A view of the Phnom Den North Pagoda (Photo: Kim Pov Sottan, RFA)
A view of the Phnom Den North Pagoda (Photo: Kim Pov Sottan, RFA)Situation at the Phnom Den North pagoda following the defrocking of its abbot
01 August 2007
By Kim Pov Sottan
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata and Heng Soy
“Now, this pagoda is deserted, there are not many people going in or out. Since I got here 2 or 3 days ago, I did not see Khmer Krom people coming to this pagoda. Based on our discussion with the local people, when he (Monk Tim Sakhorn) was here, Khmer Krom people who come to trade, usually asked the monks in this pagoda to stay here. But, after the defrocking (of Monk Tim Sakhorn), they (Khmer Krom people) are scared, they do not dare come in the pagoda anymore to ask for shelter,” claimed Chhim Savuth, a CCHR (Cambodian Center for Human Rights) human rights official who often come to visit the pagoda after the defrocking of Monk Tim Sakhorn.
The Phnom Den North pagoda is located about 2-kilometer from the border with South Vietnam’s An Giang province’s Tinh Bien district, the former Kampuchea Krom lands.
Khmer Krom people living in An Giang province, who used to travel to Cambodia to look for work, farm work, or to flee Vietnam for one reason or another, have always received assistance – food and shelter – from Monk Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda. However, nowadays, following the abbot’s defrocking, Khmer Krom people no longer receive such assistance.
Phorn, a 45-year-old woman, said that the former Abbot Tim Sakhorn was a very good monk, not only did he provide assistance to Khmer Krom by giving them shelters, but he also worked very hard to improve the pagoda which earlier consisted of small shacks sheltering 2 to 3 monks there.
Phorn said: “We don’t have the support from the abbot anymore. Go look at his construction achievements, you will still see them all there, this building and that building over there, they were all built by him with donations from the US. I can see all his achievements, but he is nowhere to be found, what are his faults? His achievements left over for the pagoda members, the monks, have been built 3 or 4 years ago. But, with the current situation, the pagoda members don’t know his whereabouts.”
The Phnom Den North pagoda now counts about 20 monks, the majority of whom are Khmer Krom native monks. In this pagoda, there is a beautiful Vihara (temple building), a dining hall building, and several buildings sheltering monks, they are all concrete buildings, and the pagoda is surrounded by villagers and rice fields.
In the past, each day, at least 2 to 3 Khmer Krom people coming from South Vietnam would come to look for shelter in the pagoda until they can find work and afford their own shelters.
Since the day former Abbot Tim Sakhorn was defrocked, the pagoda became deserted, and even during the celebration of the rainy season, not many people came to the pagoda at all. A source from the villagers said: “Everybody is scared and concerned about this problem, and the monks are very hesitant to talk about this issue.”
67-year-old Sar Chuon, a member of the pagoda living in the Som village, claimed that he is afraid to visit the pagoda out of fear of being persecuted by the authority. “Our people are scared. They (the authority) are afraid of us because we are numerous, they discriminate against us who are ordinary citizens.”
Sin Sinan, a 23-year-old monk, said that the disappearance of former Abbot Tim Sakhorn, caused a lot of grief to all the monks living in this pagoda, and at the same time, they are also very scared. “We used to have him (Monk Tim Sakhorn) to give us confidence, just like having our parents with us, like having a father, and when the father is no longer there, we lost our confidence, this is very regretful. I am very concerned, and I am very regretful because before, Monk Tim Sakhorn always knew about the living condition of each of the monks, he was very good with all monks, he never hurt any monk, and the pagoda members love him also.”
Chak Hon, a SRP representative in Kirivong district, added that defrocking of Abbot Tim Sakhorn discouraged the villagers who are of Khmer Krom origin now living in Kirivong district: “Following his defrocking, villagers not just in the Phnom Den commune, but all Khmer Krom villagers living in the entire Kirivong district are very scared, and they are also hurt by the action taken by the authority which violated the rights of a Cambodian monk. This action was taken to prevent protest by Khmer Krom people against what the Vietnamese are perpetrating in Kampuchea Krom, to muzzle their protest.”
Even though the villagers, pagoda members, monks and human rights groups have decried fear in visiting the Phnom Den pagoda following the defrocking of Abbot Tim Sakhorn, Tiem Saret, the Phnom Den commune chief, rejected that nobody was frightened because of this (defrocking) event, and he claimed that pagoda members are going to visit there as normal for religious observations. He even claimed that he himself went to the Phnom Den pagoda to offer candles for the rainy season religious observation.
