The Anthropology Of Genocide - WNLibrary

cambodian villagers 281
mated at 6,500 to 8,000 in 1985–89 during the PRK, jumped to 16,400 in 1990,
about 20,000 in 1991 (ibid.:62–63), and 50,081 in 1998–99, affiliated with 3,685
temples (Ministry of Cults and Religion 1999). 20
Fearing that events of the recent past disrupted people’s relationship to the spiritual
realm (see also Mortland 1994), rural communities have expended considerable
effort toward rebuilding local temples that were destroyed, damaged, or neglected
during the Khmer Rouge and PRK periods. Families across the country
used whatever small amounts of surplus they may have accrued to make donations
for restoring temples, building or repairing chedey (repositories for ashes of
the dead), and performing ceremonies for the spirits of relatives who died during
DK. Many overseas Khmer returning to their homeland or sending money from
abroad have also contributed large sums to this process, as have wealthy Phnom
Penh residents who sometimes support a specific temple in the region where they
or their forebears were born. Furthermore, contributions to temples (whether in
the form of money, material goods, labor, or attendance at ceremonies) are considered
highly virtuous deeds, and donors earn much religious merit.
Svay’s temple compound suffered considerable destruction and deterioration
during the civil war and DK periods. The central temple (vihear), which was a beautiful
structure with the graceful curving roof characteristic of Khmer temples, was
completely destroyed with explosives by the Khmer Rouge. 21 In 1990 the building
that had been used as a dormitory for the monks was still standing, but its walls
were pockmarked with holes from bullets and artillery; the salaa, or open-sided
meeting hall, was in shabby condition after having been used as a hospital by the
Khmer Rouge. After DK, villagers continued to worship in the salaa, but there was
deep desire to construct a new vihear. Beginning in 1990 with the erection of a gate
and wall that defined the sacred space of the temple compound, work on the vihear
proceeded slowly in gradual steps over many years, because there were few
funds for rebuilding and construction depended largely on the voluntary labor of
local villagers. By 1997 the vihear was largely completed (and looked in many ways
more resplendent than it had in the past), and several chedey had also been newly
erected. Work was still progressing on some smaller structures in the compound.
Each rebuilt temple has a group of resident monks who are critical for celebrations
of the full round of annual Buddhist rituals, as well as essential participants
in familial ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. Buddhism is especially important
in offering people a means to renew the social and moral order of society.
Through ritual, villagers can formally reconstruct the proper order of relationships
between the world of the living and the spiritual realm. At the same time they may
make peace with their own feelings of guilt and remorse over the suffering of their
fellows during the past twenty years. As Meas Nee has written:
Looked at from the outside, religion, the teaching of the monks, music, traditional
games, and traditional skills are a way to strengthen the culture. But I see them as
not just that. They are the way to build unity and to heal hearts and spirits. They help