Cambodian 'jungle woman' back in forest

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.

Jungle woman Rochom P'ngieng wants to return to the wild

Rochom P'ngieng spent 18 years living in a forest after going missing as a child (Photo: AP)

A Cambodian woman who spent 18 years living in a forest after going missing as a child has struggled to reintegrate in village life and wants to return to the wild.

30 Oct 2009
By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok
The Telegraph (UK)

Rochom P'ngieng, dubbed "jungle woman" when she emerged in Feb 2007, has still has not learnt to speak and refuses to wear clothes.

Her father said she had been admitted to hospital after refusing to eat for a month and had made several attempts to return to the forest.

Sal Lou said: "Her condition looks worse than the time we brought her from the jungle. She always wants to take off her clothes and crawl back to the jungle.

"She has refused to eat rice for about one month. She is skinny now... She still cannot speak. She acts totally like a monkey. Last night, she took off her clothes, and went to hide in the bathroom."

Rochom P'ngieng disappeared in 1989 when she was eight years old while herding water buffalo in the province of Ratanakkiri bordering Vietnam, north-east of the capital, Phnom Penh.

Her parents had long given up hope of ever seeing her. But in 2007, she emerged from the jungle naked and dirty, hunched over like a monkey, and was caught trying to steal by a farmer.

She was said to have been scavenging food in the forest and could utter only unintelligible words. Sal Lou described the sounds she made simply as "animal noises".

The drama of her disappearance and unlikely reappearance gripped Cambodians who described her as "half animal girl" and "jungle woman", though there were also many questions raised about her identity and whether she could really have survived in the jungle.

But Sal Lou, a village policeman, embraced Rochom P'ngieng as he long-lost daughter after identifying her by a facial scar.

However, in spite of the family's best efforts, the woman has had great difficulty settling in after her years in the jungle.

Sal Lou said that she was admitted to Ratanakkiri's provincial hospital last Monday, but he had removed her because she was unsettled and the medical staff had difficulty preventing her running away.

"We have to hold her hand all the time (at the hospital). Otherwise she would take her clothes off and run away," he said. She has become so difficult that he wants a charity to take her into care.

At the hospital Dr Hing Phan Sokunthea said Sal Lou took her away against the wishes of medical staff. "We wanted to monitor her situation more, but we don't know what to do because the father already took her out of hospital."

The jungles of Ratanakkiri – some of the most isolated and wild in Cambodia – are known to have held hidden groups of hill tribes in the past.

In 2004, 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 supported.

‘Jungle Girl’ Falls Ill After Return to Forest

Cambodian Rochom Soy (L), would-be mother of Rochom P'ngieng takes care of her at Oyadao district in Rottanakiri province in 2007. Known as Cambodia's "jungle woman", Rochom P'ngieng, whose case gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has been hospitalised after refusing food, her father and a doctor said Friday. (AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Ogirinal report from Phnom Penh
30 October 2009

Cambodia’s mysterious “jungle girl” is ill in Ratanakkiri provincial hospital, after contracting a fever from a return to the remote forests, officials said Friday.

Rochom Pngieng, who was found by villagers in the forest of the province in 2007, was thought to be the lost daughter of a Phnong villager or perhaps an escapee who had suffered abuse by her captor.

Those who claimed to be her family said she was a long-lost daughter who disappeared in the jungle 19 years earlier at age eight. She was unable to communicate, and her story has remained a mystery.

Her family now says she slipped back into the forest for several weeks, returning with a fever.

She was taken to the hospital Oct. 26 and is being treated for “serious mental problems,” said Sam Bamey, chief of the provincial hospital’s mental health unit.

Sal Lou, 45, who claims to be Rochom Pngieng’s father, said the woman had lost weight and had been gone for nearly a month.

“Now she has become thin of body, because she didn’t have food for one month,” he said. “When we fed her, she was always spreading out food from her mouth.”

Hing Phan Sakunthea, director of the provincial hospital, said it had been hard to treat the woman, because she refuses to be touched.

“We cannot get close to her because she doesn’t understand our language,” he said. “Now we’ve told her family to educate her and try giving her some food.”

'Jungle woman' hospitalised

Rochom P'ngieng

October 30, 2009
From correspondents in Cambodia
Agence France-Presse

CAMBODIA'S "jungle woman", whose case gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has been hospitalised after refusing food, her father and a doctor said today.

Rochom P'ngieng, now 28, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province around 600km northeast of the capital Phnom Penh.

The woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, in early 2007 after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer.

She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging the ground for pieces of dried rice in the forest.

She could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, calls "animal noises".

Cambodians described her as "jungle woman" and "half-animal girl".

Sal Lou said Rochom P'ngieng was admitted to the provincial hospital on Monday and had not adjusted to village life.

"She has refused to eat rice for about one month. She is skinny now.... She still cannot speak. She acts totally like a monkey. Last night, she took off her clothes, and went to hide in the bathroom," Sal Lou said.

"Her condition looks worse than the time we brought her from the jungle. She always wants to take off her clothes and crawl back to the jungle," he added.

Doctor Hing Phan Sokunthea, director of Ratanakkiri provincial hospital, said the woman was "in a state of nerves".

"Doctors have injected her with medicine twice a day to treat nervous illness but she still cannot control herself," he said.

Sal Lou said his family found it difficult to house the woman and he would appeal to charities to take over her care.

The jungles of Ratanakkiri - some of the most isolated and wild in Cambodia - are known to have held 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 supported.

Cambodian 'jungle girl' disappears back into wilderness

Tue, 25 Sep 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's mysterious "jungle girl" has disappeared back into the forests where she was found less than a year ago, police said Tuesday. The wild woman believed by the parents of Rochom P'ngieng to be their long-lost daughter melted back into the jungle about a month ago and searches for her have proven fruitless, said Ley Tom, O'Yadaw district deputy police chief in the remote north-eastern province of Ratanakiri.

Rochom P'ngieng disappeared while herding buffalo as an 8-year-old, which would now make her 27. Her parents believe the woman captured by local workers who caught her stealing food from their logging camp is their daughter, saying they identified her by a distinctive scar even though the woman was unable to communicate in any known language. They did not undergo DNA tests.

"One day she just disappeared back into the jungle, and no one has seen any sign of her since," Tom said by telephone.

The wild woman's story fascinated the world as researchers and psychologists tried to piece together her story after her discovery in January and human rights groups rushed to assist.

Tom said her behaviour changed little during her months in civilization and after the initial excitement died down, people from the outside world forgot about the strange girl in a faraway corner of Cambodia near the Vietnamese border.

"After the first rush of people, organizations stopped coming and no one asked about her," Tom said. "She didn't begin to speak, and she used to walk around ripping her clothes off. Look, I think she was just crazy.

"I have to say it is strange, though, how she can just disappear without a trace."

He said he did not know how the parents, members of an ethnic minority hilltribe who have no access to communication with the outside world, had taken her disappearance, 19 years after they first lost their daughter.