From the time of Chou Ta-kuan to the present day I have found few notices about the religion of Camboja.  Hinayanist Buddhism became supreme and though we have few details of the conquest we can hardly go wrong in tracing its general lines.  Brahmanism was exclusive and tyrannical.  It made no appeal to the masses but a severe levy of forced labour must have been necessary to erect and maintain the numerous great shrines which, though in ruins, are still the glory of Camboja.[319] In many of them are seen the remains of inscriptions which have been deliberately erased.  These probably prescribed certain onerous services which the proletariat was bound to render to the established church.  When Siamese Buddhism invaded Camboja it had a double advantage.  It was the creed of an aggressive and successful neighbour but, while thus armed with the weapons of this world, it also appealed to the poor and oppressed.  If it enjoyed the favour of princes, it had no desire to defend the rights of a privileged caste:  it offered salvation and education to the average townsman and villager.  If it invited the support and alms of the laity, it was at least modest in its demands.  Brahmanism on the other hand lost strength as the prestige of the court declined.  Its greatest shrines were in the provinces most exposed to Siamese attacks.  The first Portuguese writers speak of them as already deserted at the end of the sixteenth century.  The connection with India was not kept up and if any immigrants came from the west, after the twelfth century they are more likely to have been Moslims than Hindus.  Thus driven from its temples, with no roots among the people, whose affections it had never tried to win, Brahmanism in Camboja became what it now is, a court ritual without a creed and hardly noticed except at royal functions.

It is remarkable that Mohammedanism remained almost unknown to Camboja, Siam and Burma.  The tide of Moslim invasion swept across the Malay Peninsula southwards.  Its effect was strongest in Sumatra and Java, feebler on the coasts of Borneo and the Philippines.  From the islands it reached Champa, where it had some success, but Siam and Camboja lay on one side of its main route, and also showed no sympathy for it.  King Rama Thuppdey Chan[320] who reigned in Camboja from 1642-1659 became a Mohammedan and surrounded himself with Malays and Javanese.  But he alienated the affections of his subjects and was deposed by the intervention of Annam.  After this we hear no more of Mohammedanism.  An unusual incident, which must be counted among the few cases in which Buddhism has encouraged violence, is recorded in the year 1730, when a Laotian who claimed to be inspired, collected a band of fanatics and proceeded to massacre in the name of Buddha all the Annamites resident in Camboja.  This seems to show that Buddhism was regarded as the religion of the country and could be used as a national cry against strangers.