From the fall of Phnom Penh, to the hyper-Marxist Khmer Rouge, to the decades-long civil war and reconstruction of the country following Vietnam's invasion in 1979, Cambodia has seen a cultural upheaval that brought with it the destruction of institutions and ways of life that have been slow to recover. This two site study examines the reconstruction of one those institutions, the Buddhist monastery, in Prey Thom commune in the southwestern province of Kampot. The loss of traditions, texts, and clergy has meant that the centre of village life -- the local temple -- has had to regain many of those aspects that defined it throughout the centuries. Two of these, the power the monastery commanded in the eyes of locals and the monastic identity which defined how that power was expressed, have historically been vital to the monastery's existence and allowed for temples to be the epicentre of villages, defining individuals' lives and the agrarian economy they depended on. The monastery's reconstruction has also meant that the reliance on local folk and Hindu beliefs continued, and in some instances, grew in prominence in the absence of a viable and competent cadre of Buddhist monks. As the monastery continues to regain its former stature, how this affects merit-making traditions and the local economies which rely on them in many ways reflects the importance of local temples from village to village. While monastic schooling has proved to be important in recreating a knowledgeable cadre, how this affects local attitudes regarding the status of monks is further shaped by those outside of the monastery who either purposely or unknowingly determine local perceptions of it. The future of the monastery will depend on how it can maintain a degree of separation from these larger entities while continuing to serve in the time-honoured roles that sustain villages and the traditions they have historically relied upon.

Anlong Veng was the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge until the organization's ultimate collapse and defeat in 1999. This dissertation argues that recent moves by the Cambodian government to transform this site into an “historical-tourist area” is overwhelmingly dominated by commercial priorities. However, the tourism project simultaneously effects an historical narrative that inherits but transforms the government’s historiographic endeavors that immediately followed Democratic Kampuchea’s 1979 ousting. The work moves between personal encounters with the historical, academic presentations of the country’s recent past, and government efforts to pursue a museum agenda in the context of “development through tourism” policies. / Department of Anthropology Rice University Wagoner Scholarship for Study Abroad Center for Khmer Studies

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The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have been tasked with bringing justice to the survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Almost ten years later, three people have been sentenced to life imprisonment. This study examines the perceptions of justice and opportunities of reconciliation from somewhat neglected perspective of Chinese-Cambodian genocide survivors. Through the unique tool of non-judicial measures (NJMs), I am exploring opportunities and chances that might arise for a broader victim support in the future. I have conducted two focus groups in Kampot and Battambang, as well as eleven semi-structured interviews in Battambang and Phnom Penh with Chinese-Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge. As a bridge to the quantitative research, I additionally have conducted a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) with existing surveys and studies.

Under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia, 1.7 million people died from starvation, overwork, torture, and murder. While five senior leaders are on trial for these crimes at the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, hundreds of lower level perpetrators live amongst their victims today. This thesis examines how rural Cambodians (including victims, perpetrators, and bystanders) are coexisting after the trauma of the Khmer Rouge years, and the decades of civil war before and after. In this qualitative research study, 134 semi-structured interviews were conducted with rural villagers, government officials, and peacebuilding practitioners. Cambodian culture is characterized by conflict avoidance, and reliance on family networks, hierarchy, and patronage. Buddhism is a strong cultural influence as well. These characteristics, as well as the lack of trust resulting from the Khmer Rouge years, provided important context for this analysis of Cambodian social recovery. Research on the processes of coexistence and reconciliation inform this study (Bloomfield 2006; Huyse 2003; Kriesberg 2001; Lederach 1997; Rigby 2001). However, few studies have been done that examine community reconciliation in Cambodia (Etcheson 2005b). This thesis examines the processes of reconciliation, including interfering and facilitating factors. Processes such as building relationships and trust, and developing empathy and compassion are explored. Cambodians’ views of apologies, revenge, forgiveness, and other key concepts are reviewed. Models of coexistence, acceptance, perpetrator coping strategies, and a victim decision-making tree are presented to assist in the analysis of the data. These models provide a theoretical framework for the understanding of the situation of coexistence and reconciliation in Cambodia. The thesis suggests that Cambodians are currently living in various stages of coexistence (surface, shallow, and moderate) and have not yet approached a condition of deep reconciliation. Practical applications of the findings are suggested.

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Why does mass-violence happen at all? This paper takes the first steps to establish a model to answer this question and explain extreme mass-violence as a phenomenon. This paper seeks to fill a gap in the field of research, in which models exist to explain the phenomenon of violence, with cases of genocide being seen as problems or exceptions, and as such researched as individual cases rather than as part of a wider phenomenon. This paper uses a selected part of the writings of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to establish the basis for a model to explain extreme-cases of mass-violence. The Five-Pillar Model includes 5 social elements - (1) Culture Industry (2) Mass-Media (3) Propaganda (4) Dehumanization (5) Ideological Awareness. When these pillars all reach a high enough level of severity, conditions enable elites to use scapegoating - to divert revolutionary attention to a specific puppet group, resulting in extreme mass-violence. The Five-Pillar Model is then used to analyze an empirical case - Cambodia 1975-1979 and shows how these pillars all existed in an extreme form in that case. This paper presents scapegoating as a possible explanation for the Cambodian case.

Lucie Paříková: Revival of the Khmer Culture Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Department of Cultural Studies, MA Thesis, 106 pages, 2012 This paper is about issues of Khmer culture after the collapse of Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. The subject of this paper is a theoretical analysis of revitalization of Khmer culture after 1979 in the process of sociocultural changes that occurred due to communist revolution and subsequent Khmer Rouge rule. The process of revitalization of the Khmer culture is studied mainly on the level of sociocultural regulatives and ideas. The aim of this work is to contribute, from the perspective of culturology, to the clarification of the process of sociocultural change, which Cambodia experienced under the Khmer Rouge rule. Key words: Khmer culture, revival, sociocultural change, Khmer Rouge

<p>The aim of this thesis is to analyze the relationship between the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Cambodia and the national reconciliation process. A qualitative method involving secondary source analysis as well as field study interviews is being used. The point of departure is a theoretical framework of reconciliation assembled from different sources, as there seems to be no coherent and widely accepted framework available for use. An analysis model is constructed, focusing on the concepts of justice and truth. The findings indicate that reconciliation is nowhere near fulfillment, although a few steps towards national reconciliation have been taken. The Cambodian process of reconciliation is only at its earliest stages. Furthermore, the findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between the tribunal and the reconciliation process, inasmuch as the tribunal is perceived to have positive effects on reconciliation, and that continued reconciliation would not be possible without the tribunal. The tribunal is not the only part in reconciliation though, it is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for continued reconciliation. The tribunal can not bring reconciliation close to fulfillment on its own, other mechanizms must be involved in order to do so.</p>

The paper delas with the political development in Cambodia since it gained its independence until today. It introduces four authoritative regimes, which occured in the country until the end of the Cold war: Sihanouk's rule, Lon Nol's republic, Khmer Rouge revolution and the period of Vietnamese occupation and the government supported by the vietnamese communists. In the next part it deals with the UN mission called UNTAC, the aim of which was to settle down the conflict in the country and to accomplish the free and fair election. It countinues with the development in the 90-ties and in the new century. The paper finishes with the present situation and with the possible future development.