Biography of Achar Hem Chiev, a National Hero - ព្រះបាឡាត់ឃោសនាគ ហែមចៀវ វីរបុរសជាតិ

ឆ្នាំងបាយលោកសង្ឃ គឺនៅនឹងប្រជាជន បើប្រជាជនវេទនា អត់បាយ ប្រជាជនគ្មានសិទ្ធិសេរីភាព បើប្រជាជននៅក្នុងឋានៈ ជាខ្ញុំកញ្ជះគេ លោកសង្ឃក៏ទទួល អំណោយផលអាក្រក់ដែរ។ ដូច្នេះ លោកសង្ឃមានភារៈ ប្រោសសត្វលោក គឺត្រូវស្តីប្រដៅ ធ្វើឲ្យមនុស្សមានស៊ី មានស្លៀក មានសេរីភាព ក្នុងប្រទេសឯករាជ្យ និងសន្តិភាព ដ៏បរិបូណ៌។

ទឹកភ្នែកប្រជារាស្ត្រ គឺទឹកភ្នែកព្រះសង្ឃ

- ទឹកចិត្ត ព្រះអាចារ្យ ហែមចៀវ -
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The monks’ rice pot remains with the people, if the people are miserable, have nothing to eat, if they have no freedom, if they live as slave, monks will also feel the hardship pinch. Therefore, monks whose duty is to save the humans, must teach and encourage people to find food to eat, to find clothes to wear, to find freedom for their country, to find independence and total peace.

Tears of the people are those of monks.

- View by Preah Achar Hem Chiev -

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Biography of Achar Hem Chiev

 Posted originally by M. P.

Hem Chiev was born in 1898 to a modest farmer family in Oudong. At the age of 12, his father took him to study at Wat Ounalom under the guidance of Monk Chuon Nath who is one of his father’s friends. Young Hem Chiev studied well while serving monk Chuon Nath until the age of 16. Under his parents request, the young Hem Chiev decided to take the vow and became a monk at Wat Ounalom where he further expanded his knowledge of Buddhism under the guidance of monk Chuon Nath still.

At the age of 20, monk Hem Chiev was ordained as Bikkhu at Watt Langka. He then went on to pass the exam to enter the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh.

According to Martin Stuart-Fox (2006), “[t]he Buddhist Institute did encourage Buddhist studies, but it also stimulated wider studies into culture and history, folklore and language, which rekindled cultural pride that fed into the rising tide of nationalism. The failure of France to protect either Laos or Cambodia from losing territory to Thailand in 1940-41 had a similar effect. Monks took the lead in opposing clumsy French attempts to introduce romanised forms of Cambodian and Lao scripts. In Cambodia, the monk Hem Chieu, a leader in this opposition movement …”

Achar Hem Chiev encouraged his students to study hard to liberate themselves from the yoke of the French colonial rule. He also started the movement to preach Buddhism in Khmer rather than in Pali.

As a member of the French opposition, Achar Hem Chiev kep contact with other Khmer nationalists at the time, among them: Pach Chhoeun, Son Ngoc Thanh, Chum Moung, Nuon Duong, and Sim Var. They all worked to find ways to free Cambodia from the French rule.

Meanwhile, Achar Hem Chiev kept on his Buddhist preaching, among the most notable principles he preached are:

• Do not be a man of burden to the world (i.e. be useful in life).
• We must bring well-being to the present first because if we now have well-being, there will be well-being in the future as well.
• You must work, do not wait for fate.
• You can cross hardship only if you are determined.
• You can only depend on yourself (i.e. self-reliance).
• You must not frequent bad friends, you should not frequent friends with low life, you should frequent good friends, you should frequent people with high ideals.
• Unintelligent people will bring you actions that should not be brought up, they always bring you chores that are not of concern, they are people who are difficult to teach and bring back to the right path, when they are told about good behaviors, they become angry, they do not know about rules, if you do not meet them, or see them, it is best that way.
• You should not depend on someone else to feed you in life.

At a preaching session where he spoke about independence, one man told him: “We want independence from France also, but we don’t know what to do.” Monk Hem Chiev told him back: “It is easy, as Lord Buddha told us: ‘The union will bring well-being in everything’”.

