Forgotten victims at Wat Chy He

Wat Chy He, a stone's throw from the Mekong River in Koh Sotin district

A part of my recent excursion to Kompong Cham was to visit a couple of the genocide memorials that reside in the province, as identified by the Documentation Center of Cambodia - the organisation that is collating all material and information relating to the Khmer Rouge period of the country's recent history. What I have found from visiting memorial sites across the country including Kompong Cham, is that of the 80 memorials that DC-Cam have published as existing countrywide, some of these memorials have since been destroyed, removed or fallen into serious neglect. DC-Cam did a lot of their investigation work in the late 90s and things have changed and moved on in the intervening years. Take the genocide memorial at Wat Chy He as an example.

Above & below: A burial pit at Wat Chy He, where the four jars are buried

I crossed the Mekong River on the local boat ferry from Koh Sotin island and passed through the busy market area to locate the pagoda at Wat Chy He, close to the riverbank. The memorial that I expected to find was nowhere to be seen. I asked a couple of young monks but they looked at me with blank stares. Then an old man appeared and told me that the memorial stupa that stood in front of the wat had been demolished many years earlier. I asked what happened to the remains of the Khmer Rouge victims that had been held in the stupa and he took me to a cemetery just outside the grounds of the pagoda and pointed to a series of holes in the ground, where one large burial jar could be seen. He told me that there were four such jars, containing the bones of the victims, that were buried here at the beginning of the decade. The original killing sites in the area were at the prison at Wat Chumnik, which I blogged recently, and at Neak Ta Chen, where remains from the killing pits there had been kept at the Chinese school near Chy He market. However, in 1993 the Chinese comminity took back the site as a school and the four jars were brought to the pagoda as their final resting place, though the stupa they were originally housed in was later destroyed. Today, few people know of the jars' existence and the estimated 1,500 victims who perished at Neak Ta Chen (it means Chinese spirit altar).

The colourful vihara of the pagoda of Wat Chy He

Wat Moha Leap

The unique wooden pagoda at Wat Moha Leap

Wat Moha Leap is one of the last remaining wooden viharas in Kompong Cham province and attracts visitors from far and wide to its remote location in Koh Sotin district. We crossed the Tonle Touch river by boat and on the opposite bank of the river stood Wat Moha Leap, it's vihara was built more than 200 years ago with a complete wooden interior including giant teak supporting pillars, and wooden walls. The ceiling is painted with the usual assortment of Buddhist stories and in addition, other paintings could be seen in some of the vihara's nooks and crannys. Miraculously, it was not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, as many of the older viharas had been, as it was used by the genocidal regime's cadre as a hospital. Today, it's interior is home to roosting pigeons and sparrows and the floor was covered in bird droppings and feasting ants. Nearby the vihara is a sala that was used as the King's sleeping quarters when he stayed at the pagoda and on both the sala and the main temple, the intricate wooden pediments at the front and back remain intact.

The well-preserved pediment on the main vihara at Wat Moha Leap
The beautiful teak supporting columns

The well-preserved painted ceiling of Wat Moha Leap

Each of the teak supporting columns is gorgeously decorated

Earth in Flower

Timeless classical Cambodian dancers

An old friend and contributor to my own guidebook, To Cambodia With Love, Kent Davis, is the publishing force behind a forthcoming book that has been over thirty years in gestation. Paul Cravath first researched the royal ballet dancers of Cambodia during the turbulent early 70s and its taken his painstaking research and Davis' search for a book to act as the definitive analysis of Khmer dance that has produced Earth In Flower - The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama. It's due out in May, is 544 pages long and will cost you $128 to buy from DatASIA. Read all about the book here.