The former abbot of the Phnom Den pagoda, Monk Tim Sakhorn, was defrocked by the authority on 30 June. He was accused of fomenting the rupture of friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Since his defrocking until now, i.e. exactly one month later, Monk Tim Sakhorn disappeared and his whereabouts is unknown. Local human right groups and the UN office of human rights have strongly criticized this defrocking, calling it a human rights violation, and a violation of International convention and of the Cambodian Constitution.
The Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation the world (KKF) is planning to bring its complaint to the International community, as well as organizing demonstrations on 17 August to demand that Abbot Tim Sakhorn be shown to the public.
The Phnom Den North pagoda is located about 2-kilometer from the border with South Vietnam’s An Giang province’s Tinh Bien district, the former Kampuchea Krom lands.
Khmer Krom people living in An Giang province, who used to travel to Cambodia to look for work, farm work, or to flee Vietnam for one reason or another, have always received assistance – food and shelter – from Monk Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda. However, nowadays, following the abbot’s defrocking, Khmer Krom people no longer receive such assistance.
Phorn, a 45-year-old woman, said that the former Abbot Tim Sakhorn was a very good monk, not only did he provide assistance to Khmer Krom by giving them shelters, but he also worked very hard to improve the pagoda which earlier consisted of small shacks sheltering 2 to 3 monks there.
Phorn said: “We don’t have the support from the abbot anymore. Go look at his construction achievements, you will still see them all there, this building and that building over there, they were all built by him with donations from the US. I can see all his achievements, but he is nowhere to be found, what are his faults? His achievements left over for the pagoda members, the monks, have been built 3 or 4 years ago. But, with the current situation, the pagoda members don’t know his whereabouts.”
The Phnom Den North pagoda now counts about 20 monks, the majority of whom are Khmer Krom native monks. In this pagoda, there is a beautiful Vihara (temple building), a dining hall building, and several buildings sheltering monks, they are all concrete buildings, and the pagoda is surrounded by villagers and rice fields.
In the past, each day, at least 2 to 3 Khmer Krom people coming from South Vietnam would come to look for shelter in the pagoda until they can find work and afford their own shelters.
Since the day former Abbot Tim Sakhorn was defrocked, the pagoda became deserted, and even during the celebration of the rainy season, not many people came to the pagoda at all. A source from the villagers said: “Everybody is scared and concerned about this problem, and the monks are very hesitant to talk about this issue.”
67-year-old Sar Chuon, a member of the pagoda living in the Som village, claimed that he is afraid to visit the pagoda out of fear of being persecuted by the authority. “Our people are scared. They (the authority) are afraid of us because we are numerous, they discriminate against us who are ordinary citizens.”
Sin Sinan, a 23-year-old monk, said that the disappearance of former Abbot Tim Sakhorn, caused a lot of grief to all the monks living in this pagoda, and at the same time, they are also very scared. “We used to have him (Monk Tim Sakhorn) to give us confidence, just like having our parents with us, like having a father, and when the father is no longer there, we lost our confidence, this is very regretful. I am very concerned, and I am very regretful because before, Monk Tim Sakhorn always knew about the living condition of each of the monks, he was very good with all monks, he never hurt any monk, and the pagoda members love him also.”
Chak Hon, a SRP representative in Kirivong district, added that defrocking of Abbot Tim Sakhorn discouraged the villagers who are of Khmer Krom origin now living in Kirivong district: “Following his defrocking, villagers not just in the Phnom Den commune, but all Khmer Krom villagers living in the entire Kirivong district are very scared, and they are also hurt by the action taken by the authority which violated the rights of a Cambodian monk. This action was taken to prevent protest by Khmer Krom people against what the Vietnamese are perpetrating in Kampuchea Krom, to muzzle their protest.”
Even though the villagers, pagoda members, monks and human rights groups have decried fear in visiting the Phnom Den pagoda following the defrocking of Abbot Tim Sakhorn, Tiem Saret, the Phnom Den commune chief, rejected that nobody was frightened because of this (defrocking) event, and he claimed that pagoda members are going to visit there as normal for religious observations. He even claimed that he himself went to the Phnom Den pagoda to offer candles for the rainy season religious observation.
The former abbot of the Phnom Den pagoda, Monk Tim Sakhorn, was defrocked by the authority on 30 June. He was accused of fomenting the rupture of friendship between Cambodia and Vietnam.