On July 17, 1942, under the instigation of French spies, Achar Hem Chiev was arrested and unceremoniously defrocked. He was then thrown in jail by the French colonial regime working under the occupation of Japan.

On July 20, 1942, a demonstration asking for the release of Achar Hem Chiev was organized by Pach Chhoeun. He was joined by about 1,000 demonstrators including several monks. In the melee which ensued, Pach Chhoeun was pushed inside the perimeter of the French Resident compound. French agents took this opportunity to close the door behind Pach Chhoeun and arrested him on the spot. Seeing this arrest, the monks started to fight against French police agents and their Vietnamese agents using their umbrellas. Meanwhile, the civilians who were present at the demonstration started to throw rocks against the French. The demonstration idea originated from Son Ngoc Thanh who wanted to show the Japanese (who then occupied Cambodia) the displeasure of Cambodian people against the arrest of Achar Hem Chiev by the French agents of the fascist Vichy regime, he would then ask the Japanese troops for intervention and obtain the release of Achar Hem Chiev. However, the fight and the arrest of Pach Chhoeun changed all Son Ngoc Thanh’s plan. Following the demonstration, several important Cambodian nationalists were arrested by the French after the demonstration.

Accused of sedition (KI-Media Note: Villagers in Kratie who resisted forced evictions are currently charged of secession), Achar Hem Chiev and several other Khmer nationalists were sentenced to life in prison by the French colonial court, and sent to jail in Poulo Condor (Con Son Island) also known in Khmer as Koh Trolach jail. It was there that Achar Hem Chiev died. Rumors had it also that the French forced Achar Hem Chiev to sleep in lime which seriously affected his health (one of my uncle who then belonged to the nationalist movement told me about this rumor).

Before passing away, Achar Hem Chiev said: “The construction of the nation by one individual will never be successful. We must unite altogether, in great number, and we must keep on pursuing it! You must all continue the struggle for me. I cannot carry the country by myself… The country belongs to us all… I am not afraid of death but the only thing I regret, is not being able to see our Cambodia becoming independent. May you live in peace … If our country finds peace again, we must organize a republic, do not forget! I am leaving you…”

On July 4, 1972, the Khmer Republic regime repatriated the remains of Achar Hem Chiev from Poulo Condor back to Cambodia where he received his final proper religious rite. His remain was then kept at Wat Ounalom.

References

Preah Pothiveang So Hay, prepared by Kong Samphea. “Preah Balat Khosaneak Hem Chiev, a National Hero.” Historical document in Khmer. (see below in Khmer)

Acknowledgment

The following PDF edition of the biography of Ven. Hem Chiev was made available by Lok Ly Diep of Angkor Borei News.

https://www.box.com/s/3134e10f614b7e369ff4

គុកនយោបាយ ដោយ ប៊ុណ្ណចន្ទ ម៉ុល - Political Prisoner by Bun Chan Mol

Dear Readers,

Please find below a copy of Lok Bun Chanmol's book "គុកនយោបាយ - Political Prisoner" which provides an account of his life during Cambodia's struggle for independence from France. In this memoir, Lok Bun Chanmol also provided a glimpse at the Poulo Condor (គុក កោះត្រឡាច) jail set up by colonial France to imprison those who demand for independence in French Indochina. Another famous prisoner in this jail is Ven. Hem Chiev, a Cambodian monk who was defrocked by the French for leading peaceful protest against French occupation. Ven. Hem Chiev died of forced labor at the Poulo Condor jail and his remain was only brought back to Phnom Penh in the 70s.

The situation in Cambodia during that period is very reminiscent of today's Cambodia where only one monk, Ven. Loun Sovath, dares to stand with those who were unfairly evicted from their homes. Furthermore, those who dare protest against the current CPP regime are summarily sent to jail in a tribunal charade. Almost 60 years after achieving independence, Cambodia is returning back to a tyrannical regime just like our ancestors suffered under the French colonial regime. This time around, the tyrants are the CPP and their leaders.

