The history of
WatSamroungKnong
WatSamroungKnong was built in 1707 as an isolated
meditation place for hermit Chey in the era of Lord Chaufa Ben. It was called
TouldongChey at that time. In 1887, the 7generation of monk leaders of
WatSamroungKnong built a brick stupa to keep the bones of deceased monk leader.
Three year later, a relative of Lord Chaufa Ben constructed a new pagoda on the
terrain. The Temple and the brick stupa are standing until today.
WatSamroungKnong during Khmer Rouge time
On April17th, 1975 the Khmer Rouge regime
known as Democratic Kampuchea seized power. In 1976 WatSamrongKnong was turned
into a prison by the Khmer Rouge. The Buddhist monks of WatSamroungKnong were
forced to their religious practices and instead to carry out hard work very
hard such as digging a creek which then was named “ The monks ’creek” According
to former prisoners of watSamroungKnong, the kitchen hall was changed to a
prison for minor crimesand the Dharma hall was changed to a prison for serious
crime. The 19th century temple was used to detain women and children.
The Khmer Rouge guards and soldiers lived in a big wooden house located near
the new temple today where monks used to live before 1975. Other buildings were
turned into torture and interrogation houses.
WatSamroungKnong after Khmer Rouge time
WatSamroungKnong was librerated on January 13th, 1979.
According to the Document Center of Cambodia, there are one hundred mass grave
in the memorial place. Some mass graves were burrowed by villagers who were
searching for gold. In 1982, in cooperation with the local authority, Acha Thon
Savath Organized a pagoda commission and built a wooden stupa to keep the bones
and skulls taken from the mass graves.
Many years later, the
wooden stupa was getting older and decayed more and more. In cooperation with
the authorities, OkgnaDulPhok, the president of a generous organization of
Khmer living abroad (from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and
France), collected the remaining bones from the mass graves
for a Buddhist funeral ceremony in 2001. Soon after, the new memorial
containing the remains was built starting in 2002 and completed in 2008.
The bones and skulls of 10,008 victims as well as
torture materials such as hand cuffs and tie robes, clothes and monk robes were
discovered. In total around 10,400 victims were detained in WatSamroungKnong
during the Khmer Rouge are.
