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Choeung Ek ( km, ជើងឯក, ) is the site of a former orchard and mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge – killed between 1975 and 1979 – in
Choeung Ek ( km, ជើងឯក, ) is the site of a former orchard and mass grave of victims of the Khmer Rouge – killed between 1975 and 1979 – in Dangkao Section
Dangkao ( km, ដង្កោ) is a district ('' khan'') in the southern part of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The district is subdivided into 13 ''sangkats'' and 83 ''krom''s. The district has an area of 197.89 km2. It has a population of 159,772 ...
, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...
, about south of the Phnom Penh city centre. It is the best-known of the sites known as the Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime executed over one million people between 1975 and 1979.
Description
Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in their Tuol Sleng detention center and in other Cambodian detention centers. Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by aBuddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...
sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in.
Tourists are encouraged by the Cambodian government to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones still litter the site.
On May 3, 2005, the Municipality of Phnom Penh announced that they had entered into a 30-year agreement with JC Royal Co. to develop the memorial at Choeung Ek. As part of the agreement, they are not to disturb the remains still present in the field.
In popular culture
* The film ''The Killing Fields
A killing field is a concept in military science.
Killing field may also refer to:
* Killing Fields, a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of ...
'' is a dramatised portrayal of events like those that took place at Choeung Ek.
References
External links
* * {{Phnom Penh Cambodian genocide Museums in Phnom Penh Killing Fields