakers of Mon-Khmer languages intermarried with speakers of other language groups in Southeast Asia, and languages spread across national and tribal groups, so it is difficult to trace the extent to which Mon-Khmer speakers have actually been cultural or genetic descendants of the ancient Mon-Khmer.

The term “Mon-Khmer” is a linguistic label rather than an ethnic one. It refers to people speaking a number of related languages found primarily in mainland Southeast Asia. Two of the main groups of Mon-Khmer speakers are the Mon (also sometimes spelled Mun), who throughout historical times have lived in eastern Myanmar (formerly Burma) and west central Thailand, and the Khmer (also called Cambodians), who are chiefly concentrated in Cambodia, eastern Thailand, and southern Vietnam. In the past, Vietnamese was not recognized as a Mon-Khmer language, and there are still some scholars who question this linguistic classification, but today it is usually recognized as part of the Mon-Khmer family. Other Mon-Khmer languages include Muong, Khasi, and Wa. Speakers of Mon-Khmer languages make up a large part of the population of Southeast Asia. Languages in this family are spread from western India (mainly the state of Assam) to Vietnam and from southern China to Malaysia. The major language groups of the region that are not Mon-Khmer are Tai (which includes Thai and Lao), Tibeto-Burman (which includes Burmese), and Austronesian (which includes Malay and a number of languages in the mountains of central Vietnam).

Khmer literature is the writing of the Khmer people, a southeast Asian ethnic group primarily concentrated in the country of Cambodia who have an ancient literary tradition marked by significant historical innovations. Around the fourteenth century CE, the Khmer language replaced Sanskrit as the primary tongue of Khmer literature and scholarship. Experts typically trace the history of formal Khmer literature to this important shift.

During the Ankgorian Period (802-1431), the Khmer Empire, by force of arms, extended its commonwealth to encompass vast areas of Southeast Asia. After a voluntary exile over a succession claim, Jayavarman returned to Kambuja in 1178 to help mitigate the damage done by the sack of Angkor by the Khmer Empire’s primary adversaries, the Chams from central Vietnam. In 1181, Jayavarman became king and raised an army, as standing armies seldom existed, and subsequently defeated the Cham in a great naval battle. After this first victory, he celebrated his coronation at Angkor. Immediately afterward, however, he was called upon to put down an uprising in the dependent Malyang. Jayavarman’s army subdued the rebels, and his commander, who was himself a Cham refugee from his own country, was selected to help him in the total conquest of Champa. In 1190, after exhaustive preparation, Jayavarman launched a great attack on Champa and was victorious. The son of Jayavarman VII, Prince In, was proclaimed king at Vijaya, and Champa became a vassal state of the Khmer Empire. Rebellions against the new regime were ubiquitous, but in 1203 the Khmer armies drove out the insurgents, and for seventeen years, 1203–1220, Champa was under Khmer domination. Although the death of Jayavarman VII is shrouded in mystery, he is thought to have died about 1215. Jayavarman VII. By Suzan Black, CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons Statue of Jayavarman VII, at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. By Marcin Konsek, via Wikimedia Commons

The Khmer state in modern-day Cambodia dominated its neighbors for more than six centuries and built some of the greatest architectural works of Southeast Asia, including the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom complexes. The state began at the start of the ninth century, but its creation involves a mix of Chinese and Indian history that influenced how the Khmers viewed their monarchs and how the monarchs viewed themselves. The state’s exact beginnings are a matter of dispute and based on fragments of writings composed centuries later.