Living Memory of the Khmer

Living Memory of the Khmer is a project featuring social, political and economic changes in Cambodia between 1950s and 1990s. The project brings to life the evolving past through oral history interviews with elders who directly and indirectly experienced social and political changes and turbulence during the struggle for independence from France in late 40s and early 50s, the heyday of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum in the 60s, the Lon Nol-led Khmer Republic from 1970 to 1975, the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to1979 and the struggle to restore and reconcile the country in the 80s and 90s. The project highlights commonly known events in Cambodia’s recent history and hidden grassroots experiences of individuals which are rarely written about.

This project was co-ordinated by Pisith Phlong, a recent MA graduate in Cultural Anthropology from Northern Illinois University, currently working as a contract lecturer at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh.

Hom Horn
Hom Horn is a temple committee member in Siem Reap commune, Kandal Steung district, Kandal province. Prior to the control of Khmer Rouge in 1975, he had been a monk for five years. He was one of a few monks who had chance to continue monkhood during the Khmer Rouge period., Hom Horn describes events he encountered during the Lon Nol period (1970-1975) at area southern of Phnom Penh and his monkhood life between April and December 1975 before any form of religion was completely prohibited by the Khmer Rouge regime. He also shared his experiences about K5 in which he was sent to clear forest in Battambang province in late 1984., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Keo Tat
Keo Tat is a widow and one of a few old ladies in Kok Trob commune, Kandal Steung district, Kandal province, who could remember and provide account information about history and events related to her own village where she was born, grew up and continues living until nowadays., Keo Tat recalls her memory about her participating in struggling to claim independence from France, situation of her village prior to the control of Khmer Rouge and her bitter experiences during the atrocity of Khmer Rouge in which her children and husband died. She also tries to explain who Khmer Rouge comrades really are through her own personal experiences., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Leng Vath
Leng Vath is a widow and one of few survivors from Khmer Rouge’s Sang prison in Kandal province. She describes the situation of Phnom Penh when it fell into the Khmer Rouge’s control in April 1975 as she was one among a million people who were forced to evacuate from the city. As a survivor of Khmer Rouge’s prison, Leng Vath shares her one-year bitter experiences during time living and working in the prison and mobile unit at various places. She also describes her family’s situation during the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1988) when her husband and children were forced to join K5 in which her husband was injured and paralyzed., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Nou Nem
Nou Nem is a temple committee member in Siem Reap commune, Kandal Steung district, Kandal province. As one of the oldest persons remaining in his village, Nou Nem could remember and narrate the situation of confrontation between Japanese and French soldiers. During the struggle for independence from France at the end of 1940s, Nou Nem joint in resistance movement of Issarak as a spy. He then worked as a street guard during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum lead by former King Norodom Sihanouk until he fled to Thailand for military training in 1970. Upon his returning, he joint with Khmer Serei movement to fight against the Lon Nol government., During the Khmer Rouge regime, Nou Nem was evacuated to his hometown and forced to do heavy work with little food to eat. From his bitter experience, he decided to devote his entire life to serve the government which saved his life from death., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Nuy Sao
Nuy Sao is a widow and a survivor from Khmer Rouge, In 1978, Nuy Sao was arrested and sent with a group of 21 persons to Sang prison. She describes her life history under the Khmer Rouge, event on the day of her arrest and situation in the prison in which she endured hard work, torturing and horrible living condition., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Phy Sorn
Phy Sorn is a widow and a former housemaid for Mrs. May Ebihara, an American anthropologist who spent time conducting research about Khmer villages prior to the war in late 1950s. She describes the situation and happy time in her village during time she worked for Mrs. May until she met her husband and moved to live in Phnom Penh. Phy Sorn also provides account information about the situation of evacuation from Phnom Penh in April 1975 at which she and her family fled to her hometown. There, she and the family endured hardship and discrimination from Khmer Rouge comrades whom she knew and were friend with prior to the control by Khmer Rouge. She also describes suffering she faced upon her family’s relocation to Pursat, a western province of Cambodia, where her parents, husband and children died., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Sao Samarth