Enjoy, read, learn and remember!

KI-Media team

The Poulo Condor jail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRp3gKjVlAE

https://www.box.com/s/a1b0655026afc3e0c968

Bun Chan Mol's life as recounted by Bun Chan Mol himself(?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfRxItL-QNM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQ_X09FJKo&NR=1

King Norodom’s Court [-A candid account by a British reporter on King Norodom in 1896]

King Norodom

Statue of King Norodom in the royal palace

Monday, May 25, 1896
London Times

A Curious Country in the East and Its Queer Old Potentate.

The night after my arrival in Pnom-pehn, there was a reception in state at the French residency. It was known that the king was to be present, and 28 of his loyal subjects crouched in the shade opposite the residency to witness his reception. A body of native militia, the Milliciens Cambodians, kept untidy guard in the street, and when the king drove up in a Victoria, escorted by 11 Cambodians on ponies and followed by the victorias of a selection of his sons, there was considerable enthusiasm. His majesty was received with “Present arms!” and the fanfare of a cornet that was not in tune. Music was played during the reception by the royal band of Manilla, men who would have played, perhaps with more spirit had their wages been less in arrears.

King Norodom is quite a curiosity. He is a little wizened up man, with gray hair and a stoop and with that peculiar expression of feature which is usually – I write with that respect – associated with the higher anthropoid apes. All the royal family live in Pnom-penh, in a kind of mock palace, a rambling pile of disjointed buildings of different shapes, scattered over a large inclosure, surrounded by a wall of brick and plaster. Where there is plaster it is falling off in flakes, where there is wood it is eaten and rotten, where there is any iron it is rusting and useless. It is a palace fit for such a king. At the main entrance to the palace two Cambodian militiamen keep guard with their hats awry, their khaki coats in rags, their rifles held like brooms. On the river bank in front of the palace there is an old flagstaff, while drawn above the water line there is a royal state barge, with dragon head and seven forked tail; but the paint has peeled off and the craft is no longer sea worthy.

King Norodom has reigned in his own peculiar way in Cambodia since 1860, but since 1867 he has the advantage of being directed and protected by the French. It was in 1867 that France entered into a treaty with Siam, by which she agreed that the two provinces of Angkor and Batambang should remain in Siamese possession, and by the same treaty Siam formally recognized the French protectorate in Cambodia. Since 1867, then, we are always told that Siamese influence was withdrawn from the councils of Cambodia. As an actual fact, however, Siamese influence still counts for something, thought the French will not allow that it is so in the Cambodian court. Norodom passes his early years in Bangkok and spoke Siamese before he spoke Cambodian. It was Siam which gave the crown of Cambodia to his father, Ang-Duong, and it was Siam which elected him king on the death of his father. The king is not a prince of high moral character. He has probably never attempted to escape from the trammels of his environment. He will even on occasions mock at Buddha, but, none the less, he cannot forget that for him the highest living object of religious veneration must be the king of Siam. In Pnom-pehn there are nearly 40 Siamese employed by the king in positions of more or less confidence, and I have it on authority which is beyond cavil that the most intimate personal friends of the king and his only confidants are Siamese, and that Siamese is the language which the royal lips speak from choice.

King Norodom is a very much married man, his establishment comprising at least 800 wives and concubines. He has 56 sons and daughters, who are recognized by the French as his lawful progeny. Of this number more than half are sons, so that the succession, if ever the French permit him to have a successor, is well assured. King Norodom came to the throne in 1860, and the same year a statue in his honor was erected in Pnom-pehn. It is an equestrian statue and is the only public monument in the city. It was of course made in France and represents the king dressed as a French general, mounted on a charger and saluting the armed hosts of Cambodia [KI-Media will provide more details on the origin of this statue at a later date]. Rarely have I seen a more impressive work of art, and it is unfortunate that, left neglected in some waste land, it has become overgrown with jungle. On the pedestal there is an inscription which testifies that the statue was erected to Norodom by his “grateful mandarins and subjects.” The statue, we are told, was the spontaneous offering of a grateful people, and one can well believe it, though it surely has not often happened that indigenous tribes in Asia have ordered from Paris equestrian effigies of their newly crowned kings. – London Times.

