By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Pailin
25 September 2008
Former Khmer Rouge soldiers in Pailin celebrated Pchum Ben in recent days by meditating and praying to former soldiers who died in the war against the Phnom Penh government.
Surrounded by high, forested mountains 400 kilometers from the capital, Pailin was one of the final strongholds of the Khmer Rouge, which fought a 25-year civil war against government troops following its fall in 1979.
Pailin Deputy Governor Keuth Sothea, a former Khmer Rouge fighter, called other former soldiers to attend a ceremony Friday, to meditate for their fallen friends and family.
A giant stupa has been built in Pailin’s largest pagoda, with the remains of many soldiers interred within.
Chea Sovang, who burned five joss sticks at the ceremony Friday, spoke so softly he could scarcely be heard: “I meditate for friends who were with me when we were in the jungle. We had nothing to eat during the war. And I pity them. They had no parents. They had nothing. And they were injured and died in blood.”
Pchum Ben is a 15-day Buddhist ceremony where Cambodians honor the dead by traveling to the pagodas with food and offerings for the spirits. It ends Sept. 30.
An untold number of Cambodian guerrillas and soldiers died in decades of fighting that only ended in 1996.
“They are good believers,” venerable monk Nhim Sothun, chief of the Ratana Sophoan pagoda, said of the former Khmer Rouge. “They come here because they understand well Buddhism, and they have done real meditation.”
Original report from Pailin
25 September 2008
Former Khmer Rouge soldiers in Pailin celebrated Pchum Ben in recent days by meditating and praying to former soldiers who died in the war against the Phnom Penh government.
Surrounded by high, forested mountains 400 kilometers from the capital, Pailin was one of the final strongholds of the Khmer Rouge, which fought a 25-year civil war against government troops following its fall in 1979.
Pailin Deputy Governor Keuth Sothea, a former Khmer Rouge fighter, called other former soldiers to attend a ceremony Friday, to meditate for their fallen friends and family.
A giant stupa has been built in Pailin’s largest pagoda, with the remains of many soldiers interred within.
Chea Sovang, who burned five joss sticks at the ceremony Friday, spoke so softly he could scarcely be heard: “I meditate for friends who were with me when we were in the jungle. We had nothing to eat during the war. And I pity them. They had no parents. They had nothing. And they were injured and died in blood.”
Pchum Ben is a 15-day Buddhist ceremony where Cambodians honor the dead by traveling to the pagodas with food and offerings for the spirits. It ends Sept. 30.
An untold number of Cambodian guerrillas and soldiers died in decades of fighting that only ended in 1996.
“They are good believers,” venerable monk Nhim Sothun, chief of the Ratana Sophoan pagoda, said of the former Khmer Rouge. “They come here because they understand well Buddhism, and they have done real meditation.”
1 comment:
There are only two pagodas on the hill of Phnom Yat, in Pailin. The main pagoda was built in 1925 as stated on the engravings in the Myanmar Chronological Year 1287 at the four corners of the base of the pagoda. The other pagoda sits at the top of the stairs that lead up to Phnom Yat. It was built 13 years later in the Myanmar Chronological Year 1300.
Please clarify which pagoda this report refers to with the dead soldiers interned.
I have also met a few times with the Venerable Ratanak Pachoto(Nhim Sothun).
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