Why did the communist Khmer Rouge use a religious image in their flag?

Question

The Khmer Rouge, or the Communist Party of Kampuchea, used this flag:

It features the Angkor Wat, a famous Buddhist temple with a Hindu origin.

As far as I have been able to understand, the symbol was chosen as it was seen as a symbol of the nation. I find even this slighly unsual for a communist movement, as such entities often seemed to idealise international worker's fraternity rather than nationalism.

Communism traditionally viewed religion as something negative and dangerous. It seems that this is the only communist regime/party/nation to use a religious image in their flag? While many other communist entities have resided in areas with a history of religious symbolism in their flags, coat of arms, etc, most of the communist entities did not keep them.

For example, if the Russian SSR had used a church on their flag, I would find that strange.

What made the Khmer Rouge different? Are there any sources documenting a discussion, controversy or disagreement on this? Can we get any insight into their reasoning for using the temple in the flag? If the reasoning was something like the icon being a previous symbol of the nation, are there any sources showing why this was thought to be more important than communist ideals? Is there any research or sources showing how this case differed from other communist entities that did shun religious imagery?

Answer 1

The Khmer Rouge were huge admirers of the medieval Khmer empire and its achievements. It became the centerpiece of the nationalist aspect of their ideology. Depicting the temple was therefore a reference to its capital city, whose dominant feature it is, not its religious role.

An article by Henri Locard, a French historian and former lecturer at Phnom Penh University, makes the point:

"Through rapid development, our country must surpass the Angkor era", that was one version of the way the Khmer Rouge expressed how they wanted to surpass not only the Angkor era, but also Mao's Great Leap Forward that became "The Super Great Leap Forward, the Prodigious Great Leap forward". Angkar (the Party Organisation) will endlessly repeat that message: "Just as Angkor Vat is a stupendous marvel, so is the KR revolution". If our people could build Angkor Vat, they can do anything, Pol Pot proclaimed in his famous speech of 27th September 1977. That axiom permeated all Khmer Rouge thinking...

To celebrate the first anniversary of their victory, Khieu Samphân, Democratic Kampuchea's newly appointed head of State, proclaimed on 16th April 1976:

"The great victory day of 17th April 1975 is the day of the greatest and most splendid victory in more than 2,000 years of Cambodian history. This great victory is even more brilliant than the Angkor era, which was truly a splendid era. Even today mankind admits that the Angkor temple is a splendid masterpiece of our labourers' ancestors. However, the victory that our people, workers and peasants of this era have scored over the most ferocious and most inhumane U.S. imperialist is even more brilliant and splendid that the Angkor temple" he trumpeted on the Democratic Kampuchea radio on 16th April 1976 (FBIS, H3)

The Khmer Rouge even put Angkor on their flag and in their national anthem:

Long live the dazzling victory of 17th April 1975!
More grandiose (glorious), more meaningful than the Angkor era!

The Myth of Angkor as an Essential Component of the Khmer Rouge Utopia, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-13638-7_9, In Michael Falser: Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission. From Decay to Recovery, Heidelberg 2015, pp.201-222

The above citation is from an abstract found here.

Answer 2

If you compare the flags of other countries before communists took power and afterwards, you actually see quite a bit of continuity. Yes, the Soviet Union and China conpletely changed their flags, but other countries just kept their old flags altogether (such as Poland or Czechoslovakia), or added some communist symbols (East Germany, Romania, Albania) or tried to at least re-use parts of the design (Afghanistan).

All previous Cambodian flags given at wikipedia show Angkor Wat. Under these circumstances, and since the colors were already changed to communist ones, it should not be surprising that the Angkor Wat symbol was retained for some sense of continuity.

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There were other communist countries with IMHO more straightforward religious references in flags (in both cases also carried over from pre-communist flags):

Judging from other Afghan flags, the window/stairs symbol in the flags of Afghanistan from 1980 to 1992 seems to be a minbar.

Mongolia was the second communist country in the world and their flag (except from 1940 to 1945 apparently) contained a reference to their version of the Dalai Lama. They did however try to obscure the meaning and origin of that symbol when instructing children about their flag, at least in later years.

If you look into other important state symbols, you might find further religious references, e.g. in the Hungarian national anthem.

Answer 3

First step would be to check what the Kampuchean government says.

The National Flag

Article 16

The design and significance of the Kampuchean national flag are as follows: The background is red, with a yellow three-towered temple in the middle. The red background symbolises the revolutionary movement, the resolute and valiant struggle of the Kampuchean people for the liberation, defense, and construction of their country.

The yellow temple symbolises the national traditions of the Kampuchean people, who are defending and building the country to make it ever more prosperous. mekong.net

irony Only a bourgeois, incapable of understanding the revolutionary dialectic, would interpret this obvious symbol of the tradition and effort of the people of Kampuchea as a religious symbol /irony

Wikipedia notes:

This flag is similar to the flag of Vietnam. It was however, unusual among the communist state national flags without any symbolic red or gold star or hammer and sickle. Wikipedia

I think you're right, it would be interesting to explore why that choice was made.