https://www.box.com/s/e0646a519d1a181c151b

Video of King Sisowath's visit to Angkor Wat in 1921

King Sisowath's visit to Angkor Wat in 1921. The Andre Malraux affair: Andre Malraux stole statues from Banteay Srey. In 1928, King Monivong succeeded to his father, King Sisowath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7ipB1SIoUM

Venerable Hem Cheav - A National Hero

http://www.box.com/s/889d23df94232e3a82ce

Charet Khmer - By Bun Chan Mol - ចរិតខ្មែរ ដោយ ប៊ុណ្ណច័ន្ទម៉ុល

http://www.box.com/s/850ec57c2c9499e1b34e

Three weeks in Cambodia in April 1937 through the Nagara Vatta newspaper

http://www.box.com/s/cnrqdaq96gboqyj0df73


http://www.box.com/s/3pvinnmdgppuo71qteaz


http://www.box.com/s/fp3sdozbsqqk7hvbrj75

3 weeks in Cambodia in 1937 through Nagara Vatta newspaper

http://www.box.com/s/14r71090aci59onj5mmc


http://www.box.com/s/gxn67k0s3gepbb2vj37v


http://www.box.com/s/qdpku7heoh1nkhjunzjv

The Nagara Vatta - 27 February 1937 Edition

http://www.box.com/s/dn08scto7u6xy2asll05

The Nagara Vatta - 06 March 1937 Edition

http://www.box.com/s/7gccpqp77qyqlsi0346s

The Nagara Vatta - 18 July 1942 Edition

Nagara Vatta year 06 number 365 date 18 Jul 1942. Page 2 mentions Miss Khieu Ponnary, one of the first khmer ladies, having passed Bac I in July 1942. Khieu Ponnary later became Pol Pot's wife. She died in 2003 in Pailin. Her sister Ieng Thirith was standing trial, but was recently found unfit to do so. By at least 1975, Ponnary was growing increasingly disturbed from the onslaught of chronic schizophrenia. She became extremely paranoid and was convinced that the Vietnamese were trying to assassinate her and her husband. Pol Pot divorced her in 1979 after the Vietnamese invasion and took a second wife.

http://www.box.com/s/u68cts1ibsdlfrit5fni

Pach Chhoeun, Ven. Hem Chiev, Son Ngoc Thanh - Nationalist movement in Cambodia in the 40s

Excerpt from The History of Cambodia
by Justin G. Corfield (2009)

THE UMBRELLA PROTEST AND THE FRENCH REACTION

In July 1942, some nationalists in Phnom Penh decided to plan a march against the French. The ringleader was a monk called Hem Chhieu who taught monks at the Pali School in the Cambodian capital. He mentioned some of his ideas to Cambodian militiamen and on July 17, one of them arrested him. The seizure of a senior monk outraged many, and the people planning the protest decided to rally in support of Hem Chhieu. Son Ngoc Thanh believed that the Japanese had promised to help the rally, which took place on July 20,1942.

The rally headed for the office of the acting French Resident Superieur, Jean de Lens. There, the protestors, led by Pach Chhoeun, demanded Hem Chhieu's release. This event attracted some 1,000 to 2,000 ordinary people, as well as 500 monks, and captured the imagination of many. Pach Chhoeun's wife's youngest brother, Douc Rasy, described many years later how as a 16-year-old schoolboy, he watched with great pride as the demonstrators marched through Phnom Penh. Because the monks in the protest carried umbrellas, the event was often referred to as the "Umbrella Protest."

The French reacted harshly. They had agents following the protestors and photographing them. These photographs were used to identify who was in the demonstration, and Pach Chhoeun was dragged before a French court and sentenced to death, and then had the sentence commuted to life in prison. The harshness of that sentence—nobody had been killed in the demonstration—shocked and cowed many people. Pach Chhoeun was taken to the French penal settlement on the island of Poulo Condore, where Hem Chhieu was also held. Chhieu died within two years of arriving there, and when Pach Chhoeun was finally released less than three years after his arrest, he was, physically, a shadow of his former self. The event, however, was to join many others in the folklore of the Cambodian nationalists and in 1979, the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea renamed the street along which the demonstration traveled after Hem Chhieu to commemorate the monk, who was one of the early martyrs of the nationalist struggle.

