Sotheara Vong

Vong Sotheara វង់ សុធារ៉ា (b. Kompong Cham province) is Head of the Department of History and Professor of Khmer Inscriptions and Cambodia-Southeast Asian history at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia.

With a post-graduate diploma in Tourism Development (RUPP, 2002), a MA in Tourism and Hospitality Management (Western University Phnom Penh, 2005), a MA in Sociology and Anthropology (RUPP, 2006), he completed his Ph.D in Area Studies (History and Epigraphy) at Sophia University, Japan, in 2017.

As an expert epigraphist, Pr. Vong Sotheara has been tasked with perusing several Khmer inscriptions found in the course of the last decades, including two of the tablets inscribed in 633 CE kept at Kiri Sdachkong pagoda, Kompong Speu province, in 2018, in which he found a direct reference to Cambodia as Survanabhumi, the legendary ​‘Land of Gold’. 

Publications

1. Ancient Inscriptions of Cambodia: Computerized Database of Selected Inscriptions, UNESCO, 4 volumes, 2002 [with Chuon Sokkhunty, Mul Sovannak and M.C. Raghavan.]=
2. Pre-Angkor Inscriptions of Cambodia. Phnom Penh, Angkor Editions, 2010 (2^nd ed.). ISBN: 9789995021153.
3. “Recently Discovered New Inscriptions from Pre-Angkorian Cambodia in Stung Treng Province,” Phnom Penh, with support of RUPP, July 2011. 
4. “Analogous Toponyms between India and Cambodia”, paper presented to EFEO Conference on Southeast Asian Epigraphy, Kuala Lumpur, November 8 – 9 2011.
5. “Indian Saptaprakriti and Sattarattana Concepts in Ancient Cambodia”, paper presented to the conference on ​“Asian Encounters: Network of Cultural Interaction” Conference, University of New Delhi, November 1 – 4 2011.
6. Post-Angkor Inscriptions of Cambodia. Phnom Penh, Nokor Wat Publishing House, 2012 (1^st ed.). ISBN: 9789996328244.
7. Mr Sotheara Vong’s Blog