Kauffman Commentary

The capital of Cambodia is known as the “Pearl of Asia”. Both Khmer (Cambodians) and french influence can be seen together in Phnom Penh. It can be seen through the architecture and education systems. Before the French there was basically a pagoda education, meaning the boys were educated by the monks. The girls were not offered the education as they are now.

Construction on the Royal Palace began in 1866. The palace is the home to the King and much like the UK, when the flag is flying he is in residence. The silver pagoda or the Temple of the Emerald Budda was rebuilt in 1962 and has a silver floor made with 5,329 pieces of silver plated tile. It was one of the few temples that was left intact by the Khmer Rouge.

The National Museum began with pre-Angkor pieces, through post. We learned that you could tell by the heads of the statues what era they represented. Flat for pre-Angkor, more pointed during the Angkor Empire.

This afternoon focused on a deep dark time in Cambodian history. From 1975-1979 Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge attacked their own people. Over 1/3 of the Cambodian people were killed, which was over 2 million. We visited the genocide center outside of the city. The killing fields totaled over 100 mass graves. They had exhumed 86 graves. The largest had over 420 people. This was difficult to take, none of us really could understand how this possibly could happen during our lifetime. What an evil man this Pol Pot must have been. He was only put under house arrest and died of natural causes in 1998.

We traveled back into town to see S 21. It was a security office that was a high school before 1975. Upper class professionals were tortured here and most never made it out alive. Only two men are still alive today. They were there telling their story and selling their books. After 1979 there were only 45 doctors alive in all of Cambodia. Only 10% of teachers and over 100,000 orphans.

Vietnamese were also attacked by Pol Pot. He wanted the Mekong delta and burned and killed many trying to get what he wanted. Vietnam attacked him and the Khmer Rouge in 1978. They drove them to the northern jungles. In 1989 after the government was set in place the Vietnamese returned to their country. Cambodia went to a constitutional monarchy. The same prime minister is in office today.