Ros Mey (June 30, 1925 – December 12, 2010) was a

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 Thailand t ...

n-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Buddhist 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 ...

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

and survivor of the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

. Mey was the ''Chov Atika'', or head monk, of Wat Thormikaram, the first ethnic Khmer

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which is located in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

Early life in Cambodia

Mey was born in Svay Rolom, Kandal in Cambodia on June 30, 1925. He was the fifth child born to Ouch Mey (his father) and Soeum Mon (his mother), having four older sisters and a younger brother. In 1945, he married Saythun Mey and sired seven children, three boys and four girls. Mey originally worked as a land

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

for the Cambodian government until the

took power in 1975, establishing

Democratic Kampuchea Kampuchea ( km, កម្ពុជា ), officially known as Democratic Kampuchea (DK; km, កម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ ) from 5 January 1976, was a one-party totalitarian state which encompassed modern-day Camb ...

Escape from Cambodia

An estimated three million people would be killed by the Khmer Rouge, including four of Mey's children – three daughters and one son. Mey and his surviving family managed to escape the country in 1979 and fled to the

Khao-I-Dang The Khao-I-Dang (KID) Holding Center ( th, เขาอีด่าง, km, ខាវអ៊ីដាង) was a Khmer people, Cambodian refugee camp 20 km north of Aranyaprathet in Prachinburi Province, Prachinburi (now Ta Phraya District, S ...

refugee camp across the border in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. Mey and his family would ultimately become one of the thousands of Cambodian refugees who would be resettled in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. After a few years living as refugees, he and his family arrived in Rhode Island on February 12, 1982. In 1993, Ros Mey was ordained a Buddhist monk at the Wat Thormikaram temple in Providence, Rhode Island, when he was 62 years old. In 1998, he became Chov Atika & President of the temple. He died at the temple in Providence on December 12, 2010, at the age of 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mey, Ros 2010 deaths American Buddhist monks Cambodian emigrants to the United States Clergy from Providence, Rhode Island Buddhism in Rhode Island 1925 births