Khmer Lao people

Khmer Lao people are native to the Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces with small communities existing in Mongkol Borey Banteay Meanchey province. They form the dominant ethnicity in Stung Treng, where a consulate of Laos was established and is still being operated.^[4][5] Most Khmer Lao people live in Sesan, Siem Pang and Siem Bok districts in Stung Treng province. In Ratanakiri province, many ethnic Laotians live in Vensai and Lumphat districts.^[6] The Khmer Lao population is hard to estimate as they are not considered indigenous minorities by the Cambodian government and have to either register as Khmer or Laotian citizen during censuses. It is suggested that over half of Stung Treng's population may be ethnic Lao, with a smaller population in Ratanakiri Province.^[2]

Northeastern Cambodia was originally inhabited and controlled by Khmer people but ethnic Lao began to migrate to southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia around the fourteenth century, taking advantage of the power decline in Angkor. In 1353 king Fa Ngum extended Lao influence to the Khone Falls now situated at the border of Laos and Cambodia. Lao migration increased in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, leading in 1713 to the establishment of the independent Champasak Kingdom in areas now belonging to southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia. The kingdom became a Siamese vassal state in 1778. In the late 1880s, under Siam, Champassak devised a plan to secure territories amid French colonial ambitions. They succeeded in establishing what is known now as Veun Sai village in Cambodia and gained considerable influence in the Sesan Bassin. Stung Treng city (Xiang Teng in Lao) was founded by a Laotian monk named Seang Peng from Vientiane. The Lao name Xiang Teng later gave the Khmer "Stung Treng".^[7] The Lao were not able to prevent the French from gaining control of the Sesan River Basin in 1893, including its most important center, the city of Stung Treng, located where the Sekong River, which the Sesan River flows into, enters the Mekong River. Lao people however succeeded in maintaining considerable influence in the region when it was part of French Laos. Despite the large Lao population, the French later transferred the northeastern-most part of Cambodia from Laos to Cambodia in 1904 following demands by the government of Cambodia motivated by historical claims. Even after Cambodia's independence, Lao influence in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri Provinces remained strong despite Khmerization efforts, including language restrictions imposed by the Sangkum Reastr Niyum government in the 1960s.^[2]