Sao Samarth is a widow who witnessed and experienced many social changes in her life. She described her experiences of escaping bombardment and fighting between the Lon Nol’s and Khmer Rouge’s soldiers with American military assistance in 1970s at her hometown in Kandal province’s Lovea Em district. Because of life threatening from fighting and bombardment, Sao Samarth escaped and made a living in Phnom Penh with her family between 1971 and 1975 during which she witnessed increasing social and economic tension in Phnom Penh due to Khmer Rouge’s military strength at countryside. She also describes the situation of Phnom Penh on the day of evacuation as she was one among million people who tried to move out of the city. Upon returning back to her hometown during the Khmer Rouge regime, she and her family were mistreated and discriminated. In 1977, she and her family were shipped from Prey Veng to Phnom Penh and sent to live in a remote village of Pursat province where she endured hardship and labor work. She explained how she was rescued from death when she was sent to join a mobile unit. Under the Khmer Rouge’s control, she was arranged to get married with a man whom she had never seen or heard of before. She also narrates her story after liberation during which she tried to look for her arranged-marriage husband and her struggles to bring up her only daughter after her husband’s death due to K5., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Vet Heang
Vet Heang is a vegetable vendor at market, and a survivor from Khmer Rouge’s Sang prison in Kandal province. Her ex-husband was a soldier of Lon Nol and died one year later after the marriage. During the Khmer Rouge regime, she returned back to her hometown with her brother who was a Khmer Rouge soldier. She was separated from her brother to join in widow group for she was considered to be new people until she was arrested and sent to Sang prison in late 1977., Vet Heang describes difficulties she had during the Khmer Rouge period, especially suffering she endured in the prison. She also narrated a situation when she was sent away for execution and was rescued prior to the liberation in January 1979., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Son Soubert -- Part 1
Son Soubert is a professor, a former vice-president of the National Assembly from 1993-1998 and a former member of the Constitutional Councils of Cambodia. He spends almost his entire life for humanity, peace and reconciliation for Cambodia. In part one of interview, Son Soubert shares his memory and analyses on Cambodia, In part one of the interview, Son Soubert shares his memory and analyses on Cambodia’s historical facts based on his in-depth knowledge and hand-on experiences about time prior to the control of Khmer Rouge in 1975. The interview starts from the struggle for independence from France in late 1940s, to effort in building the country during the King Norodom Sihanouk’s Sangkum Reastr Niyum in the 50s and 60s, and Cambodia’s crisis in the first half of the 1970s that leaded to the control of power by Khmer Rouge in April 1975. Some historical events have never been written in any history book, and they are based on his engagement, and direct involvements of his father, Son San who was a former minister and former Prime Minister of Cambodia, in the country’s social and political arena., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Son Soubert -- Part 2
Son Soubert is a professor, a former vice-president of the National Assembly from 1993-1998 and a former member of the Constitutional Councils of Cambodia. He spends almost his entire life for humanity, peace and reconciliation for Cambodia. In part one of interview, Son Soubert shares his memory and analyses on Cambodia, In part two of interview, Son Soubert shows some activities of oversea Cambodians in order to bring the world into awareness about human rights violation under the Khmer Rouge regime and situation of Cambodian refugees along the Cambodian-Thai border. He also describes his and some Cambodian dignitaries, This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Vann Nath
Vann Nath is a known painter and a survivor from S-21 prison, or Tuol Sleng during the Khmer Rouge period. Prior to the Khmer Rouge regime, Vann Nath lived in Battambang provincial town, took monkhood and attended fine arts school in which he studied painting skill. By 1969, Vann Nath ran a painting workshop in Battambang town with his friends until the country plunged into Khmer Rouge’s control., Vann Nath describes his hometown’s situation before and during the Khmer Rouge, how he was arrested and tortured in Battambang and sent by truck to S-21 in Phnom Penh. He also narrates the situation of S-21 in which he was detained and worked as a painter of Pol Pot for about year until the liberation of Phnom Penh on 7th January, 1979., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018
Yen Pech
Yen Pech is a farmer and former village chief during the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) in early 1980s. Prior to the control of power by Khmer Rouge, Yen Pich and family were collected and forced to move south from his hometown in order to work for Khmer Rouge soldiers., Yen Pech describes the situation and living in the Khmer Rouge zone from 1972 to 1975 during which he stayed away from his family for farming work in Sa-ang district. He further describes the condition of work and living under the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, during which he fled back to live in his hometown in Siem Reap district. He also provides information about the PRK during which he served as a village chief and participated in K5., This item digitized and made available online with funds provided by United States Department of Education, TICFIA (Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information) Grant P337A090018