Cambodia chronicles

Skulls from victims of the Khmer Rouge are displayed in a stupa in Cambodia.

Piles of skulls in Cambodia and pictures of some of the estimated two to three million victims of the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79, photos by Marie-Claire Holmes.

Dearly departed

Today we note its simple beauty
but it wasn't always so
once Cambodia was home
to Khmer Rouge killing fields

No democracy in Democratic Kampuchea
just warnings, torture, then execution
for contact with a foreigner
or any trumped-up charge

At least two million died or disappeared
under brutal Communist regime
the victims' photos with solemn expressions
lined up in rows as though posing for a college yearbook

But no bright futures materialised:
just hasty burials in mass graves
piles of skulls and bones in Choeung Ek or Tuol Sleng
chronicle too-brief lives and violent deaths

Ghosts of the departed linger
in this tragic country, still struggling
to move past the darkness
and embrace the light

For happier chronicles, visit Sunday Scribblings.

Comments

[tongue in cheek]

Powerful images, and your honest touch of wisdom makes this post a strong statement that we need to strive for peace in our time!

[willie]

Very powerful images. And congrats on your bloggiversary!!

[rubyslippers]

speechless.

[sundaycynce]

Tara, as you do for us weekly, you have put together beautiful pictures with powerful, provocative words to give us poignant and motivational message. Thank you for so many messages that reawaken us to crying needs in our world. May we each be moved to do what we can, even if it is only to pause and pray, in response to these needs.

[angel]

wow... that was spectacular!

[my backyard]

Interesting series of posts on Cambodia.

I'm curious about whether you've been there. Perhaps I missed your saying that in an earlier post.

[Jane]

thank you so much for sharing this beautiful post with us. Let us NEVER forget the history of those who walked before us...

[meredith]

Thanks for the reminder. I've been doing some reading on the Holocaust, there are too many of these tragedies, eliminations of whole populations, I wish it would stop.

[liza]

heartbreaking
provoking
sobering
compelling

thank you for this chronicle and tribute.

[Catherine]

Those photos in this and the previous post are beautiful, until one sees the photo of the skulls. Those are beautiful in their own way, as God's creation, but the knowledge of the suffering behind them is chilling

[Jone]

Sobering, sorrowful and so important to remember. I always take away food for thought and look forward to reading our posts. Thank you.

[Maggie]

what a beautiful tribute to a horrific, tragic past. i pray for that country all the time, since sobbing my way through a documentary about it in high school. thank you for this...xoxo

[Becca]

Amazing poem, sobering post. We need to be reminded that not all chronicles are happy or pleasant ones, and you are able to do that very elegantly.

[KG]

So many chronicles of fear and violence — this was the topic of my post, too.

Thanks for this, as a reminder that chronicles of peace could be just as possible as these chronicles of pain. We human beings — all of us — need to work towards it.

[Holli]

This was a well-written post. I think it does the victims justice to show not only that in one way they remain here on earth - not only in our memories, but that photo of them with their hands behind their backs.

Life isn't sunshine and rainbows. The second we forget that - we'll devolve even further.

I've watched some pretty grueling documentaries about this.. so it doesn't take much to spark a horrible feeling in my stomach on this topic.

[Frances]

I've read this post three times already.
Incredible combination of word and photos.

[JHS]

Sobering.
Heartbreaking.

We must never forget.

[Alexandra]

We're a pretty barbaric species as much as we like to ignore or deny it. Your blog is truly a blog of conscience Tara. So many lives have been so brutally extinguished. It just makes no sense and I have little faith that we are currently moving in the right direction, at least not as long as we have people like Bush and Cheney who continue to justify bloodshed and refuse to look inward.

[Waspgoddess]

I feel at a complete loss. Your post was like a punch in the stomach, left me not only winded but furious and blinded by tears. Yet I must thank you.

[sarala]

I like the yearbook analogy with the photos. What a sad commentary. This is an important thing to chronicle and you did a great job.
Thanks.

[nutster]

Hitler....The Khmer Rouge...Saddam....all gone now though it took additional lives and drastic steps to remove these influences of death. Hitler killed in the thirties and forties...then 20-30 yrs later, the Khmer began their genocide....and 20-30 yrs later, more from the former leader of Iraq. Of course, other killing fields have existed between these times. Yet, these seem to be the most prominent of their eras. We must never forget that the removal of these influences was not popular prior to the intervention. Once initiated, it has never been elegant either.

Until we have harmony and other steps of prevention, the ugly cycle of mass execution and graves is one that will surely be repeated.

[wendy]

At our core, our cellular structure, how alike we all are. Our differences are as thin as the skin that we call different.As temporary as a shirt or a blouse. They cage the soul and the heardt that longs to be in unity. These picures are very important.