Vann Nath meets Stein

Rick Stein (left) and Vann Nath

A few days ago, on my original Blog, I mentioned that Rick Stein, the celebrity seafood chef from the UK, had been in Cambodia recording his latest series of tv cooking specials from around Asia. Whilst in Phnom Penh, Stein hooked up with Vann Nath, the painter-survivor of Tuol Sleng, who happens to run a restaurant in the city, and here's the evidence to prove it. They filmed a segment for the new series in Vann Nath's restaurant, which my sources tell me he's just about to lease, so he can concentrate on his painting, and take life a bit easier because of his on-going health concerns. Thanks to G for the photo.
More on Stein: Rick owns and runs four restaurants in the small Cornish fishing village of Padstow with his ex-wife, Jill. He has written 11 cookery books, recorded several cookery series and a couple of one off documentaries. His passion is still for seafood; as he says, “nothing is more exhilarating than fresh fish simply cooked.” It is the daily bounty of local fishermen of perfectly fresh fish which is the reason for the success of The Seafood Restaurant. He has cooked for many famous people including the Queen and Prince Philip Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.

Personal and national identity

Still no progress on regaining access to my original blog, so for the time being it looks like this will be my Blog home. As you might imagine, there is steam coming out of my ears!

The Governor of Phnom Penh 'opened' two new statues in the city yesterday, both near the riverside and close to Hun Sen Park. Both are celebrated Cambodian scholars and display a sense of pride in their national identity that I like. If it means that more Khmers ask about their culture and history by asking 'who's that?' then I'm all for it. The statues are of the Buddhist Patriarch Chuon Nath, the foremost scholar of Khmer literature and Buddhism in the 20th century - and - famed 19th century Khmer poet Phirum Pheasa Ou, also known as Ngoy. The statue of Nath is on the roundabout opposite the Khmer Buddhist Institute building, whilst Ngoy is in the garden opposite the Cambodiana Hotel.
Also opening soon will be the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, at the Asia Hotel on Monivong Boulevard. That's more of an international identity crisis.

More wooden pagodas

The main vihara at Wat Sunkumtear Ream pagoda (right)

Kompong Cham is known for its share of older-style pagodas including one of the country's best preserved examples of this serious slice of Cambodian cultural heritage at Wat Moha Leap. I will post more about Moha Leap soon but another of the wooden pagodas can be found nearby in the village of Pongro, at Wat Sunkumtear Ream, just across the Tonle Touch river. Used as a food stall by the Khmer Rouge, the main vihara was opened up by one of the caretakers and was delightfully cool though the floor was awash with bird droppings and hungry ants. The walls were made of concrete but the ceiling was wooden and tiled and the large teak uprights were beautifully painted with dragons and other patterns. In fact the whole of the inside of the pagoda was covered with paintings, with a series of chariots highlighted on the ceiling. Not quite the treasure that Moha Leap has become but well worth a visit if you are in that part of the province.

The brightly-painted interior wooden roof of the main vihara

Paintings adorn all surfaces inside the main vihara

Intricate patterns and dragons illuminate the teak structural supports

One of the many wall paintings inside the vihara

Wooden ceiling

The brightly-painted wooden ceiling at Wat Potiret on Koh Sotin

On my recent visit to Kompong Cham I came across a few of the older-style pagodas, with two of them having a quite rare internal wooden construction and another, Wat Potiret, also still boasting its wooden ceiling. Wat Moha Leap was perhaps the best example of this wooden construction and I'll post some photos from my visit there very soon. In the meantime, this painting in good condition of a chariot flying through the skies, can be found on the wooden ceiling at Wat Potiret, located on the island of Koh Sotin, stuck in the middle of the Mekong River, south of Kompong Cham city. This old vihara is now only used by birds and bats and was locked, so meant I had to get the key from one of the friendly monks. I doubt whether it will still be standing in a year or two and that's the problem with a lot of the older pagodas, they are being dismantled and newer concrete versions being built with donations from wealthy Cambodians, both home and abroad. This is effectively a loss of Cambodia's heritage and is a sad example of a 'new broom sweeping clean' regardless of the impact for the current and future generations. Maybe I should begin/join a campaign to preserve all of Cambodia's wooden viharas that are still standing in Kompong Cham, Battambang and Kratie provinces?