A peek into Cambodia in 1937

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVkLy6Qnt3s

Cambodia: Water Festival in Phnom Penh circa 1945-1946 (during the French protectorate era)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqq6haj9Rxg

Royal Decree promulgating the "puny" army size in Cambodia in 1948: 5,000 soldiers altogether

http://www.box.net/shared/7pbnb7c6agp501m4mzi9

George Groslier: The teaching and the practice of indigenous arts in Cambodia (1918-1930)

L' Enseignement et la mise en pratique des arts indigènes au Cambodge 1918-1930 par George Groslier
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/58507911?access_key=key-2ibvm5weocljqf1wo7mj

Cambodia’s up-and-coming seaside towns

Friday, May 20, 2011
By Dustin Roasa
The Washington Post

As the sun sank over the tree-lined Kampong Bay River, Kampot, a town on Cambodia’s southern coast, stirred to life. The locals, who’d spent much of the day hiding from the heat in their homes and shaded alleys, emerged into the atmospheric streets, where sun-stained, mustard-colored French colonial shop houses provide the backdrop to the rhythms of daily life.

Old men with fedoras and graying sideburns gathered at a corner cafe to play chess, triumphantly thwacking hand-carved pieces against thick wooden boards. Small groups of boys fished on the banks of the river with homemade bamboo poles, while groups of teenagers with mussed and shaggy haircuts and wearing glittery T-shirts yelled “Hello!” and giggled at strolling tourists, who are a small but growing presence in this largely unexplored corner of Southeast Asia.

My wife and I had come here to escape the grit and bustle of Phnom Penh, where we live, and to show my visiting mother-in-law a slice of authentic provincial life. With crumbling historic architecture, largely unspoiled countryside and specialty regional cuisine, Kampot and Kep, seaside towns separated by a 30-minute car ride, are unlike anyplace else in Cambodia.

Battle of Koh Chang: A superior Thai navy defeated by a small French flotilla

Dear Readers,

We are posting below the account of the battle of Koh Chang in which a small French flotilla inflicted major damages to the Thai navy on January 17, 1941. We are posting below an account of the battle posted on Wikipedia, as well as another account posted in French. We urge you to visit the English and French website sources to learn more about this battle and to see more photos.

Thank you,

KI-Media team

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Battle of Koh Chang

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Koh_Chang

The Battle of Koh Chang took place on January 17, 1941 during the French-Thai War and resulted in a decisive victory by the French over the Royal Thai Navy. During the battle a flotilla a French warships attacked a smaller force of Thai vessels, including a coastal battleship. In the end Thailand lost two ships sunk and one heavily damaged and grounded. Within a month of the engagement the Vichy French and Thailanders negotiated a peace which ended the war.

Background

Thai Navy

The Royal Thai Navy had been modernized with the recent acquisition of vessels from Japan and Italy. The major units of the fleet included two Japanese-built armoured coast defence vessels which displaced 2,500 tons and carried 8" guns, two older British built armoured gunboats with 6" guns, twelve torpedo boats and four submarines. In addition the Royal Thai Air Force had in its inventory over 140 aircraft, including relatively modern Mitsubishi Ki-30 light bombers, which saw extensive service against the French. These aircraft in themselves were quite capable of causing severe damage to any French naval mission which might be mounted. Other less capable aircraft in the Thai inventory included P-36 Hawk fighters, seventy Chance-Vought O2U-2 Corsair biplanes, six Martin B-10 bombers and several Avro 504 trainers.

French Navy

Despite the strengths of the Thai forces the French Governor General of Indochina and Commander-in-Chief Naval Forces, Admiral Jean Decoux, decided that the naval mission should go ahead. A small squadron, the Groupe Occasionnel, was formed on December 9, 1940 at Cam Ranh Bay, near Saigon, under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Régis Bérenger. The squadron consisted of the light cruiser Lamotte-Piquet, the avisos Dumont d'Urville and Amiral Charner, and the older avisos Tahure and Marne. There was no air cover to speak of, apart from eight Loire 130 seaplanes based at Ream which provided reconnaissance. Additional scouting was provided by three coastal survey craft, and intelligence gleaned from the local fishermen.

