Phnom Penh pagoda offers haven for the marginalized
When 200 villagers from Kratie province walked into Samakki Raingsey pagoda seeking safety and shelter early this month, they weren’t the first to do so. The villagers, whose homes in Snuol district had been torched by authorities just days earlier, were walking a well-trodden path—a path of last resorts at the end of which this pagoda on the outskirts of Phnom Penh was built. … The Kratie farmers came to Phnom Penh to ask why the land they had been living on and cultivating was sold to a Vietnamese rubber company. They came to ask for a solution from the government and look for a place to stay. They say they were turned away from two pagodas before finding shelter at Wat Samakki Raingsey, which has become well known as a refuge for political dissidents and marginalized people—especially members of the Khmer Krom minority, who comprise around 60 percent of the monks in residence there. …
Mech Dara and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/author/matt-blomberg/
