© irene waters 2015
Angkor Thom was founded by King Jayavarman VII built in the 10th and 11th century. It was built in an almost perfect square and outside its high walls was a wide moat which once housed hungry crocodiles. It is a large complex being over a mile wide and contains many temples and other features. Many of the decorative features are broken in some of the temples such as the Phimeanakas temple. Reconstruction is underway with the broken pieces piled around the edges. Can you imagine the jigsaw skills that would require.
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
The ancient ruins of Angkor Wat and surrounds are not all that is broken in Cambodia. The people are broken after Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge movement ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. From a population at this time of 7 – 8 million people 1.5 million died from starvation, execution, disease or overwork. In one detention centre S-21 shown below only seven of the 20,000 people imprisoned there are known to have survived.
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
I wondered that the sign “no smiling” was necessary. The interior was no smiling matter at all.
© irene waters 2015
The psyche of the people remains broken. They do not understand how one of their own could do this. Recovery is slow and hard.
In response to weekly photo challenge Broken
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
It’s so hard to believe that any human can inflict such pain on any other human – and yet, they do. Sobbing must be allowed.
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Definitely allowed sobbing.
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The sign could mean: No loud talking and laughing!
Asians sometimes do that to cover the shame.
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Yes you could be right. Cultural differences could be at play. In Vanuatu we found that people laughed as their response to grief.
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It’s always a strange reaction for me but we have to consider that there are differences to get rid of psycological pressure.
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Such a poignant post. Thanks for sharing this with us
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Thanks Raewyn.
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There are so many of those no-smiling places. We have just come back from Berlin and this is probably the epitome of “broken”. Very sad story in Cambodia indeed. A former colleague of mine was from there. She escaped to France as a child. None of her family survived the massacre.
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Such a tragedy to lose one’s entire family. I can’t even begin to think about it. Yes sadly there are many places where smiling really isn’t an option.
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So sad…
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Very
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Broken, indeed. Only seven survivors! Unbelievable that we hardly know this recent history. Your photo juxtapositions are especially poignant.
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Cambodia is a sad story but I fear we will be hearing many more sad tales from what is happening elsewhere at the moment.
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