In Bangkok the common attitude to Cambodians is mild contempt, tinged with anxiety. Many Thais dismiss their darker-skinned neighbours as hopelessly backward. Yet Thais also worry about the unpredictably pugnacious Khmer temperament, and therefore exercise a certain wariness: the same way a husband might tread carefully with a pre-menstrual wife.

Visit the dusty boulevards of Phnom Penh and you find fiercer and stronger emotions towards the kingdom of Siam. "They look down on us" say Cambodians, "The Thais think they can walk all over us, just because they are bigger."

Unkind shrinks might call this the "runt complex". Relatively small and impoverished, Cambodia suffers a profound insecurity about its status, and takes any slight from its mightier neighbours - Thailand and Vietnam - very badly. And Khmers have historical reasons for feeling insecure. Over the centuries Cambodia has been invaded and conquered from both sides: the last Vietnamese incursion came in the late 1970s, when the Vietnamese overthrew the apocalyptically communist Khmer Rouge regime.

Finally, there is a deep Cambodian nostalgia: for a time when they were supreme. During the Angkor period, of the 12^th and 13th centuries, the Khmers ruled an empire which encompassed much of Indochina, including Siam and Vietnam.

The Cambodians have never forgotten this ancient era of glory. The name of the Khmer Rouge government, Angkar, "the organisation", was a deliberate echo of this long-lost grandeur. The name of the town nearest the great temple complex of Angkor Wat: Siem Reap, actually means "Thailand defeated".

For all these reasons the dispute of Preah Vihear drills deep into the root-canal of Cambodian anxiety. That means it is very possible that the temple skirmishes will escalate into something quite nasty - unless wiser counsel prevails.

Meanwhile, the temple itself slumbers away on its hilltop, and the jungle rain patters down upon the ancient carvings of Shiva as he dances in endless triumph over the evil Demon of Ignorance.