[gautami tripathy]

Very hard hitting, stark and painful. We need to learn from our past mistakes.

[Hundred and one]

Tears that's all I have, tears....

[Regina Clare Jane]

Oh my God, the faces- and they all look like they have their hands tied behind their backs...
Why do such atrocities like this happen and why are they still happening?
I remember living above a Cambodian family in an apartment complex- there they were, all like 17 of them, huddled around a little cook stove in the middle of their living room- they always had such fear on their faces and in their bodies, but at that time, I didn't know why... even though they were here in the US, they looked like at any moment someone would come through the door and take them away. God help us all...

[GeL(Emerald Eyes)]

Hi ParisParfait,
I just joined Sun. Scribblings. I've noticed that your posts whether for that prompt or for others are pithy and thought provoking. Life is not all happiness, obviously. This is an important post, written well, and topped off by a compelling photo. I noticed in your profile that you write by occupation. Are you a journalist?

[rel]

Tara,
You've posted some beautiful photos here...some beutiful photos of a paradise i first saw as an 18 year old. All beauty comes with a price...it was incredibly hot there.

Atrocities! Man does terrible things to his own for the fleeting "pleasure" of power and or control. It has always been so, through every age. Although I can't say i'm inured to these things, I sorry to say they have lost the ability to shock, and for that I feel sad.
Chronicle it we must, for it is our only chance to bring it under control in the future.
Je n'oublierai jamais.
rel

[January]

I am never disappointed when I come here. What a powerful post and photos.

"the victims' photos with solemn expressions
lined up in rows as though posing for a college yearbook"

Just another example of your astute observations, Tara. Thank you for this post.

[gkgirl]

that is just
so sad...
and seeing those
photos
makes it so real,

i'm glad that you shared this.

[Laura]

Hard to say anything at all after looking at these photos and reading your words. What a tragic and most foul phrase is 'killing fields.' Fields are for all manner of life affirming activities, or should be.
Thank you for telling the truth.

[kristen]

This made me cry, seeing all those skulls and the photos lined up. The country and people are so beautiful and ravaged.

[Kamsin]

As always a brilliant post. Thank you for chronicling this tragic event for us here this weekend.

[Nina]

Looking at these photos reminded me of my trip to Phnom Penh and Angkor in 1999. The visit to the Killing Fields really was heart-wrenching and disturbing.

Bayon temple, blew my mind.

Nina xxxxx

[GoGo]

As always, you are the voice that speaks up, and the author of truths that must not be forgotten.

Thanks for the chronicle.

[annieelf]

And this is the flip side to all the beauty. BUT the great thing is that terrible as it was, it did not triumph.

[patry]

Thank you for this, Tara--not a happy chronicle, but one we must never forget.

[tinker]

What tragedies we humans reap upon ourselves. It's so hard to look, to think about - yet, if we're ever going to learn, we must. Thank you (and Marie-Claire) for helping us remember these victims and the tragic circumstances, lest we forget.

[Laini]

Chills. To see that pile of skulls, beside that grouping of photos. It is haunting. I stood near the Cambodian border in Vietnam 10 or 11 years ago and looked at the soldiers and their faces were so blank -- I guess border soldiers' faces often are -- but our Vietnamese guides had been telling us terrible things about the Khmer Rouge years, how they turned everything, even spiny jungle trees, into torture apparatus, and it's hard not to associate Cambodia with that. I do hope to travel there some day and get a different picture. Great post, as always.

[Mardougrrl]

It's really just...there are no words sometimes to express the horrors that we humans have visited on each other, in the name of...what? Money? Power?

Chilling post (and excellent, as always).

[Marilyn]

Those skulls--as your other commenter said--look nearly unreal. This was such a mind-boggling tragedy...and one that's not spoken of nearly enough anymore. Thank you for the reminder.

[awareness]

ghosts of departed linger.........as with all holocausts......

I don't know where my head was at when this event was taking place.....half listening and self centred adolescent perhaps? I think so. When I saw the movie "The Killing Fields" it was the first time I really woke up to the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge. I remember sitting with two friends sobbing and stunned asking a dozen questions........asking them to catch me up. I have learned more since..........and yet there will never be a explanation as to why this could happen again..........and why it is happening in Sudan.

[Tammy]

Tara, the pictures of the skulls and then their faces was bone chilling. Your last stanza was very sad but we need to remember those acts that are being forgotten.

[bonggamom]

What a sobering post... that building is so beautiful but it holds such ugly memories! Even your second photo looks like a work of art, it is hard to remember that those were real people.