In Kampong Chhnang, a village guards its spiritual guardian from government hands

[geovalin]

 

Under normal circumstances, found artefacts in Cambodia are handed over to the government and taken to the National Museum. But sometimes – like in an ongoing case in Kampong Chhnang province – the desires and beliefs of villagers clash with the government’s idea of cultural preservation

 

By Soth Sonen and James Reddick Friday, 28 July 2017

 

On the afternoon of July 4, Sok Som Oul, a 51-year-old farmer in Kampong Chhnang’s Kampong Leng district, joined two children from her extended family to help herd cows – something that she rarely did. The two young girls left Som Oul to pick fruit in a field nearby, before running back screaming “Grandma! Grandma!” Som Oul followed them back to the field. There, she could make out the exposed head of what appeared to be a statue.

 

Som Oul ran back home to tell her family, getting on her motorbike to bring an older grandchild along with her to try to retrieve the statue. “I could not lift the artefact to load on the motorbike so I prayed to it: ‘Please be light so I can take you to the pagoda. I am just a good person’,” she recalled in a recent interview, standing outside the family home. Miraculously, she explained, after her prayer she was able to lift the statue. It was intact, except for the missing arms, and Som Oul attached it to the motorbike.

 

On the way back, however, the bike began sputtering and her granddaughter let slip a curse against the object weighing them down. “Suddenly the tyres were flattened,” she said, leading her to return to her prayers. “‘She is just a kid. Don’t find her guilty’,” she prayed to the statue. Her prayers were answered, she recalled, the tyres went back to normal and helped to steer the bike home.

 

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