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Khmer Rouge Part One: The Golden Age
April 17th, 1975. Phomh Penh, known as the “Pearl of Asia”, considered at one time one of the world’s loveliest cities with its grand boulevards, striking modernist architecture and thriving nightlife, the bustling and now bursting-at-the-seams capitol of the nation of Cambodia, is about to disappear.
It will happen within 72 hours.
Cambodia was still a developing nation with an immense history. The Khmer Empire, which had encompassed most of Southeast Asia, had flourished for six centuries, and left behind a highly developed culture epitomized in the Buddhist temple complex of Angor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. In the 20th century, the nation saw a Golden Age under the reign of King Sianouk, a saxophone-playing ladies man who starred in his own films , championed the arts and spoke three languages. A thriving pop scene fed by influences from Booker T and the MGS to Afro-Cuban pop to French yeye gave birth to a number of stars, such as Sinn Sisamouth, known as the Elvis of Cambodia, and Ros Sereysotea,, “the Queen with the Golden Voice”.
But Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge would draw a black veil over the country for the next four years. They ground down the nation of 7 million to a pre-industrial year zero, forcing the population into agrarian collectives that were little more than prison camps, where stone age methods of cultivation led to crop failure and mass starvation. Doctors and engineers, intellectuals, writers, artists of every kind, ethnic and religious minorities and Cambodians who complained- or wore glasses, or showed emotion, or talked too often, among other infractions-were herded into the torture chamber, or a mass grave. 25 percent of the nation would be lost in just four years, in what has been called one of the fastest genocides in human history.
What drives a man to send so many of his own countrymen to their deaths? How do nations all around the world blithely turn away from the horror? How do you survive a life under gunpoint? How do you heal an atrocity?
This is a story of genocide and smiling dictators, pop stars and killing fields, new people and year zero. This is the story of the Khmer Rouge. And its Past Dark.
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By Carmen Park
5
1515 ratings
April 17th, 1975. Phomh Penh, known as the “Pearl of Asia”, considered at one time one of the world’s loveliest cities with its grand boulevards, striking modernist architecture and thriving nightlife, the bustling and now bursting-at-the-seams capitol of the nation of Cambodia, is about to disappear.
It will happen within 72 hours.
Cambodia was still a developing nation with an immense history. The Khmer Empire, which had encompassed most of Southeast Asia, had flourished for six centuries, and left behind a highly developed culture epitomized in the Buddhist temple complex of Angor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. In the 20th century, the nation saw a Golden Age under the reign of King Sianouk, a saxophone-playing ladies man who starred in his own films , championed the arts and spoke three languages. A thriving pop scene fed by influences from Booker T and the MGS to Afro-Cuban pop to French yeye gave birth to a number of stars, such as Sinn Sisamouth, known as the Elvis of Cambodia, and Ros Sereysotea,, “the Queen with the Golden Voice”.
But Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge would draw a black veil over the country for the next four years. They ground down the nation of 7 million to a pre-industrial year zero, forcing the population into agrarian collectives that were little more than prison camps, where stone age methods of cultivation led to crop failure and mass starvation. Doctors and engineers, intellectuals, writers, artists of every kind, ethnic and religious minorities and Cambodians who complained- or wore glasses, or showed emotion, or talked too often, among other infractions-were herded into the torture chamber, or a mass grave. 25 percent of the nation would be lost in just four years, in what has been called one of the fastest genocides in human history.
What drives a man to send so many of his own countrymen to their deaths? How do nations all around the world blithely turn away from the horror? How do you survive a life under gunpoint? How do you heal an atrocity?
This is a story of genocide and smiling dictators, pop stars and killing fields, new people and year zero. This is the story of the Khmer Rouge. And its Past Dark.