A Tale of Two Cities: Part IV
Monday, April 19
History
The site was actually smaller than I expected, and we didn’t end up spending as much time there as we had imagined – only about 2 hours and we had been able to very slowly and leisurely go through the site and take it all in. The next stop would not be any brighter.
This is the part when you will start to understand the title of this set of posts. While in the same country, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh leave such different feelings in you after going through them. For Siem Reap, you leave exhausted, but amazed. Amazed at the incredible things that humanity can achieve. You have seen the height of an empire – arguably the apex of a people, a nation. After going through PP, you are left with a wholly different exhaustion – mental, not physical. The things you have seen leave you speechless, not because you have seen the largest religious building in the world, or seen massive trees wrapped in and around thousand-year-old structures, but because you have seen the absolute low point of mankind. Going through these sites, it was impossible for me to absorb and digest it all. Only after leaving, sitting down, and talking about it, and thinking about it in depth afterwards, was I able to truly appreciate the horrors of what I saw. In this blog I will try to convey a bit of what I saw, and what I thought, and try to get you to think a bit as well, for it is only by having these events and images present in our minds that we can even hope to avoid it in the future.
I think it is appropriate that I provide a little background on this subject. Simply the fact that most people don't know about this dark period of Cambodian, and human, history is reason enough to come to Cambodia to see, learn and experience this scarily unknown genocide.
For centuries, Cambodia was an extensive empire under the Angkor kingdom, spanning over present-day Cambodia, Laos, southern Vietnam and part of Thailand. The temples at Angkor Wat were built over three centuries around the turn of the first millennium CE. This represents the absolute peak of Cambodian history, culture and influence. In the 1800's the French colonized the area until 1953 when they returned it to the Cambodian people, the monarchy restored and things got better quickly, as Cambodia developed in the post-war economy.
Amid the strife of the Vietnam War, America backed a former military man, Lon Nol, to be the weak puppet government through which the US could attack Vietnam. A very weak government was easily overthrown in a civil war by the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge (Khmer is the dominant ethnicity of Cambodian people, mostly Buddhist, and rouge for communism of course). They were backed by China because this was just after the great Sino-Russian split, and the Chinese wanted to back and supply the communist Khmer Rouge against the Soviet-backed N Vietnamese.
They toppled the Lon Nol government in 1975 and assumed vast control of the country. This rule is considered to be one of the purest communist revolutions in history. It was based on the ideal of completely transforming and reinventing the Cambodian society - under the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia was known as Democratic Kampuchea (a historic term for Cambodian people in their language) - and making it an egalitarian, agrarian and productive society completely self-sufficient from the despised West. Their singular focus on changing this society made for some extremely gruesome tales and ultimately the complete destruction of the society, in my opinion, more destructive than the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which was just about to end in 1976.
The first actions of the KR were to evacuate all cities, most notably Phnom Penh, and put everyone to work in the countryside like "good peasants", farming rice to sell to the Chinese to pay for the munitions that China gave them in return.
Everyone who wasn't seen as fit to work, an intellectual, a former government official, anyone in the arts, Buddhist monks, and children were all killed outright. All in all, it is said that about two million people were killed during this time, out of a total population of about eight million. That is really what you need, is the perspective, that essentially one person in every family of four was killed. And by their own people.
Thursday, April 8
The Killing Fields at Cheung Ek
We arrived at the killing fields, about thirty minutes outside of PP around 8:30, just in time to enjoy some less-than-scorching sunlight.
The first thing you see when you enter is this huge freestanding building that looks like a memorial. As you get closer, you see what is inside. It is about 100 feet high of shelves completely stocked full of skulls. The skulls of people who they had found in the mass graves, of those who had been killed here. That really set the tone quickly. What you notice immediately is that most of the skulls are cracked. Not because of decay, but because most people who were killed were killed with a blunt object to the head, usually the butt of a rifle, because they did not want to “waste” their ammunition on killing unworthy people. So crude.
(Entering Cheung Ek - looks pretty nice from afar)
(Click to enlarge)
(Small memorial in front of main building)
(It's like they were all looking at me)
(Notice the cracks on the side of the head)
The killing fields at Cheung Ek were just a small example of a place where people were taken to be massacred. At the site we “joined”, aka inconspicuously follow, a group tour led by a survivor of this reign of terror. He had some incredibly moving and distressing stories about how he was taken as a boy and his entire family split up and killed.
It was definitely an emotionally hard walk around the fairly small area. Every so often, we would stop and look at a tree, or a specific ditch, to find out some more gruesome story about what had happened there, and what remnants or photos they had found about that area – really just shocking.