* * * * *

There's a lot going on, news-wise, in recent days so I'll leave the media bloggers to relay all of that detail, from the visit of the Queen of Spain, to the inauguration by Hun Sen and the ADB of the millions of dollars being spent on renovating the Cambodian railway system, a new law on sex trafficking to replace the ineffective one previously in place, the arrival of baseball in the country (in a newsprint version of the film, Field of Dreams), Cambodia (and me) laughing at the United States claims for $340 million worth of debts from the 70s, to the on-going saga of Thailand trying to get a piece of the Preah Vihear cake. Oh, and it's another public holiday today, yet another Buddhist holiday, this time it's Meak Bochea Day.

The local press report today that the road to the summit of Bokor Mountain could be open again this week - two years ahead of schedule! I wouldn't put my house on that news but if access to the top of Bokor is again possible then the authorities and the Sokha Group who are renovating the road and the mountain-top facilities need to be very clear about who, when and how the public can gain access. This is a gem amongst the attractions along the south coast of Cambodia so they need to be clear over accessibility - to-date they have been as clear as mud!

Anyone for a gong?

A debut solo performance on the Kong Vong Thom

Last night's Khmix It! traditional Cambodian music session at Meta House saw the solo debut of a petite sixteen year old Cambodian Livings Arts student who played a series of time-honoured tunes on the Kong Vong Thom, or large circle of gongs, usually heard at weddings or funerals and as part of a much-larger pinpeat orchestra. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask her name! She was naturally very nervous and keen to get home but did tell me that she has been playing the gongs for five years, knows about 100 tunes from her master teacher Tep Mari and lives in the Bassac community, where the majority of artists and performers reside. Currently in 8th grade at High School, she practices for two and a half hours every day and the Kong Vong Thom is one of five instruments that she can play to a good standard. She used a soft mallet to play the tuned instrument which had sixteen cymbal-like metal gongs arranged in a circle around her and suspended on a rattan frame. The gongs were in order of size with the smallest, highest-pitched on her right hand-side, and the largest, lowest-pitched on the left with the others in order between. The gongs are made of a copper and bronze and contain a mixture of lead and beeswax inside. I knew practically nothing about these traditional instruments, so these regular Meta House Wednesday night sessions have been a great way to find out more about Khmer music and whilst the Kong Vong Thom isn't my favourite, it's one of the many that go to make up the larger pinpeat ensemble that you can see at traditional performances, like the one I attended on Monday, accompanied by the Royal Ballet dancers.

Note: After my unforgiveable sin of not getting this young lady's name, I rang a couple of people and can reveal the dedicated gong debutant as Tum Chandy. Long may she gong.

The Buddha's view

This is the serene face of the giant reclining Buddha and the view that he sees from his resting place near the top of Phnom Baset, some 30kms north of Phnom Penh. This Buddha is known locally as Roob Preah Chol Neapeau and just below him sits an 8th century brick sanctuary called Prasat Srei Krup Leak- temple of the perfect woman - complete with flying palaces carved on the outside walls, a natural cave grotto and a large tree that splits the temple in half. More to follow.

The view from Phnom Baset across the Kandal province plains below

Deadly sins

Be warned, commit a deadly sin and this may happen to you

I have a stack of photos and stories from my recent visit to Kompong Cham and simply not enough hours in the day! I will post more in the next few days, I promise. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos. The painted wall above, at Phnom Theat Srei, 30kms northwest of Kompong Cham, hosts a scene showing what will happen to you in hell if you commit deadly sins such as adultery, stealing land, talking behind someone's back, even breastfeeding your baby in the pagoda! You can find similar examples in some of the older pagoda's - take time to look at the wall paintings inside as well as outside the viharas. In the picture below, I was joined by three young boys as I watched the sun set from a small hill next to the disused airfield just outside Kompong Cham. They were sat on the wall of an old army lookout post.

Lazy days and sunset views