Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot

Chapter Four: Dealing with Monks

64 ChApter FoUr dealing with monks Initial Stages The communists’ first formal contacts with individual pagodas occurred at differing times, depending on the progress of the conflict. In provinces such as Stung Treng and certain districts of Svay Rieng, such contact happened almost immediately after Sihanouk was overthrown. Other provinces fell under communist influence as the 1970s progressed, while Phnom Penh and many provincial cities held out until 17 April 1975. However, in some eastern provinces, Buddhist monks had been obliged to deal with the Vietcong well before the Khmer Rouge arrived on the scene. Vietcong troops were based in Chan Trea district, Svay Rieng, from at least 1970 on, and the area was periodically bombed by the United States as a result.1 They had also been active in Chhlong district, Kratie, for several years before the appearance of Cambodian revolutionaries in 1973, and a local monk remembered helping to transport their weapons after being told that they were fighting for Sihanouk.2 Stung Treng was liberated at the start of the civil war, and at Wat Srah Keo Monivong in the provincial town the communists responded in a friendly manner to the pagoda’s twenty-odd monks throughout the first year of occupation.3 This pattern was repeated in other parts of the country. In Kampong Speu the communists arrived in 1971, were “very kind,” and were liked by the monks because they claimed to be the “children of samtec ” (i.e., Sihanouk loyalists).4 Moreover, even as late as 1975, when the Dealing with Monks 65 Khmer Rouge finally arrived in Battambang town, some monks report that they were treated well and were referred to respectfully as “father.”5 A flavor of these early encounters is provided by the testimony of Ven. Mao Kan, one of the thirty-six monks dwelling at a pagoda in Kampot when the Khmer Rouge arrived in 1970. Nothing much changed at that time, although there was a short battle with Lon Nol soldiers nearby in 1971. Members of the saṅgha were able to go about their business without fear, and some individual Khmer Rouge could be quite supportive. Although the Khmer Rouge never offered alms food in the traditional manner, they often sat down with the monks for conversation, usually on “how to fight the yuon [i.e., the Vietnamese].”6 Despite the promising start at some pagodas, it was generally only a matter of time before relations cooled. Ven. Ke Kan was appointed the cau adhikār of Wat Koh Sampeay, Siem Bok district, around the time the Khmer Rouge arrived in 1970. He later recalled that warm relations persisted until 1973, in part because a cadre’s father had been a monk, and that official retained sympathy for the Buddha’s teachings. But after 1973 the communists used “hot dhamma [teachings],” and although there were no killings, all of the monks were soon defrocked.7 Meanwhile, around 150 monks had been living at the ancient Wat Nokor Bachey Ba-Ar, Kampong Cham. Things were fine at first, but toward the end of the year the communists began interfering, and the last monk left the wat in 1975.8 Examples of similar deteriorations in relations are legion.9 In some localities senior monks were stripped of their ecclesiastical titles, and villagers were urged, very much against their will, to give up using honorific language when addressing them. Elsewhere monks with a nonncompliant attitude toward the authorities were replaced by other monks for whom the peasantry had little or no respect. Numerous reports, some of which are cited below, indicate significant popular resistance to such measures , and some local cadres did take measures to curtail the most vigorous forms of subjugation. Although popular Buddhist outrage against such restrictions never reached the level found among the Cham Muslim community, it very occasionally surfaced as outright resistance. Throughout 1974, Sun, the district chief of Kang Meas, had been criticizing monks for entering the saṅgha just so they could get fed without working. He prohibited local villagers 66 Chapter Four from offering alms, and it seems that some of them rose up and tried to kill him. They were captured and never seen again. Nevertheless Sun was soon replaced by someone less abrasive.10 Liberation of the Principal Towns Lon Nol’s forces had managed to hold the enemy at bay in all of the districts of Battambang province except...