Ratanakiri province
Cambodian province
Ratanakiri (Khmer: រតនគិរី, Rôtânôkĭri [rɔətanakiriː]; lit. 'gemstone mountains') is a province of northeast Cambodia. It borders the provinces of Mondulkiri to the south and Stung Treng to the west and the countries of Laos (Attapeu in Khmer Language is Ach Krapeu) and Vietnam (Gia Lai and Quảng Ngãi) to the north and east, respectively. The province extends from the mountains of the Annamite Range in the north, across a hilly plateau between the Tonlé San and Tonlé Srepok rivers, to tropical deciduous forests in the south. In recent years, logging and mining have scarred Ratanakiri's environment, long known for its beauty.
For over a millennium, Ratanakiri has been occupied by the highland Khmer Loeu people, who are a minority elsewhere in Cambodia. During the region's early history, its Khmer Loeu inhabitants were exploited as slaves by neighboring empires. The slave trade economy ended during the French colonial era, but a harsh Khmerization campaign after Cambodia's independence again threatened Khmer Loeu ways of life. The Khmer Rouge built its headquarters in the province in the 1960s, and bombing during the Vietnam War devastated the region. Today, rapid development in the province is altering traditional ways of life.
Ratanakiri is sparsely populated; its 184,000 residents make up just over 1% of the country's total population.
The public source identifies “Ratanakiri province” as cambodian province. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ratanakiri, province and Cambodian.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ratanakiri province”, the useful work is to connect “cambodian province” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q747846. Authority coordinates are 13.733, 107.000. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Ratanakiri province” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.