We spent three days around the Angkor Temples, and whilst neither of us are exactly into archaeology or architecture, there is still a great wealth of discovery to be made there. The temples have not always been the tourist attraction they now are, and over the years some have been severely neglected, losing the detail on their carvings or in some cases completely falling apart. The most well preserved is Angkor Wat, the most recognisable of the temples as well as one of the most mysterious. Whilst most temples face east, Angkor Wat looks to the west, which is believed to make it a temple to death.
Oddly, it's not Angkor Wat that either of us will take away as our main memory of these temples. It is certainly impressive, particularly it's intricately carved bas-reliefs around the side depicting wars, elephants, wars, dancing animals, wars, gods and then more wars. But other temples have so much more atmosphere and unusual, interesting detail, that they simply stick with you much more.
One such temple is Ta Prohm (or 'Tomb Raider temple' if you ask a tuk tuk driver). Ta Prohm is a temple that was nearly lost to the forces of nature during years of neglect, and still it has trees growing out of it, their roots and the temples walls mutually supporting each other, inseparable now if the temple is to stay up. Ta Prohm is a fascinating, atmospheric mix of architecture and nature.
Another temple that is difficult to forget is the Bayon, in the walled city of Angkor Thom. As you approach, it looks rather unimpressive, but climb to the third level of this late-Angkorian structure and you find yourself surrounded by over 200 faces looking down on you from a great number of towers. Thought to be depictions of Jayavarman VII, the Angkor king of the time, these enigmatic faces smile down on you, an overawing effect of a ruler attempting to show both total control and total compassion for his people.
The Angkor Temples are powerful relics of a bygone age. They speak of a realised ambition for these self proclaimed 'god kings' to be remembered long after they are gone. This is all the more incredible when you consider how much of Cambodian history was lost in the 1970s. If Angkor is Cambodia at it's greatest, the Khmer Rouger is certainly one of it's darkest periods.
The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 until early 1979. They set the calendar to Year Zero and attempted to destroy all traces of Cambodia's former governments and history. Only Angkor survived as a symbol of Khmer greatness, though the temples were neglected and conservation efforts set back many years. The Khmer Rouge believed in a form of Maoist communism and the regime was characterised by mass evacuations of cities, sending people to work on forced labour camps, and the swift execution of all enemies, both real and imagined. Around a quarter of Cambodia's population died during these years through starvation, disease and execution.
There are two main sites in Phnom Penh that speak of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge: Choung Ek (commonly referred to as The Killing Fields although in reality there were around 300 such fields in the country) and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. At Choung Ek, you are handed an audio guide in your native language and invited to walk around at your own speed. As you follow the path, stories of the atrocities committed in this site ring in your ear, jarring strangely with the peaceful green meadow you find yourself in. A tall glass stupa in the centre serves as a monument to what happened here, grimly filled with the skulls and other major bones that have been dug up since the site was discovered. You are guided from one of the first points, the truck stop, only a short walk to the killing field, mimicking the short stay prisoners faced here. Unlike similar historical sites such as Auschwitz, Choung Ek held few prisoners and no one who entered survived. Most people were executed the night they arrived, and unceremoniously dumped into one of the many mass graves which are still evident in the many dips in the ground. Having heard of the horrors in the abstract, we were now about to see them up close.
The Tuol Sleng museum is housed in the the old S-21 building, a former school turned into a prison and torture centre. Prisoners could be brought here on the most spurious of reasons, even wearing glasses or having soft hands marked you out as an intellectual and therefore an enemy of the revolution. They would then be tortured into confessing that they, their friends and their families were working for the CIA and/or the KGB (the Cold War evidently meant very little to Pol Pot's men). We are very used to describing violence as 'senseless', but in the case of the Khmer Rouge it is terrifyingly accurate. The Angkar, the Khmer Rouge's central administration, were intensely paranoid, seemingly unable to slow down the momentum of their killing. There was no final aim for these killings, just a continual purge of enemies that did not exist. Eventually they turned on their own. The original prison guards at S-21 were killed and replaced with new ones and even one of Pol Pot's closest officials was imprisoned and executed.
Within the bare, run down walls of Tuol Sleng lie cramped cell after cramped cell, all seemingly haunted by their former inhabitants. In the former torture rooms, the old metal bed frames remain with photos on the wall of those found on them when the prison was liberated. In other rooms, wall after wall displays photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their prisoners. Only 8 people survived S-21, some of their stories are written on the wall in one of the spaces. Coincidentally, as we left, we noticed a TV crew in the grounds, and realised the man they were filming was one of these survivors. Unsurprisingly, it seems these 8 are treated like heroes in Cambodia, people whose lives are never to be forgotten.
Keen to learn more about this darkly fascinating time, I looked for some relevant books on the matter. There is no shortage of these in Cambodia, in a country where many remain in poverty, national tragedy is a precious resource. I ended up with The Gate by Francoiz Bizot. Bizot was a French researcher working in Cambodia during the 60s and the book describes his two substantial encounters with the Khmer Rouge. The first came in 1971, when he was kidnapped by them when they were still a guerilla army, attempting to start a revolution against the American backed, right-wing Lon Nol. Because of his larger-than-life character and, for a Westerner, deep understanding of Khmer culture, Bizot forms a fairly friendly relationship with his captor, Duch. Although his conditions remain agnozing, they are better than some of the other prisoners. In one fascinating moment, Bizot and Duch sit around a campfire and discuss the Khmer Rouge's revolution. Bizot puts to Duch many of the questions and criticisms that modern observers would want to ask - questions regarding the legitimacy of educated communist academics romanticising the peasant classes, or how the aims of the Khmer Rouge can justify their methods. Bizot describes his captor not as a monster, but as a confused idealist who is on a dark path. A valid assessment: Duch is the man who was placed in charge of running S-21.
The second encounter comes when Phnom Penh is 'liberated' by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and Bizot ends up as the official go-between for the French consul and the regime. Again, it is his personal experiences with historic figures, as well as the horrendous decisions he is forced to make, that make it such a powerful book. If you do want to read a subjective account of the period that also does a decent job of covering what was happening politically at the time, The Gate is well worth a read.
Sorry for the rather long post but hopefully it was informative.
Thanks for that! It certainly is (as you put it) darkly fascinating.
ReplyDelete