Rochom P'ngieng during her hospitalization in 2009 (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)May 28, 2010
AFP
Cambodia's "jungle woman," whose story gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has fled back to the jungle, her father and local police say.
Rochom P'ngieng, now 29, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province, around 600 kilometres northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh.
In early 2007 the woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer. She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging on the ground for pieces of dried rice.
Advertisement: Story continues below"She must have fled back to the forest on Tuesday evening while she was going to take a bath," Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, told AFP by telephone on Friday.
"I and my son are looking for her in the middle forest now," he said, adding that he believed "forest spirits" guided her back to the dense jungle.
Local police chief Ma Vichet said the authorities had also begun a search but had found no sign of the woman.
"We also believe that she fled back to the jungle," Ma Vichet said.
Immediately after being taken from the jungle in 2007, Rochom P'ngieng could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what her father calls "animal noises."
Cambodians described her as "jungle woman" and "half-animal girl" and since rejoining society she has battled bouts of illness after refusing food.
In December she began speaking normally, instead of making animal-type noises, and helping out around the house, according to her father.
The jungles of Ratanakkiri - some of Cambodia's wildest and most isolated - are known to have hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.
In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they had supported.
Rochom P'ngieng has previously tried to flee back into the jungle but was stopped by her family.
Rochom P'ngieng, now 29, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province, around 600 kilometres northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh.
In early 2007 the woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer. She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging on the ground for pieces of dried rice.
Advertisement: Story continues below"She must have fled back to the forest on Tuesday evening while she was going to take a bath," Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, told AFP by telephone on Friday.
"I and my son are looking for her in the middle forest now," he said, adding that he believed "forest spirits" guided her back to the dense jungle.
Local police chief Ma Vichet said the authorities had also begun a search but had found no sign of the woman.
"We also believe that she fled back to the jungle," Ma Vichet said.
Immediately after being taken from the jungle in 2007, Rochom P'ngieng could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what her father calls "animal noises."
Cambodians described her as "jungle woman" and "half-animal girl" and since rejoining society she has battled bouts of illness after refusing food.
In December she began speaking normally, instead of making animal-type noises, and helping out around the house, according to her father.
The jungles of Ratanakkiri - some of Cambodia's wildest and most isolated - are known to have hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.
In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they had supported.
Rochom P'ngieng has previously tried to flee back into the jungle but was stopped by her family.
7 comments:
I think there must be a full scall investigation on this. people not just in cambodia, but around the world, want to know how she survive in such situation by living alone in jungle.
Is she really jungle lady, or this just fabrication from youn and cpp
I don't know why they force her to live where she doesn't want to live. Keep trying to civilize her when it will only do more harm than good. She stops eating because she's unhappy.
I don't think her dad gives a shit too much about his daughter. Matter of fact, how do we really know this guy is really her father? He probably wants something out of it. Donations from people, maybe.
She is belong to the jungle. Let her free. She is not happy with the family.
Rochom P'ngieng is a human being; therefore, she must be with human communities. Disappeared in 1989, found in 2007 and re-disappear in 2010, how could that be? Are we human the losers? How would you feel if she happens to be one of your daughters or sisters?
Human or NOT human, everybody should have right to do what he wants, live anywhere what he wants without trouble other..
She wants to return to the jungle, let she do it..
I used to visit her, felt very much pity on her. And what I can say is that she is really a jungle girl - please do not let her become a victim of either yuon or cpp.
I think the best is to let her free but make sure that communication between her (and her group) and the family can be made possible....
People across the world really want to know more.....
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