When we were looking lost in the streets of Battambang, wondering how to get to Ek Phnom, we were lucky to be approached by Supheap the tuk-tuk driver. Supheap turned out to be a former monk who had become a layman three years ago. On the picture on the left, Supheap is showing a picture of himself when he was still a monk.
Supheap told us about how his family managed during the Khmer Rouge era. As many blog readers will know the Khmer Rouge were in power in Cambodia during the period 1975-9, during which time the population of Cambodia is thought to have reduced to around 75% of its levels prior to the arrival of the Khmer Rouge, largely as a result of starvation, but also executions ordered by the government. The Khmer Rouge forced virtually the entirety of the urban population to work in the fields in a bizarre enactment of their vision of communism.
Supheap’s father apparently worked on building a dam, and was only given a small amount of rice gruel each day, so sometimes at night he would sneak out and steal some potatoes, despite the fact that guards told him that he would be sent to “sleep” if he did so.
After the end of the Khmer Rouge era, Cambodia fell into civil war, and Supheap’s family, like many others, went into a UN refugee camp in Thailand, an experience he described very positively.
We had employed Supheap to take us to a tourist sight (Ek Phnom pagoda) but also got him to take us to the pagoda where he had spent 9 years as a monk.
Here’s a picture of Supheap in front of the room where he used to live. He also introduced us to the Head Monk of the pagoda.
Summary of our conversation with the Head Monk:
- goal: being manager of foreign company
- philosophy: money is bad and makes you sad forever
- as Head Monk, he could spend days… studying!
As we were about to leave, the Head Monk felt it important to share one story with us before we go: An American girl feel in love with a monk, the monk left the pagoda, and now they are married!
No comments:
Post a Comment