Empires & Polities
Democratic Kampuchea
Modern States
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Democratic Kampuchea was the official name of Cambodia under the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979. Led by Pol Pot, the regime evacuated cities, abolished money, religion and private property, and forced the population into agricultural collectives, causing the deaths of an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people through execution, starvation, forced labor and disease. Religious and ethnic minorities, including the Cham Muslims, ethnic Vietnamese and Buddhist monks, died at markedly higher rates than the Khmer population as a whole. The regime fell in January 1979 after a Vietnamese invasion.
Facts
Religion and State
State ReligionNo religion was permitted; the regime disrobed and killed large numbers of Buddhist monks, closed or destroyed pagodas, and imposed a Marxist-Leninist state atheism as official doctrine from 1975 to 1979. 1 Religious PolicyThe regime's abolition of Buddhism as an institution and persecution of the Muslim Cham and Christian minorities was documented in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia's Case 002/02 findings. 1 Attributions
Associated ReligionTheravada Buddhism was the religion of the great majority of Cambodians before the regime abolished religious institutions in 1975. 1 Origins
Origin RegionCambodia, Southeast Asia 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
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."
Conducted
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.