While Cambodia and Thailand are neighbors and strategic partners, the issue of contestation of cultural ownership – particularly the claim to the exclusive ownership of cultural traits, remains an irk that can be easily transformed into a potent nationalistic sentiment which, in turn, serves as a destructive political tool for domestic political gains in both nations and can potentially spoil the overall state-to-state relations between the two countries.
Past animosities, for instance, pointing to the burndown of the Thai Embassy in Cambodia in 2003 and the border conflict over the 4.6 square kilometers of land surrounding the  Temple of Preah Vihear from 2008 to 2011 remain staggering examples of ultra-nationalistic sentiments from both sides ignited by the politicization of the cultural ownership of Angkor Wat Temple and Preah Vihear Temple. 

As neighboring countries with a long history of cultural interactions, both Cambodia and Thailand inevitably have similar cultural traits, including material and non-material traits. Material traits can be temples, objects or artifacts. Non-material traits can be ideas, values, customs, beliefs, behaviors, religious practices, language and symbols, among others. 

However, nationalistic sentiment grounded by selective historical interpretations lead some groups of people in both countries to discuss the cultural aspects through a lens of exclusive ownership and superiority complex. 

For example, both countries celebrate their New Year Days, which they refer to as ‘Songkran,’ on the same date. While Thailand had just successfully designated its version of Songkran to UNESCO, the Cambodian public was outraged about it. While Cambodians blamed Thailand for stealing their culture, they were also not happy with the government for not submitting the Cambodian version of Songkran to UNESCO before Thailand did. To calm the public down, Prime Minister Hun Manet remarked that his government was preparing documents to register the Khmer Songkran on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage in 2025. As controversial as the overlapped tradition of Songkran, both countries’ material arts, which are believed to come from the same origin, have become an ongoing debate about who the owner of the boxing art is. When Cambodia hosted the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in 2023, the country decided to replace Muay Thai with Kun Khmer, which caused the Thai side to boycott the boxing competition. At that time, the former premiers of both countries also intervened in de-escalating the issue. Both former leaders of the two nations, Hun Sen and Prayut Chan-o-cha called for an end to the debate. 

Another cultural-related issue that the Cambodian government needs to pay close attention to if they do not want to get public anger is the return of lost ancient artifacts abroad. Recently, Thailand received two century-old Khmer artifacts from the United States. This has become a hot topic for debate which sparked toxic and degrading verbal and written attacks against each other on social media as to whether the artefacts should have been returned to Cambodia instead of Thailand. 

These cultural contestations are not healthy for the overall Cambodia-Thailand relations because these issues can be easily politicized due to excessive nationalistic sentiments that can lead to negative effects on the overall state-to-state relations. Therefore, both governments should foster more efforts to address these lingering cultural misunderstandings and promote joint cultural collaborations through proactive cultural cooperation. 

One practical way would be for Cambodia and Thailand to establish a Joint Cultural Committee (JCC), building up an institutional way to promote cooperation on cultural heritages between the two countries to promote such areas as joint evidence-based scientific research on cultural sites, encourage historical information sharing facts related to modern-day ownership of such sites, boost up public outreaches, and disseminate public awareness on relevant matters to promote cultural harmonization between the two sides. This committee offers a direct communication channel between relevant national cultural authorities of the two countries to regularly meet and work together to appease any grievances between the two countries. In the past, there were cooperation efforts between Cambodia and Thailand but on an ad hoc basis. For example, Cambodia and Thailand worked together to return 43 ancient artefacts to Cambodia, 20 of which were agreed to return by Thailand in May 2024. Going forward, a more institutionalized way of cultural collaboration between the two kingdoms should be developed. 

Indeed, the establishment of the Cambodia-Thailand Joint Cultural Committee (JCC) could greatly enhance mutual understanding and cooperation, especially given the sensitivity surrounding the cultural issues that can be escalated into state-to-stare tensions and conflicts. Moreover, the setting up of the JCC could facilitate discussions on shared heritage, avoid unnecessary misunderstanding, and promote mutual trust to resolve acrimoniousness over cultural ownership. 

To conciliate cultural animosity between two nations, we need to employ the right tool that cuts across bilateral relations and each other country’s foreign policies. Cambodia and Thailand are in dire need of cultural diplomacy to be harnessed by the two sides to promote their cultural distinctiveness, thus enhancing the world's cultural diversity while paving the way to cooperation and dialogue instead of getting bogged down with tension and conflicts. 

Cultural diplomacy by ways of establishing an effective Joint Cultural Committee (JCC) between the two kingdoms can foster peace and stability, create mutual understanding, exposing the positive side of cultural diversity that could ultimately foster healthier relationships. To resolve cultural differences, the JCC is the best way to open up an honest intercultural dialogue which has the power to bolster and renew bilateral cooperation between Cambodia and Thailand beyond competing interests and nationalistic sentiment and to put forth both countries’ cultural heritage as a global public good for the benefits of all mankind.
 

Khan Menghok is a research associate at the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies (CCRS)