Since his defrocking until now, i.e. exactly one month later, Monk Tim Sakhorn disappeared and his whereabouts is unknown. Local human right groups and the UN office of human rights have strongly criticized this defrocking, calling it a human rights violation, and a violation of International convention and of the Cambodian Constitution.
The Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation the world (KKF) is planning to bring its complaint to the International community, as well as organizing demonstrations on 17 August to demand that Abbot Tim Sakhorn be shown to the public.
5 comments:
Those fucking evils that proclaim Buddish is our state religion is not to respect and help buddishim but to find way to controle and opprees our buddish and other religion.
Mother fucker communists and fools may your ancestors go to hell and your off spring too!
Hey Cambodian folks,we were under French colony for a hundred years,Hong Kong 99 years under England,and Mexico under Spanish 500 hundred years
at the end those country stay on their own feet back,how about us only 27years under Vietnam slavery,we can't change it? IT no way and no words too late to get our beloved Cambodia country to be independence.
912
Should not bring Hong Kong in our situation, Hong kong is under contract and England returned it to China no fight no independent from communist, most of old Hong Kong folk were migrated to England, Canada, australia, and USA!
Khmer sralanh Khmer said...
If we Victims of Vietnamese Hidden Faces Behind Killing Fields use microscope to find out Yuon/Yavana secret agents/spies secretly have been hiding in Cambodia since the Murderous French Colonial Period, we still can't find out any of them killing Khmer innocent people from 1975-1979, but if we can speak, read and write Yuon then we must impersonate ourselves working with Yuon restaurant owners or any department in both Cambodia and Khmer Krom and then we know all One Million Super-Dirty Demonic tricks all Yuon Hanoian Commo leaders used to kill Cambodians secretly in the name of Angkar Leu/Cap Tren. That's why A Chinese Proverb goes like this: What you see is not a true sign; [but] what you can’t see is a true sign. (Yuon secret agents/spies secretly used in cunning killing and rescuing operation. It means to kill Cambodian innocent people by using Yuon citizens living in Cambodia as KR and then they started to rescue Cambodians from the killing fields. Nearly whether all educated and uneducated Cambodians who are terribly misled that KR brutally killed their country fellowmen by thanking Yuon troops as their rescuers.)
Murderous Hanoian Leaders' One Million Super-Dirty Demonic Tricks are used to round up all Khmer nationalists who have a real human gut to reclaim our lands from Yuon coconut shells.
Yuon/Yavana secret agents/spies everywhere in Cambodia stirring up all unrests in the country can arrest any Khmer nationalist/KK by blaming to undermine Cambodia's relationship with Vietnam.
All Khmer compatriots must wake up from your day-dreams that Yuon coconut shells came to rescue you and your family from Pol Pot. In fact, the real murderers are all but Yuon/Yavana secret agents/ spies who secretly had impersonated themselves as the KR.
English proverb: Truth will out. (The truth always becomes known.)
All Killing Fields were secretly created by Vietnamese/Yavana secret agents/spies in order to erase all Cambodian race on earth. They have secretly been killing Cambodian people since 18th Century up until now. Read Khmer History of Tae Ong.
Murderous Hanoian commo leaders who are so cunning didn't want themselves to get caught in action so they used their Yuon/Yavana citizens, who used to live in Cambodia before 1970, are well-educated in Khmer language, culture, tradition, custom, and religion...etc. to have impersonated themselves as the Khmer Rouge soldiers to brutally kill Cambodian innocent people.
Now there are more than 4000 000 illegal Yuon citizens living in Cambodia so far so worse, many of whom are former Khmer Rouge soldiers/killers.
Hanoi commo leaders from now on in a big trouble when all Khmer Rouge leaders are put on trial with the UN in Phnom Penh. My Khmer compatriots, you will take revengeful action against Yuon citizens living in Cambodia. And Murderous Hanoi leaders will secretly order their secret agents to kill Khmer Krom people in revengeful manner.
There will be a big turmoil on its way to be erupted like earthquake soon during the KR Trial! Khmer victims will take revengefulness against Yuon who will kill KK in KK in return.
Trust in Lord Buddha!
Khmer Sralanh Khmer/Khmer love Khmer!
The world must see that Vietnam is terrorist state. It is not only terrorizing its own people (Human rights abuse) but also terrorizing its neighbors, Cambodia and Loas (invading the souvereignity of neighbors).
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