This book begins with a coherent history of the presence of religion in the country from its inception to the present day, and goes on to furnish insights into the distinctive nature of Cambodia's important yet over-looked manifestation of Theravada Buddhist tradition and shows how it re-established itself following almost total annihilation during the Pol Pot period. It also covers the dominant role of tantric Mahayana concepts and rituals under the last great king of Angkor, Jayavarman VII (1181-c.1220); the rise of Theravada traditions after the collapse of the Angkorian civilization; the impact of foreign influences on the development of the nineteenth century monastic order; and politicized Buddhism and the Buddhist contribution to an emerging sense of Khmer nationhood. Later chapters chart the elimination of institutional Buddhism under the Khmer Rouge and its gradual reemergence after Pol Pot, the restoration of the monastic order's pre-revolutionary institutional forms, and the emergence of contemporary Buddhist groupings.