Sixteen Observations on Cambodia

Cambodia is a bright country with a dark past still in people’s memory. Its ancient traditions are illustrious and amazing. I doubt a tourist can understand anything, but here is some of what I have noticed:

1. Cambodian people smile a great deal.

2. The country has a population of fourteen million people. In 2007 it welcomed two million tourists. There are four thousand tour guides at Angkor Wat.

3. The Khmer Empire (c800-c1300) was one of the great empires of SE Asia, incorporating present-day Cambodia and parts of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

4. Buddhism in Cambodia has been intermixed with Hinduism for centuries; there was once competition between the two religions but now they are intermeshed.

5. Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, used to call Buddhist monks the lice of society.

6. There are six million unexploded land mines in the country.

7. One quarter of the population was killed under the Khmer Rouge and more than twenty thousand mass graves were counted after the end of the Pol Pot regime.

8. There has been disagreement within the country about whether the physical remains of those slain should be displayed in order to teach future generations about the devastation and suffering or whether they should be cremated and interred in the traditional way.

9. Post Angkor* Cambodia had no urban tradition: its cities were largely enclaves for French, Chinese, and Vietnamese residents.

10. The Khmer Rouge came to power as a result of repercussions from the Vietnamese-American war waging next door.* Also, the previous regime failing in its rice production targets and producing a demoralised, malnourished, and weakened population. They wanted to return to the agrarian society of glorious past regimes. They cleared the cities and forced the population to do manual labour in the countryside.

11. Children received no formal education during this time; they were put to work on agricultural projects or they were employed - and brutalised - as prison guards.

12. Literacy at the current time is 60%, but swoops to 10% in rural areas.

13. What is left of the older generation is 70% female, and they have had to start again, trying to keep psychological trauma, fear and horror from permeating their daily lives.

14. After Vietnam took Phnom Penh in 1979 many Cambodians were in refugee camps; they are often regarded as fortunate by those who were not because they received some education.

15. There was no formal justice mechanism to identify and punish Khmer Rouge criminals; many former Khmer Rouge cadres reentered daily life alongside the people they terrorised, even joining the new government.

16. I saw fewer beggars than I expected to; I saw more extravagant housing than I expected. The wealth in the country is increasing, but apparently it is held in very few hands.

17. Cambodian people smile a great deal.

* I made these edits made after reading Khmerlander's comment. - Thank you Khmerlander!
And thank you for endorsing most of what I wrote. I can only repeat that I don't believe an outsider can do more than superficially observe; to become an interpreter is a task of a much higher order.
For my pictures I've tried to chose ones that reflect the hope and the glory as well as the horror.

Travel Tips

If you want to understand more about the agony Cambodia has suffered, visit The Tuol Seng Museum and The Killing Fields in Phnom Penh and The Land Mine Museum near Angkor

Angkor Wat
Tuk-tuk drivers and cool drink vendors rest in the midday heat.

Wat.

How I’ve been

Being in Cambodia has been both heart-warming and shocking. I’m glad I had the experience of visiting provincial towns before reaching the two main tourist venues.

Having Ray’s company in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh was wonderful.

Seeing Angkor Wat fulfilled an ambition that was frustrated by the American War thirty-eight years ago, but I wish I’d suffered less vertigo while I was there. My memories are of tottering dizzily from one ruin to another.

Di, Lady: I have a comment above about ‘displaying the evidence,’ but think of the haulocast deniers in Europe.
Brian: Aren’t those sorts of publications two-a-penny these days?
Dick and Debbie: I’m so glad the grandkids enjoyed the action.
Rebecca: Yes you’re in the right place! I was going to say, 'Check out the photos here,' but I can't upload them til another time.

---

---