(I get chills)
(Never found out what this was, bizarre nonetheless)
(Piece of bones remaining after excavation in 1980)
(Killing tree against which executioners beat children)
(Mas grave of more than 100 victims, women and children, majority of whom were killed naked)
(Mass grave of 166 victims without heads)
(Our guide. He was a child during the KR)
Honestly, the museum part of the site was not all that impressive I thought. Mostly, I think this is because I felt myself always comparing this to my experience learning about the Holocaust and concentration camps for my whole life. The Cambodians were not nearly as organized and efficient as the Nazis. One good example of this is that they didn’t keep any records, let alone detailed ones, of the people who died, and who died where. Mostly, this is because people would mostly starve to death, or be killed out in a field somewhere in the country where there was no electricity and writing of any kind was seen as impure due to the connections to education. Also, whenever the man would talk about numbers – 100 killed here, another 200 here – the largest grave, I felt desensitized by the times I had heard about the thousands upon thousands killed every DAY at a concentration camp. I tried to disconnect myself from those memories, but it was hard.
Definitely the most shocking thing that will stick with me for a while is walking past a marked area on the ground that was level with the walking path. Here, you could see the protrusions of bones and skulls that had not been uncovered. Literally, there were dead people’s remnants just sticking out of the ground. It was so terrible and moving and shocking that I almost turned away.
(Bone remains sticking up through the ground. It is worse during the wet season when the area floods)
(The uniform of all Cambodians during the KR. They were given one of these only that they wore every day)
(Killing tools)
Tuol Sleng
After leaving the Killing Fields, we headed in our hired tuk-tuk towards Tuol Sleng, aka S.21, a school that was converted into a torture prison. This was a place where people were often stationed before being brought to the Cheung Ek to be executed.
This site was composed of four different school buildings, each with three floors of classrooms. All of them were open and had lots of information on posters and plaques throughout. Most of the rooms had just a single metal bed with shackles on it. Others had wooden partitions indicating living quarters, which were not much bigger than a bathroom stall. Still others had some torture devices like something I imagine to be similar to the current practice of water-boarding. Just seeing that made me feel really shitty about the way our country and former leaders have defended the process of water-boarding as an effective and non-torturous method of “interrogation”.
(Tuol Sleng School / Torture Prison)
(Memorial for 14 victims who were found dead when the area was liberated and shut down)
(Remembering that this was a school makes it much heavier)
(One of the many similar rooms used for torture)
(The view isn't so bad now, I can't imagine how it must've looked 35 years ago, flowers were probably absent)
(No ordinary gallows, here was the description: this was an interrogation area where prisoners would be hung upside down and dunked in and out of those pots, filled with smelly, filthy water normally used to fertilize the terrace outside. By doing so, the victims quickly regain consciousness so that the interrogators could continue the interrogation)
(Remains of clothing)
(The museum part - there were entire rooms full of these face-boards. Thousands of people went through here)
(Note things on the floor)
(It still bothers me how centrally located this place was in the city)
("Water-boarding" chamber)
(Living quarters)
(I could barely fit through the doorway)
(No matter how green it looks, you were never really free to enjoy it)
Some things that stuck out about this visit:
1) The location – this school, as one might think a school would be, was set directly in the middle of the city. From the classrooms you could look out of a barred window and see surrounding homes, stores, streets and people. I couldn’t imagine living next to something like that, but then realized that when this was going on the entire city was evacuated and essentially a ghost town. That might be even more frightening of a thought.
2) The grounds – there were trees and flowers everywhere. I think this is mostly recent, but even so, as a memorial, it was startling and very strange to see around the areas of such horrible crimes and events.
3) Being in a school. Take a second here for a thought experiment. Close your eyes (after you read the following sentences of course). Think about your favorite teacher. Think about the classroom you were in with that teacher and the friends you sat next to. Now, imagine someone being beaten to death in the corner. That’s what I thought of when I walked into a room, and saw a torture device sitting right under a blackboard.
4) Lots of information, not much upkeep. In contrast to the Killing Fields, at Tuol Sleng, each room had posted pictures of people who had been there, and lots of stories written by survivors of their encounters here. This was really helpful to setting the scene without any other printed materials or guides. However, what was equally upsetting was how many of these posters were just lying on the ground. Considering how important of an period this was in their history, and how much tourism they attract with this, I would expect them to have taken more dignity in presenting these atrocities. I just felt as it they were slapping themselves in the face one more time.
Conclusions at the Riverfront
After getting some lunch, our last stops for the day were the Royal Palace and Central Market, both in the middle of Phnom Penh.
The Royal Palace was pretty cool to see, but I think it was bad timing. I was still preoccupied with thinking about the morning’s events. Also, after seeing Bangkok and the Grand Palace there, this didn’t really hold a candle. It was basically a poor man’s Bangkok. It has very similar architecture, and we weren’t allowed inside anywhere really, so I think that added to my discontent.
(Royal Palace)
(Silver Pagoda - it was closed though)
(Popular motif of 7-headed snake - saw this a lot at the temples too)
After about an hour at the palace we went to the Central Market. Normally this is inside a huge building, but it was having repairs, so most things were outside. Fun as always to be in a market, this was no exception. Floor and Niclas bought some postcards, and we just caroused the aisles of merchants and shops looking for some fun trinkets to bring back home.
