| Situated about 292km from Phnom Penh Battambang is Cambodia’s second largest city an elegant riverside town, with a population of perhaps 80,000. Quiet and serene, it was founded on the bank of the Stung Sangker river in the 11th century |
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 This province has changed hands between Thailand and Cambodia on several occasions in the past few centuries. It was only returned to Cambodian control in 1907 and as recently as WWII the Thais cut a deal with the Japanses to take control again for several years. Before Cambodia's civil war Battambang was the largest and richest province in Cambodia, but ceded a large chunk of its territory to Banteay Meanchey for the creation of the new province. It sheares a long border with Thailand and a short border with the Tonle Sap lake and is the fifth-largest province in the country. Battembang was untouched for much of the early 1970s, as fighting raged elsewhere around the country. For this reason the whole area was viewed with much suspicion by Khmer Rouge leaders and was the victim of successive central purges. Life was little better after the war, as the ongoing guerrilla war and the proliferation of thousands of land mines devastated the agricultural industry that had built the economy. However, the province is slowly recovering as demining groups free up land for agriculture and the many refugees who returned here during the 1990s are permanently settled. |
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Battambang Culture The Battambang Provincial Service of Culture and Fine Arts is a local government agency, responsible for providing information and directives on culture and fine arts from central government, to issuing performing permits to registered arts organisations in the province. It is responsible both to the provincial government on administrative and operational matters and to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in Phnom Penh on cultural matters.[5] The Battambang region is also known for producing some of the best Pradal Serey boxers. | ||
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