Cambodians trace about 16% of their ancestry to a Eurasian population that is equally related to both Europeans and East Asians, while the remaining 84% of their ancestry is related to other Southeast Asians, particularly to a source similar to the Dai people. [47]

Most are matrileneal, tracing ancestry through maternal rather than paternal bloodlines. They grow rice and live in tribal villages. Historically, as the Khmer Empire advanced, they were obliged to seek safety and independence in the highlands or become slaves and laborers for the empire.

The Khmer people were among the first in Southeast Asia to adopt religious ideas and political institutions from India and to establish centralized kingdoms encompassing large territories. The earliest known kingdom in the area, Funan, flourished from around the first to the sixth century A.D.

The Khmer people pride themselves on being one ethnicity that is not only associated with a single culture, history, and language but are split into three main small groups that are based on the nation of origin. The Cambodian Khmer people speak a dialect of the Khmer language.