Cambodian / Khmer Proverbs

Don’t trust a hungry man to watch your rice.

Plant rice when the ground is ready; pursue women when you feel passion.

Sow good and you’ll reap good; sow bad and you’ll reap bad.

You don’t have to cut down a tree to get its fruit.

An elephant has enormous dung—don’t try to defecate like an elephant.

Don’t try to wipe someone else’s ass if yours is unwiped.


Cambodia has its roots in the Khmer Empire (600s-1400s), and the main language in Cambodia is also called Khmer. Cambodia became under French influence in the 1800s, and Japanese influence during World War I before becoming independent in 1954.

Cambodia has been the site of much turmoil in the late 1900s, including many of the battles in the Vietnam War, as well as the brutally oppressive rule of Pol Plot in the late 1970s, and later civil conflicts that lasted until the late 1990s.

Themes of Cambodia include consistently hot temperatures, summer monsoon rainfall, tropical forestlands, many wild animals, Buddhism, Hinduism, and rice.