28th-July-2025, Letter from The Kanitha Show

The irony in all of this is that all the names of the disputed temples are all words used in everyday Khmer language. The name itself is self-evident. What do I mean by this? In Khmer translation:

Prasat Ta Muen Thom when translated means “Big Grandpa Chicken Temple”

Prasat Ta Muen Toch means “Small Grandpa Chicken Temple”

The word Prasat is a word Khmer people use everyday, it literally means “temple.” Ta means “grandpa.” Muen means “chicken.” Thom means “big.” Toch means “small.” We use it everyday. It’s not some outdated words that Khmer people don’t know. We literally use it every single day. It’s part of our language.

Thai word for chicken is Ki not Muen.

Why does Thailand use Khmer words to refer to their temple? That’s because that’s what it was originally called when the Khmer people built it and Thailand continues to use the original name because why not? Los Angeles, CA is still called Los Angeles because that’s what the city was called before the United States acquired California from Mexico. Americans still use that name. The words “los” and “angeles” are clearly Spanish. Los means “the” in Spanish. Angeles means “angels” in Spanish. The Americans never denied it or tried to rename it. They proudly taught it in their history book. New York City was named after the Duke of York of England. Nobody tries to hide this fact.

Words can tell us a lot about the origin of something.

Even Ta Krobey Temple is Khmer. Krobey in Khmer means “water buffalo.” There’s water buffalo everywhere in Cambodia. Every man, woman and child in Cambodia says “krobey” when they refer to a water buffalo. Thai people do not.

Water buffalo in Thai is Kway. If the temple was Thai it would be “Ta Kway Temple” not “Ta Krobey Temple.”

Imagine mistakenly thinking that your ancestor built a symbolic structure of importance and then use a precision guided bomb to kill the descendants of the people that actually built the structure? That would be a twisted Hollywood movie, but it’s actually happening in real life, like right now in 2025.

About 4%~8% of my viewers are from Thailand. On average I receive about 5M-20M views per day. To the people of Thailand, I don’t hate Thai people. I actually admire Thai civilization. I just hope that you can have an open heart and understand why this conflict is unjust. The first step a fascist government would do is to demonize their enemy. “They attacked our schools, hospitals, homes etc…” I’m sorry innocent civilians are being killed. I just want you to understand that the people of Cambodia do not condone such targeting. I do not know whether it’s intentional or not, just keep in mind that Cambodia has no precision guided rockets or missiles nor do they have long range weapons. When the soldiers fire they fire a hail mary. If it’s up to the Thai side to show maximum restraint. However, Thailand has a more modern military tool kit that can target with precision as opposed to the Cambodian military. Even Cambodian pagodas and homes are being shelled by the Thai military. I understand that this is war. We are human beings too. Soldiers are just defending their homeland.

It’s hard to fathom that one’s own country, government, history books, would omit such critical pieces of history, that Khmer people once lived on these lands and their ancestors literally built all those temples from the 8th century to the 15th century. How can one omit and dismiss what has already been well documented and established in the history books all over the world? I’m from the United States, an ally of Thailand. Even the history books here all say these temples were built by Khmer people. My hero, Carl Sagan, once said:

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with it. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.”

I don’t expect you to believe what every western history book has already documented, but at least have some common sense and question the meaning of the name of all of these temples. Names have meaning. They can also teach history. Ta Muen is in Khmer.

The Kanitha Show