Destinations
Cambodia
SeeBeyondBorders' initial intention is to travel to Cambodia, however we plan to add communities in India to the list over the next few years.
We took our first group to Cambodia with SeeBeyondBorders in June of 2009. During this two-week-period the group visited communities in need in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Siem Reap.
Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia, on the Indochine Peninsula. It is bordered on the northwest by Thailand, the southeast by Vietnam, and northeast by Laos. Part of Cambodia’s southwest coast lies on the Gulf of Thailand.
The official language of Cambodia is Khmer. Ninety percent of Cambodia’s population is Khmer (Cambodian), 5 percent Vietnamese, 1 percent Chinese, and the other 4 percent is made up of other nationalities. The main religion in Cambodia is Buddhism, currently about 85 percent of the country’s population are Buddhists.
A Brief History of Cambodia
From the 9th to the 13th century, the Khmer Empire, now known as Cambodia flourished, it was the most powerful kingdom in Southeast Asia. Cambodia was and still is a kingdom, always ruled by a popular King.
During the 10th and 11th century the King built enormous shrines to the gods. These shrines, most of which are still standing today, have become the cultural centrepoint as well as the leading tourist attraction in Cambodia today.
Since 1960, when Cambodia was ‘discovered’ by the western tourist, the temple of Angkor Wat near Siem Reap is always a highlight of a visit to Cambodia. The immense scale, grandeur, and attention to detail of the temple is truly amazing and to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat is one of the world’s true wonders.
While Siem Reap would be described as the cultural area of Cambodia, being the gateway to the temples, Phnom Penh is the country’s thriving capital city. Phnom Penh is a remarkable city considering its history. During 1975, at the instruction of the communist dictator Pol Pot, people were driven from the city believing bombing raids were to be performed by the USA. Pol Pot used this as an opportunity to start a new beginning for Cambodia. Unfortunately his plans required the murder of all educated people. Almost all teachers, doctors and a large majority of city dwellers were tortured and executed in Pol Pot’s infamous Killing Fields. There were over 300 killing fields throughout Cambodia. The most famous of these sites is Choeung Ek located 30 mins drive from central Phnom Penh.
During the the 4 years of Pol Pot’s reign (1974-1979) an estimated 2 million Cambodians were killed. The rest of the population were forced to work in labour camps, mainly in rice fields, across Cambodia. The ‘prison farms’ were run by young, uneducated boys who wore red and white scarves and carried AK47’s. These boys were known as the Khmer Rouge, they were Pol Pot’s loyal army. It was a very dark period for Cambodia, several journalists tried to report what was happening to the west, some of them were immortalised in the classic movie, The Killing Fields. To think that this was happening in the 1970’s makes the entire episode almost unbelievable.
The legacies of this period, for the people of Cambodia, are numerous. One of these being the murder of most of the educators of the country, which has resulted in a very underdeveloped education system in Cambodia. Another being the planting of an estimated 7 million landmines throughout the country that are still unexploded. These landmines still produce victims on a regular basis. This in itself puts a large drain on the health resources of a country that already has a very poor health system and a very high rate of infectious diseases. Most international aid organisations agree that strong health and education systems are the 2 biggest key factors in establishing Cambodia as a modern, self sufficient country.
At SeeBeyondBorders we believe that improved education at a grassroots level is what will benefit the country enormously. Our aim is to empower and educate Cambodian teachers so that the education system can be sustainably improved across the country. The Cambodian teachers have shown that they are very keen to learn and take our methods on board. Months after our Teacher trip in January 2010 it was so rewarding to see our methods still in place and student attendance rates improving dramatically.
A Buddhist Prayer for Peace
The suffering of Cambodia has been great.
This suffering gives rise to a great compassion.
A great compassion creates a generous heart.
From a generous heart is born an honourable person.
An honourable person builds a united family.
A united family generates a gentle community.
A gentle community creates a peaceful nation.
A peaceful nation makes a happy world
In which we all live in solidarity, peace and happiness.
Adapted from a prayer written by His Holiness Maha Ghosananda, one of the patriarchs of the Buddhist church in Cambodia and leader of the movement for peace. In order to offer us his sense of hope, he wrote this popular prayer, full of wisdom drawn from the Buddhist tradition.
“The good, the bad and the ugly is a simple way to sum up Cambodian history. Things were good in the early years, culminating in the vast Angkor empire, unrivalled in the region during four centuries of dominance. Then the bad set in, from the 13th century, as ascendant neighbours steadily chipped away at Cambodian territory. In the 20th century it turned downright ugly, as a brutal civil war culminated in the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge (1975–79), from which Cambodia is still recovering.”
From Lonely Planet Guide http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cambodia/history
Other links
Cambodia Travel Guides – Canby Publications
Central Intelligence Agency – World Fact Book - Cambodia
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