page_title: Traditional Khmer Housing
section_title: Houses and settlements
hierarchical_section_title: Traditional Khmer Housing / History / Houses and settlements
caption_attribution_description: 052 At Home at Bayon Photograph from the Bayon Temple at Angkor in Cambodia taken by Anandajoti.
context_page_description: The Traditional Khmer Housing refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings by the Khmer people since the ancient time and evolved until today. In Cambodia, there are many Khmer style houses that are built in different ways depending on hierarchy and purposes. In special terms, the house is a symbol of prosperity in the national society, and it serves the lives of the people in each village, which is culture and nature The Khmer has long been known to traditionally live on different designs of stilt house and also has a multi-leveled floor and gable finials at both ends of the roof ridge.
context_section_description: The earliest record of Cambodian housing is from the Chinese record of Funan kingdom (1st-7th century AD) where the residents were described as people who lived on stilt houses, cultivated rice and sent tributes of gold, silver, ivory and exotic animals. The people built their houses over the ground and made them accessible by ladders as seen across Cambodia today. The Chinese accounts also mentioned the walled towns, dwelling houses and palaces.
  
  During the Khmer Empire (8th-15th century), high-status people were known to live in large houses, parts of which were covered in roof tiles where commoners lived in smaller houses with thatched roofs from perishable materials where they were not preserved until today. Additionally, houses were built on stilts so that the living floor was above the ground, according to Zhou Daguan who visited Angkor in 13th century. Bas reliefs from Bayon temple depicted houses, building, and palaces which shared similar roof design and concept with today Khmer traditional houses and palaces.
caption: A wooden structure as depicted on 12th century-Bayon temple's bas relief which shared similar triangular roof concept as the roof of today Khmer houses and pagodas.
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