(Central Market)
(Bargaining down postcards - sorry to everyone for not holding up on that promise to send postcards)
(Outside sections)
(Inside area that was under construction)
Our last stop for the day was to grab a beer at the riverfront and just relax and decompress from a long day. This is when we really got to talking and debating. We wondered how we could put this into the context of other horrible periods in human history, namely the Holocaust and the Cultural Revolution. Is it appropriate to compare numbers? Percentages? Foreign versus domestically imposed?
Ultimately, my own opinion is that things like this cannot be compared. They are to be taken one at a time, and not to be merged together or slighted. Personally, I am always going to have some greater partiality for the Holocaust, as it has affected my family directly, and I feel more educated about it, but I feel as though the genocide committed by Cambodians against Cambodians is just as striking. It is considered to be genocide because of the mass murders carried out against believed subversives and ethnic and religious minorities (many half-Chinese or Vietnamese were seen as detrimental to the Khmer purification). Also, the notion of massacring your own countrymen sticks out to me.
Really though, it is hard to write down all that went through my mind except that it left a truly strong impression on me that I will not soon forget. Also, similar to the way that Michael Chen described his visits to Auschwitz in the sub-zero temperatures of the winter in Poland, I feel that the weather added another dimension to the way I went through this day. Being there when it is the hottest part of the year (just before the rainy season starts) makes me think about how they had to survive on little to no water and food for months on end in the countryside working 14-16 hours each day until they literally died.
We returned to the Lakeside for our final dinner at a nearby hostel. As we were eating, a boy came up to us selling his basket of books. I said no thanks, and he walked away. He later came back and asked if I wanted to play pool, and as I take my meals pretty leisurely and seriously, I agreed to it, but only after I was done. No sooner did I put down my fork that he was back standing next to me. Of course, I was ready to play, but now he wanted to wager – if he wins, I buy a book. I was more than happy to indulge. Needless to say, I think he has pulled this game before, and was not only much better than I, but actually quite good. You also must realize that he was about 10 years old, and could barely see over the pool table or hold the cue. Happily, I lost, and bought a book that I was actually looking to get, and for half price of course – First They Killed My Father - Loung Ung. This is a woman who grew up under the Khmer Rouge and recounts her story through the eyes of her child-self. I have read about halfway through and it is a truly compelling, detailed and informative account of the horrors of what it was like to live during that time. Even halfway through, I would have no trouble giving it my full recommendations and hope that at least one of you picks it up. This is a story, both the book and the little boy who whooped me at billiards, which I will not soon forget.
That night, the aircon again did not work, and we sweated through the night and into one final morning in Phnom Penh. At 7am, after another hearty breakfast at the Lakeside, Floor and I were swept away in a tuk-tuk to our “VIP Express Bus” to get us all the way back to Bangkok. This 14-hour bus/mini-bus ride was actually not so bad. I was able to get a lot of reading (and writing of this blog) done during that time, and as always, was supremely happy when I returned home and am able to write this blog two weeks later.
(Some Cambodian Riel - basically used as the equivalent of American coins)
(It's fun holding onto a couple 10,000 unit bills - unfortunately, that's only about $2.5 US)
(Like a quarter. I ended up with a lot of extra bills, that more than 5 exchange places wouldn't take back. Talk about memorabilia!)
Arriving in Bangkok was very interesting, to say the least. If you haven’t heard, for the past year, and most recently in the last three or so months, there has been a large resistance to the current government in Thailand by a group call the Red Shirts. Basically, they are in favor or removing the current government who they believe wrongfully deposed former PM Thaksin (a known corrupt leader) who was very good for initiating social welfare programs for the poor.
Anyway, we arrived in Bangkok to see literally hundreds of thousands of people in red attire walking and roaming the streets with signs flags etc at around 9pm. This was just really cool, and I sort of wish I had stayed as Floor did for an extra few days to experience the madness that was going on there. Of course, when I returned home, I had a fresh email in my inbox from the US Consulate in Hong Kong advising all Americans to not travel to Thailand due to a state of emergency in Bangkok. Oh well. Floor and I stayed at the famous Khao San Road, (read: backpacker colony) where we enjoyed some fantastic Thai food (as always) and a few drinks to cap off a long day and an even more exhausting week.
(Khao San Road)
(The last of the Thai beers - check)
(More madness on Khao San)
(The "Rainbow Hotel" run by Indians - it's a very international area)
(Not much space to move around, and the forcing of open windows allowed us to hear the music go until 5am - gotta love Bangkok)
(I always new lots of Israelis went to Thailand, but c'mon, it's like the entire street!)
(Further proof - I think I was in the presence of more Jews here in Bangkok on this street than in my last four months combined!)
I have no officially taken the monkey off my back of finishing this marathon blog, and can resume writing about Hong Kong. It is now April 20, 2010, and that means that I only have a couple more weeks here – I will be sure to make the most of it.
Until next time, thank you so much for reading, and don’t hesitate to find me on the interwebs with Skype/Facebook/Gchat, I’d love to hear from you!
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