13 July 1893: French sailors forced the entrance to the Menam River

Dear Readers,

We are posting below a historical report in French about a feat by the French Navy to force its entrance to the Menam River while under fire from superior number of Siam Navy boats and equipments. Two French small boats were sent up the Menam River to reach Bangkok on 14 July 1893, the French Bastille Day, to show off to the Siam King the superiority of the French Navy. In fact, it was purely a bluff pulled by France and it did work wonderfully on the Siamese. Three weeks after the feat accomplished by the French Navy, the Siam King asked to sign a peace treaty with France and accepted conditions imposed by France, among which the French demanded as guarantees the temporary occupation of Chantaburi and the demilitarization of Battambang, Siemreap and a 25 kilometre-wide zone on the western bank of the Mekong. The conflict led to the signature of the Franco-Siamese Treaty, on October 3, 1893.

Additional information on the 1893 conflict can be found at Wikipedia here.

Due to the volume of information we received and the very limited resource we have at this point in time, it is impossible for us to translate all the documents into English. Therefore, the next best thing we decided to do is to convert all the scanned documents into text that can be copied and pasted for automatic translation by services such as Google. We hope you would understand and indulge on our precarious condition.

We also would like to thank Mr. Charles Thiounn for sending the documents originally and Mr. Bora Touch, Esq. for forwarding the information to us.

We also noticed that recently, DAP-news decided to translate the report submitted by Prince Norodom Kantol to the UN Security Council on the Thai invasion and aggression of Preah Vihear in 1966. We hope Khmer newspapers will pick up these articles and translate them into Khmer for the general Khmer audience. Even though we know that KI-Media is blocked in Cambodia by several ISPs for posting articles criticizing the Hoon Xhen regime, we also know that Cambodian government agents and their sicophants are closely following and scrutinizing the content of postings by KI-Media. As a result of their scrutiny, they fell straight into our bait article which led them to the current blocking of KI-Media. The current blocking and censorship of KI-Media clearly points, once again, to the disdain of Mr. Hoon Xhen's regime on freedom of expression. This does not bode well for a regime that needs all the help it can get to fight the Thai aggression. By silencing KI-Media and the free press, the Phnom Penh regime is de facto silencing those who are helping it publicize the misdeeds committed by Thailand.

Sincerely,

KI-Media team

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Click on the article in French to zoom in

NOTRE MÉMOIRE

13 juillet 1893 : nos marins forcent les passes du Ménam

Au mois de juillet 1893, le gouvernement français, qui avait à se plaindre du royaume de Siam, résolut, après avoir longuement et vainement négocié, de faire une démonstration navale devant la capitale. Deux petits navires, l'aviso l'Inconstant et la canonnière la Comète, reçurent l'ordre de franchir la barre du Ménam, dans la soirée du 13, de remonter le fleuve jusqu'à Paknam, conformément /aux traités en vigueur puis profitant de la nuit, de continuer leur route, et d’être le lendemain, jour de la fête nationale, aux côtés du stationnaire le Lutin, en face de la légation de France, à Bangkok.

L'entreprise était audacieuse, de pénétrer ainsi, avec de si faibles forces, au cœur d'un pays très mal disposé pour nous, qui pouvait, d'une seconde à l'autre, se déclarer ennemi, faire couler nos navires, ou les laisser passer, puis fermer la route et les retenir prisonniers. Il suffisait même, pour qu'elle devînt périlleuse, de beaucoup moins. Les Siamois n'avaient qu'à éteindre les phares et à enlever les bouées, pour que l'Inconstant ou la Comète, ou tous les deux ensemble, eussent de grandes chances de s'échouer, parmi les bancs de vase et de sable qui obstruent l'entrée du Ménam. Les officiers prévirent tout, et n'hésitèrent pas.