Post 10: Living with a Dark Past

Memorial to those who died in the "killing fields"
Pagoda filled with skulls & bones

Cambodia is not an easy place to go to. It can be disquieting and disturbing to go to a country that has had such horrifying upheaval. The brutality of the Khymer Rouge has not been forgotten and our guide talked openly about the brutality that took nearly 2 million lives – a fifth of the population.

Seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise was beautiful and bucolic, such a contrast to the horrors that took place nearby.
There are two buildings called libraries on the grounds of the temple city. These were used by monks long ago to read their palm leaf prayers. During the terrible times, villagers, refugees of the Khmer Rouge's onslaught, fled to Angkor Wat to live. Because it is disrespectful to sleep in the temple itself, the families occupied the library buildings. Until the late 90's, tourists didn't visit Angkor Wat because of the land mines that were around it-placed there by the Khymer Rouge . In 1998 these were cleaned up. Apparently the Pol Pot regime used Angkor Wat and other temple sites for rice & munitions storage.





old libraries held refugees



horses graze near a library



 After seeing the temple at dawn, we drove back to our hotel for breakfast, but first we stopped at a local monastery. Sat showed us one particular pagoda that was glass enclosed- inside were piles of skulls and bones- remainders of the Killing Fields -- a very dark history that is quite fresh in the collective memory here.



Memorial Stupa (Pagoda) in Siem Reap




faces of those who were exterminated










Despite this horrifying history, all the Cambodians we have met are extremely friendly. They are very resilient people. You can see evidence of their terrible war in the many landmine victims we have seen at temple grounds or in artisan studios that have been set up for the handicapped. Cambodia has one amputee for every 290 people - one of the highest ratios in the world. According to a BBC report Cambodia was constantly at war for 20 years and landmines were widely used by all sides. Since 85% of Cambodians rely on agriculture for their livelihood, landmines planted in rice paddies and fields have caused great injury. We went to artisan studios where landmine victims were learning traditional arts such as silk weaving, sandstone carving, painting, and so on. Posters on walls reminded children not to pick up landmines.


poster cautions against placing land mines in fire

The most heartbreaking victims (for me) were the musicians. Whenever we strolled onto temple grounds, we would be accompanied by lovely music. The sounds of the troh (2 string instrument), drum, a sort of zither, & gongs could be heard. When we approached we saw that these musicians were either blind or had lost limbs. Beside them was a sign that read :


 I loved their music and of course, we contributed. I was impressed that these musicians used their talents, instead of begging.

handicapped father  with son



"Not only do these abominable weapons lie buried in silence and in their millions waiting to kill or maim innocent women and children; but the presence or even the fear of the presence of a single landmine can prevent the cultivation of an entire field, rob a whole village of its livelihood, place yet another obstacle on a country’s road to reconstruction and development"
-- Kofi Annan

land mine victim orchestra



"When a war is over I think it's a cowardly thing to leave the war behind you in minefields that hit women and children and the most vulnerable. Imagine the war is finished and you go to work and there are snipers shooting at you. Imagine taking your kids to the beach and you find that the beach is blowing up beneath you. Like there's nowhere safe.That's what I think is insidious about landmines."
-- Paul McCartney

To read more land mine quotes go to:

http://www.betterworld.net/quotes/landmines-quotes.htm


Sadly, "During their three-year ( 1975-1978) , eight-month, and 21-day rule of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge committed some of the most heinous crimes in modern history....But if history has proven human beings to be intrinsically fallible, it has also proven us to be extraordinarily resilient. Pol Pot cast a heavy shadow over Cambodia, but the people have managed to persevere, begin anew, and find joy in life again."
From: http://www.vagabonding.com/travelogue/000060.html