I’m writing from my observations. It might or might not offend Thais or Cambodians, try to read it without attachment.

I think the main reason we don’t appreciate your influence is because we Thais in general are very oblivious about history, and because there’s little positive interaction with a Cambodian in their lives. Most of the life experiences they have with Cambodians tend to be remote, indirect, or negative.

In Thai school books there’re 3 main foreigner nations in Thai history (note that the tone is from the book or how the teacher taught me):

• The Khmer. Our original Indianised overlord who we outgrew and laid waste to. We adopt their court language and their writing. (But the books never mention other cultural expect like clothing, court dance, etc). We agreed you were more Indianised (more cultured back then) and powerful. We later outgrew and directly caused your decline, before finally laid waste to Angkor once and for all, giving rise to new Tai kingdoms (here I use Tai and Thai)

• the Burmese, who’re also late comers like us. Our contemporary expansion led to Burmese being branded our rival/nemesis. They burned our cities, looted our gold, raped our princesses, and took Lan Na (Chiang Mai and northern Thailand) for centuries. We also did the same to them. And our Naresuan the Great killed their King/Crown Prince or whatever on elephant back, which nobody thinks is real except Thais.

• the Farangs, ie Europeans who were traders, missionaries and good friends with Thai kings until they weren’t and turned bully. Still, we managed. This is usually followed with our “aNd wE arE tHE oLnY ASEAN nATion thAt’s neVEr coLonized” mantra. Today we are good friends, but we also cheat on them with the Chinese in the backdoor.

In school I was only taught you guys were dominant here with all the inidian writing and religion, and that we were primitive, ruled over, but started building up behind tour back until we kicked you out.

Now you might ask: why only hate Cambodians and not those from Myanmar, the literal enemy? The answer is simple: many labor workers here come from Myanmar, and they make good living here, and many people back in Myanmar depend on these remittances from Thailand. My home’s also got a Karen maid from the Karen State in Myanmar and she likes it here, loves our dogs, etc.

Right now we view Myanmar as a new country carved out from British India and made out of all those western/northern periphery Tai, Mon, Shan, and Bamar states. It’s a new multi-ethnic country that’s figuring itself out.

Also, Myanmar is fighting its own civil war, so the propaganda efforts from gov and rebels are not gonna target Thailand and Thai people. Thai people also have no reasons to hate our workers and helpers. We also understand that Myanmar is a country of multiple ethnic groups, not “Bamar” of old. So the Burmese kind of stopped being treated like enemies and more like needed workers and helpers who’re very industrious.

Cambodia is another story - yes it’s new and carved out of French Indochina, but it’s also very homogeneous, more so than any of our neighbors. I believe 95% of your population is Khmer. And because we don’t have as many Khmer workers, we don’t get enough interaction together that could foster bonds the way we do with workers from Myanmar. This, coupled with weird Thai superiority complex against neighbors, the ongoing call center problems, mixed with Cambodian memes mocking how Siem stole everything day and night, and our own memes bullying Cambodia, make a nice recipe to instill hate into my countrymen.

That’s why Thais seem to hate Cambodians. And why don’t we appreciate your influence enough? I think the smarter ones in Thai society do, like my professors who understand perfectly how cultures develop. The mass is not gonna listen.

Also, this is my own judgement, but I think Cambodians taking credit for everything when it was India who introduced writing and all the ancient “high culture” in the first place is why some of the more “smarter” Thais also choose not to recognize your contribution to our culture.

Last but not least, and this sounds very stupid. As you know people around here has soft spot for fair skinned good looking people, which Cambodia is lacking compared to all other neighbors. I see low-quality horny posts for rural Myanmar girls and hot Laos and Vietnamese all the time, but never once Cambodian. The idea that Cambodians are the ugliest is very central to Thai bullying of Cambodians (yeah I know this sounds stupid af). Even the Thais at the border is being bullied for having too little Chinese fair skin admixture compared to those living in cities or close to Laos/Myanmar where people skins are lighter. We are the same race yet we still use skin color to categorize people.

To fix this we must encourage positive interaction/learning between our nations. Like educating Thai people about how cultures developed, how Khmer guided development of our own statehood, and how “adopting Khmer culture” does not make Thais the lesser party or Cambodians better, etc.

I’m doing my part by learning Cambodian script so that I can point out the similarities to Thai script when I get the chance. I could read Khmer version of Koh Kood - เกาะกูด in Thai, and show that to my Thai friends saying “see, even you can read Koh Kood in Khmer script, that’s because it’s our original script!” Or point out how Thai numbers are just Khmer numbers, and our loan words, etc. I even try to read my friend’s Sak Yant mantra, but I’m not that good just yet.

This has the effect that all of my friends in my active circle don’t share the same hate toward Cambodians, and they understand your legacy. There’re around 12-14 of them right now, tho I’ll try 😅