Khmer Krom

Khmer people in Vietnam or the Khmer Krom (Khmer: ជនជាតិខ្មែរក្រោម, Chónchéatĕ Khmêr Kraôm, [cɔnciət kʰmae kraom]; lit. 'Lower Khmer people' or 'Southern Khmer people'; (Vietnamese: Dân tộc Khmer Krom, [zʌn˧˧ tokˀ˧˨ xɤ˧˧mɛ˧˧ xᵊɣom˧˧])) are ethnically Khmer people living in or hailing from the Mekong Delta (Tây Nam Bộ), the south western part of Vietnam known in Khmer as Kampuchea Krom (Khmer: កម្ពុជាក្រោម, Kâmpŭchéa Kraôm [kampuciə kraom] lit. 'Lower Cambodia'). The Khmer Krom people are considered the indigenous people of parts of Southern Vietnam and have the oldest extant recorded history of inhabiting in the region. In Vietnam, they are recognized as one of Vietnam's fifty-four ethnic minorities. In accordance with Resolution 117-CT/TƯ issued on September 29, 1981 by the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Resolution 122-CT issued on May 12, 1982 by the Vietnamese Ministry Committee, the term Khmer (as well as its Vietnamese transliteration Khơ Me and Khơ-me) was sanctioned by the government as the only state-recognized ethnonym of the Khmer Krom people; the Resolutions also stated that all other colloquial exonyms previously used by Vietnamese to refer to Khmer people "are incorrect and have negative racial connotations" and declared that any acts that intended to incite and direct hate speech and discrimination toward the Khmer people are prohibited by the law. In Khmer, Krom (ក្រោម kraôm) means 'low' or 'below'. It is added to differentiate from the Khmers in Cambodia. Most Khmer Krom live in Tây Nam Bộ, the southern lowland region of historical Cambodia covering an area of 89,000 square kilometres (34,363 sq mi) around modern day Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, which used to be the southeasternmost territory of the Khmer Empire until its incorporation into Vietnam under the Nguyễn lords in the early 18th century. This marks the final...