Population:
30,000 + in Cambodia (About 600,000 in all three countries.)
Language: Kuy is
an unwritten, Mon-Khmer language.
SIL survey work has identified two main dialects in Cambodia with a
relatively high degree of mutual
intelligibility. A high percentage of Kuy also speak Khmer.
Living
Situation: The Kuy are mostly poor rice farmers. They also gather forest products like
honey, fruits and traditional medicines.
Frequently, their diet consists of rice eaten with salt and chili
peppers. They live in villages, which are interspersed with Khmer villages. They often feel inferior to the dominant
Khmer culture.
Education: There
is an extremely high rate of illiteracy
. While the government
has been building school buildings in their area, teachers are scarce. Schooling
is in Khmer and lasts only two to three years.
Religion:
Animist/Buddhist. Animism is quite strong. They tend to be very
superstitious.
Christian
Witness: Christian and Missionary Alliance started
work with them in 1955 in Thailand and there are around 300 believers in several
churches. Christian materials translated for this group are not very helpful in
Cambodia as the dialects are too different. There is no known work among them in
Laos. There may be about 50
believers in small groups in Cambodia.
There is one missionary family with New Tribes now targeting the Kuy in
Cambodia. They will move to a Kuy village to begin language learning this year.
No scriptures are available but there is a Gospel Recordings tape available in
Kuy for Cambodia.
Please retain this
information to help you pray for the Kuy people along with the prayer card
enclosed. Thank you.