Made In Cambodia

People of Cambodia

Worth noting: at 1:33 is Ta Prum
If you don't know him yet, listen to his story.

A Stooped Icon of Angkor, Forever Sweeping
By SETH MYDANS
Published: March 22, 2003

The old bald man with his frayed black shirt and flopping rubber sandals has become one of Angkor's living icons, like the white-robed nuns who tend the statues at Bayon temple, the woman with no hands who sells incense at the entrance to Angkor Wat, the monks in dazzling orange and the little girls, unbearably sweet among the old gray stones, who smile for photographs and dollars.

The Ta Prohm sweeper stashes his broom in a secret niche among the stones, but he does not rise to his full height; his back is permanently bent, just as the carved dancers on the temple walls are forever floating.

His name is Chhoun Neam; he is 81 years old; he is threadbare, illiterate, widowed and nearly blind and when he is not busy sweeping, alone and sleepless in his shack at night, his head is filled with demons.
Like most Cambodians throughout the centuries, Mr. Chhoun Neam began his life as a farmer living on the edge of poverty. As a boy, he tended water buffalo in the bright green fields. When he was old enough, he joined the endless labor of his village, planting and harvesting watermelon, corn and rice.

When French archaeologists cut away the jungle that had buried Angkor, Mr. Chhoun Neam saw the grandeur of the temples for the first time, too. Young and strong, he became a laborer on a restoration team, hefting huge stones that had been scattered for hundreds of years.

THEN came horror. Like almost every Cambodian of his generation, Mr. Chhoun Neam is a survivor of one of the cruelest periods in his country's history. Over four years in the 1970's, a brutal Stalinist regime, the Khmer Rouge, ruled the country, causing the deaths of nearly one-fourth of the population from starvation, overwork, disease and execution.

Among the dead were his two young sons, ages 12 and 15, the only treasures he had ever possessed.

Mr. Chhoun Neam himself barely survived the hard labor and starvation of the Khmer Rouge years, in his 50's and forced like many others onto a work gang. When the Khmer Rouge were finally driven from power in 1979, he was too old and too weak to heft the temple stones as he had before, or even to farm.

He returned to Angkor as a sweeper, earning about 30 cents a day, and the Ta Prohm temple became his mission.

''There is a war between the jungle and the temple,'' he said. ''Trees, grass, vines all over the temple. That's why I have to sweep.''

For full story go to http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...

All images are from Flickr, Google, and PBase. Credit to original owners. Special thanks to Khmer Dude and Nikkornut from Flickr.