Travel writing in Cambodia through history - excellent long report

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Brent Crane

Since the 13th century, visitors to Cambodia have been writing of their impressions – both positive and negative. And while these opinions can be taken with a grain of salt, with the passage of time they become increasingly important glimpses into the Kingdom's past

Studying the canon of Cambodia-related literature, it can feel that the sum total of the Kingdom’s history is that of the Khmer Rouge: bookshelves flush with historic analyses, biographies and novels that are framed in relation to the horrors of 1975-79.

But for those with the time and patience to seek it out, there lies a trove of writing in a different genre – the history of Cambodia as documented by those who have passed through it as travellers.

It’s a lineage that stretches back to at least the 13th century, when Chinese imperial envoy Zhou Daguan penned A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People – the only known eyewitness account of the Angkorian civilisation.

Each of these writers, in speaking to the value of good travel writing, saw the country in his or her own way.

“The chief value of travel books,” wrote Norman Lewis on his trip through French Indochina in 1950, is that “they give information that can rarely be obtained elsewhere”.

Tiziano Terzani wrote about Cambodia in the aftermath of Democratic Kampuchea. Photo supplied

A postcard featuring Angkor Wat from 1911. WIKICOMMONS

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