On Thursday afternoon, August 14, 2025, at the Round Table Hall of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, the Khmer Ancient Martial Arts Research Group received a delegation from the China Peace and Development Foundation to organize a meeting focusing on the historical friendly relations between Cambodia and China.
H.E. Vath Chamroeun, Permanent Vice President and Chairman of the Executive Sub-Commission of the Khmer Ancient Martial Arts Research Group, said that the importance of this meeting is that the research group is looking for a special point: whether Khmer martial arts since the Angkor period have had any connection to Chinese martial arts.
H.E. Vath Chamroeun emphasized that, "This is a question, and we want this question from our Chinese friends, from researchers, especially the president of the Cambodia-China Friendship Association, H.E. Chea Monirith, who made some presentations that we can use as evidence for our research. Chinese martial arts In various documents of our Khmer history, it is also said that we have many martial arts such as Labokator, Sronger Pen, Kla Krap, and there are also Chinese martial arts words in Khmer martial arts. So we searched for those sources to draw scientific conclusions with proper references. So we saw that what is most attractive about our team is that we got many special points. In fact, when there was a military exchange or exchange of troops during the Angkor period between China and Khmer, there could definitely be a change in martial arts, each other. So what the Cambodia-China Friendship Association has come here to do is to make every effort to help our meeting group to find the right elements that are suitable for what we want. Our professor also recognized that there is a connection."
H.E. Vath Chamroeun added that, the commission will further explore whether there are any further connections between Khmer and Chinese martial arts, from before the Angkor period and since the Chenla period, etc., to find a common conclusion that can let the ancient Khmer martial arts scriptures are adequate in terms of both science and culture, a special civilization in Cambodia-China relations.
