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ix aCknowledgments This work came to life in 2003 as a research project at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), Phnom Penh. In due course I was able to organize my findings into a semicoherent scheme, and this further transmogrified into a monograph (Harris 2007) published by DC-Cam some four years later. That monograph forms the basis of the present significantly revised work, and I would like to register my appreciation to Youk Chhang, director of DC-Cam, both for giving his permission for this to occur and for his support and encouragement over the years. In terms of archival sources, I have relied heavily on the DC-Cam’s own holdings, but I have also used materials held at the National Archives of Cambodia and the Library of the Buddhist Institute, Phnom Penh, as well as various repositories in the West, most notably the Echols Collection on Southeast Asia at the Kroch Library, Cornell University; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; and the libraries of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, the School of Oriental and African Studies, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, and the École Française d’Extrême-Orient. I would like to thank the staff at all of these institutions for their assistance. The photographs reproduced in this book come from a variety of sources. The majority are from the DC-Cam archives. These have been collected from around Cambodia over the last few decades, usually in small batches donated by unidentified individuals who were not the copyright holders. Despite my best efforts it has been impossible to trace their legal owners, many of whom we must suppose lost their lives during the period covered in this study. Unless otherwise credited, the images belong to the author. Prum Phalla assisted me in most of the fieldwork conducted in connection with the project, and I know that we share vivid memories, both positive and negative, of our peregrinations around rural Cambodia. I would like to offer him special gratitude for his consistent application to the task x Acknowledgments at hand, his equanimity, and his impressive driving skills. My thanks also extend to Osman Ysa and the rest of the staff of DC-Cam for their hospitality and friendship. As I write, the trial of senior surviving Khmer Rouge leaders in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea is in progress in Phnom Penh. This has sharpened my awareness of the responsibilities that go with historical work of this sort, and I have done all I can to ensure that I have approached my sources in an open and objective manner. At various times I have received helpful advice and criticism from David Chandler, Chin Channa, Youk Chhang, Penny Edwards, Steve Heder, Ven. Ky Sovanratana, Henri Locard, and Ashley Thompson. I have incorporated the vast majority of their suggestions into the body of this work, but I am, nevertheless, aware that they may not agree with all of my interpretations. The inception of this work overlapped with my time as Senior Scholar at the Becket Institute, St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, and I would like to record my appreciation of Jonathan Rowland and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Washington, D.C., for providing me with the time and the funding to get started. Support to cover the time spent in Cambodia came from the BritishAcademy Committee for South EastAsian Studies, the Spalding Trust, and grants to DC-Cam from the Swedish government and the United States Agency for International Development, to all of which I am greatly indebted. The initial writing stage was made possible by the award of a sabbatical term from the University of Cumbria, and the revisions were accomplished during a very happy and fruitful period spent as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Finally I would like to thank Pam Kelly and Ann Ludeman at the University of Hawai‘i Press for their editorial support, Rosemary Wetherold for her conscientious copyediting, and my wife, Gwen, for putting up with years of absence and Buddhist-related obsession. Toronto Seventh day of the waxing moon, month of assoc, year of the rabbit, BE 2555 4 October 2011 ...

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