Cambodia

Angkor temples, Siem Riep, Cambodia, 2009

Temples of Angkor

Published on by David

The stone ruins surrounding the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia testify to
an empire that dominated southeast Asia for over 600 years, from 802
to 1432 CE. At its zenith, the Khmer empire had over a million
inhabitants. Angkor Wat was the world’s largest temple and Angkor Thom
a nearby walled city.

The Angkorian period began when king Jayavarman II, who first
consolidated Cambodia’s competing kingdoms in 802 CE. He declared
himself a god-king, an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva.

Many of the temples at Angkor have bas-relief carvings depicting
classical Hindu stories. However, by the late 12th century, ongoing
development shows a clear Buddhist influence, as Jayavarman VII builds
images of Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion.

The scale of stone temples at Angkor is quite amazing. While huge,
many are covered with intricately carved detail. After the decline of
the Khmer empire, the temples were completely hidden by the
encroaching jungle.

The ruins were “rediscovered” by the French in the 1860s, but it took
many decades before significant archeology or restoration took place.
In 1992, Angkor was declared a World Heritage Site by the UN.

Today there are areas which are still largely piles of rubble
completely overgrown by tree roots. We were struck by how effective
the jungle is in reducing human works of stone into rock piles.

Cambodian Silk Production

Published on by David

I’ve always wanted to know how silk is made and at the Artisans of
Angkor Silk Factory in Siem Reap, Cambodia, I got my chance to find
out.

The factory is surrounded by fields of mulberry bushes, which are
harvested to feed the silk worms.

The building in which the silk worms are kept stands on foundation
blocks that are surrounded by small pools of water. This design
prevents ants from coming in the building; ants would soon kill the
silk worms if they got in.

The mulberry leaves are chopped up and fed to the worms, which grow
rapidly into caterpillars from only a millimeter to well over 5 cm
long in about 3 weeks.

Then the caterpillar starts to spin its cocoon from a single strand of
silk that emerges from its mouth. The silk strand is eventually 400
meters long. The cocoon must then be placed in the sun to kill the
caterpillar inside before it transforms into a pupa; otherwise the
moth that develops will break the silk strand when it emerges from the
cocoon, rendering it useless for harvesting the silk. About 20% of the
pupae are left to develop into moths which will lay eggs for the next
generation of caterpillars.

The cocoons to be harvested are placed in hot water where they soften.
A wire whisk is used to find the end of the silk strand. For the first
100 meters, strands from many cocoons are bundled together and drawn
up to form the thread of raw silk, a courser form of silk than fine
silk.

The remaining 300 meters is used to make fine silk; here strands from
each cocoon are drawn up separately.

Originally the silk has a yellow color and is very stretchy. To make
the silk fibers suitable for making fabrics, they must be bleached and
colored. The bleaching process also makes the fibers much less
stretchy, which is essential for weaving textiles.

The silk is then wound onto bobbins. Silk being selected as warp
threads for weaving are threaded though special combs and wound onto
large reels where they are cut to length and prepared for the loom.

The factory we visited has about 30 looms on which silk textiles are
made, using several different methods. The women doing the weaving
seem to have incredibly keen eyesight and boundless patience. The
fabric they produce is stunningly beautiful and remarkably soft to the
touch.

The silk from this farm is sent to many women who weave in their homes
in rural villages in northern Cambodia.

Landmines in Cambodia

Published on by David

One thing we noticed right away in Cambodia is the large number of
amputees and blind people; many lost their feet or legs or eyes after
stepping on landmines — farmers working in the rice fields, children
playing, ordinary people going about their business. Cambodia has one
of the highest concentrations of landmines in the world, left over
from the military conflicts of the 1970-80s.

In 1953 Cambodia gained independence from the French. For the next 15
years, under King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia remained relatively
prosperous and peaceful, though it couldn’t completely isolate itself
from the war in neighboring Vietnam.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon authorized the secret bombing of
Cambodia, in an attempt to drive out North Vietamese forces. The
bombing began along the border with Vietnam but soon spread deep into
the interior as Vietnamese communists retreated deeper into Cambodia.
Several hundred thousand refugees fled their homes. See a map of
bombing targets on the Yale University website at
http://www.yale.edu/cgp/us.html

During the US bombing campaign, more bombs were dropped on Cambodia
than had been used by all sides during WW II. By 1973, when the
bombing was halted by the US congress, roughly 250,000 Cambodians an
an unknown number of Vietnamese had been killed.

In 1969, while Sihanouk was on a trip to France, General Lon Nol
deposed him as chief of state and Sihanouk took up residence in
Beijing where he set up a government in exile, in alliance with a
Cambodian revolutionary movement, the Khmer Rouge.

In 1970, US and South Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia. Vietnamese
communists then joined with Khmer Rouge forces to destabilize the Lon
Nol government. The Khmer Rouge rapidly established control over the
countryside.

On April 17, 1975, two weeks before the fall of Saigon to the North
Vietnamese, the government of Lon Nol collapsed and Phnom Penh
surrendered to the Khmer Rouge. The victory of the Khmer Rough then
led to one of the most brutal restructurings of society the world has
ever seen. For details, visit Yale University’s website at
http://www.yale.edu/cgp/

Immediately thousands of people were executed — anyone connected with
the Lon Nol government, journalists, teachers, doctors, nurses,
business people, anyone with an education. City dwellers fled to the
countryside. Chaos followed as families were broken up, children
forced to work in rice fields, parents taken to “reeducation” camps,
and the sick or weak or elderly eliminated.

An excellent personal account of the experiences of a 5-year old girl
during this period is the book, “First They Killed My Father: a
daughter of Cambodia remembers” by Loung Ung, 2000. Today, Loung Ung
lives in America and works for

During the 1970-80s, landmines were laid by the Khmer Rouge, the
Vietnamese and the Americans. They were manufactured by many
countries, including the US, China and Russia. One of the most popular
landmines, the M18A1 is manufactured by the US company, Morton
Thiokol. The design of this particular landmine has been copied by
(sometimes licensed to) companies in other countries as well.
Landmines cost only a few dollars to manufacture, but they are
extremely difficult to locate and defuse after they are on the ground.
They generally remain live for several decades, so even long after a
war has ended, landmines remain a dangerous threat to civilians living
in the area.

We visited the Cambodia Landmine Museum in Siem Reap. The museum was
founded by Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who personally laid
thousands of landmines. Later he defected to the Vietnamese and
eventually, after the war was over, made it his personal mission to
defuse as many landmines as he was able. See his story at
http://cambodianselfhelpdemining.org/

For more information about mine clearing efforts in Cambodia, visit:

The Landmine Relief Fund
http://www.landmine-relief-fund.com/

The Vietnam Veterans Mine Clearing Team – Cambodia
http://members.optushome.com.au/glaust/index-1.htm