During one three-week period late last year, I rode in or on automobiles,
airplanes, vans, tuk-tuks, cyclos, motorboats, canoes, elephants, railroad,
motorcycles and my own two sore feet.
I ate Korean bibimbap, mueslix with yogurt, fried rice, fried crickets, fried
fish, fried chicken, fried silkworms, fried tarantula, lok lak, paneang, amok, dragon fruit, jack fruit, green tea, mango
in many forms (shakes, smoothies, sliced), papaya, and a host of other
vegetable matter I couldn't easily identify. And lots of water.
I photographed people fishing,
processing fish, eating fish, making rice paper, forging machetes, refining
salt, weaving silk, selling food, begging for money, pedaling cyclos, driving
tuk-tuks, negotiating traffic, piloting boats, poling boats, fixing flat tires
and just living their lives.
Those three lists concluded the journal
I kept on that
two-week photographic tour of
the kingdom of Cambodia, and my travel up and down the East Coast to get
my flights to and from Phnom Penh. I guess they are interesting inventories of
the trip, but like most lists, they only have the meaning you ascribe to them.
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| Angkor Wat at dawn |
Some people might be (and were) repulsed by the idea of eating fried
tarantulas, for example (mine was a little overcooked). Others might think
riding an elephant is romantic (it was one of the roughest rides I've ever
had).
For me, the lists are mnemonics, ways
to jog the memory and awaken the feelings I had at the time. I went to Cambodia the first two weeks of December last year with a small group organized by Ralph Velasco, who led the trip to Cuba that I joined earlier last year.
As part of my last-minute preparation
for Cambodia, I had twice watched "The Killing Fields" and plowed
through a depressing book called "Cambodia's Curse," which left me wondering
what we would find on the ground.
In the mid 1970s, the Khmer Rouge
stepped into a power vacuum that had resulted from Cambodia's status as a
doormat for both sides in the Vietnam War. The Khmer Rouge then perpetrated one
of the worst genocides since World War II until communist Vietnam invaded and
drove the Khmer Rouge from power. Since then the government has been one of the
most corrupt in the world, with entrenched government officials skimming off
aid money that's supposed to go to schools and health care facilities.
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| Fig trees have taken over the ruins of Ta Prohm |
As a photographer, I hoped at least
that the tour would not be a sanitized look at Cambodia's tourism hotspots, and
that we would have opportunities to photograph real people and real life and
even be able to capture some of the curses that have beset Cambodia in the past
50 years.
I was not disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised to find a country full of generally happy and prosperous (by
Southeast Asian standards) people with a rich cultural heritage that is
gradually transcending recent history. But I also found a country that is fully
aware of its recent and ongoing shortcomings. In future blog posts I will
write more about the Khmer Rouge and how Cambodia has absorbed its own tragedy, as well as more observations about Cambodian life today.
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| East Gate at Angkor Wat |
The iconic tourist destinations in
Cambodia have long been the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples near the town of
Siem Reap. Most notable of these is Angkor Wat, a sprawling complex that holds
the distinction of being the world's largest religious building. In the Angkor
region are more than 100 temples built during the height of the
Khmer empire between 802 and 1432 C.E. During this time, the Khmer empire was
the dominant power in Southeast Asia, and
was often at war with neighboring Vietnam and Thailand.
The ruins of the temples are remarkably
well-preserved, and ongoing projects aim at keeping them that way. The walls, mostly built with
great slabs
of laterite that were brought down from distant mountains, are inscribed with
intricate carvings that tell the stories of kings, battles and gods. Many
of the temples were built by emperors,
monuments to themselves as much as to their deities. The Khmer empire was
alternatively Hindu and Buddhist, so the icons carved into temple walls are
both Hindu and Buddhist as well. In some cases, a Hindu emperor succeeded a
Buddhist emperor (or vice versa) and proceeded to deface icons made by his
predecessor.
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| Stone carvings |
Today, tourists from all over the world
crawl over the ruins, take pictures and try to learn about the empire that
flourished and died out before Europeans settled the New World. While the
temples are no longer "official" religious centers, people still come
to pray, and saffron-robed monks are conspicuous in the midst of the crowds.
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| Shaman at Angkor Wat |
Outside the temples' walls, free
enterprise flourishes in this kingdom that was an ultra-communist hell just 45 years ago. Kids
hawk whatever souvenirs they have a franchise to sell, while older people
sell prayer sticks and lotus buds to those who want to make an offering. And
there are shamans who will tie a colorful string of wool around your wrist
and chant blessings to bring you good luck. I got four of them. I'm neither religious nor
superstitious, but I figure anything is worth a try, and things have been going
really well for me ever since. The yarn is very pretty, too.
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| Woman selling pineapple |
There are fruit vendors and small cafes
where you can get fried rice and chilled coconuts that the vendors split open
with machetes so you can drink the milk. There are dress shops and souvenir
stands and elephant rides. I suspect that the scene was similar back in the 11th century, when
merchants vied loudly for the attention -- and cash -- of pilgrims coming to
the temples.
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| Crowd watching sunrise at Angkor Wat |
The daily ritual at Angkor Wat begins
before dawn, as hordes of tourists and saffron-robed monks line the pond in
front of the West gate to watch and photograph the sunrise, silhouetting and
reflecting the five stupas that are
the symbol of Cambodia's history and culture.
Once the sun is up, visitors enter the
temple by the hundreds, clambering over the great slabs of laterite and
climbing the long steep stone steps into the labyrinth of courtyards and
chapels within. Just exploring any of these temples is a good workout for your
body as well as your interests in history, religion and aesthetics.
The center symbol on the Cambodian flag
is the familiar silhouette of Angkor Wat. Spending a few days, or even a few
hours exploring the great temple, you begin to get a sense of how this symbolic
monument helps modern Khmers transcend their own recent past.
To see more photos from the temples of
Cambodia's past, go to http://www.finsfeathersfoto.com/p901629660
