21. The forgotten side of Angkor Wat, Cambodia

By Filipe Morato Gomes	Where is Angkor Wat?
I visited the magnificent temples of Angkor and got amazed by the unusual beauty of Ta Prohm, almost certainly the most spectacular temple of Angkor Wat complex. But I also got to know Aki Ra, an extraordinary men which is working alone to try to make Cambodia a safer place.

Most travellers go to the north of Cambodia in order to visit the extraordinary complex of temples of Angkor Wat, which are located near Siem Riep. Angkor is, in fact, a wonderful place that entirely deserves the fame it has achieved.

A view from the ruins of a temple in Angkor

I had visited during two days some of the most meaningful architectural sites of the Angkor complex which spreads along a vast area, from the magnificent carvings of Bayon and Banteay Srey till the majestic temple of Angkor itself. And I got delighted with the strange beauty of Ta Prohm, where huge trees hugged the stone buildings - most of them in ruins -, creating a unique and unforgettable scenery for those who visit it. Ta Prohm is, moreover, almost always referred by travellers as their favourite temple. I certainly agree.

However, just close to the temples, in a narrow local unpaved road going parallel to the one which takes tourists from Siem Riep to Angkor, there was something worth as much attention or even more as the temples themselves. Something travellers usually don't know about. I mean the life a man and the nobleness of his work in favour of the country he was born in. I was lucky enough to hear about his existence from a Danish friend passionate about Cambodia. Without hesitations, we hired a tuk-tuk and headed together for the Land Mine Museum of Aki Ra, hoping to know Aki Ra himself, a Cambodian ex-child soldier the mentor of the initiative.

Aki Ra worked as a driver to earn his living but luckily he was in the museum on that day. The story of his life is something really impressing. He told me he was not absolutely sure about his age, “maybe 32, maybe 35”, he said. He also told us he had lived most of his life in the jungle, among weapons, fighting, and he has been an orphan probably since he was five years old. “My parents were murdered by the Khmer Rouge”, he stated. Just because they allegedly “committed minor crimes”, I got to know some time later.

Aki Ra in its Landmine Museum, located on the way from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat

Still a child, he was then taken by the Red Khmer and forced to learn how to use guns, set up landmines, and also find a way through mined fields at the front of Khmer military columns. If anyone from the column had to dye stepping on a landmine, he'd be the one. Later he fought, also without being able to choose, on the other side of the conflict, for the Vietnamese and Cambodian armies, till the United Nations sent a peacekeeping mission to Cambodia. And only then, working for the United Nations clearing landmines out of Cambodian soil, did he find out what his mission was. “The only aim of my life is helping Cambodia to become a safer place for my people”, he assured, and I realised he really meant it.

Nowadays, almost every week, he travels to different provinces in Cambodia, in order to clear mines which had been set up by any one of those involved in the conflict. “In a day I can clear about sixty mines, using only a stick or my own feet to detect them”, he said in a way he seemed to declare a very natural thing. “Your feet?”, I interrupted. “Yes, I can easily detect them with my feet”, he concluded. He has never suffered a simple scratch and he has been keeping those weapons over the years.

As a consequence he decided to start off the Land Mine Museum to call one's attention to the seriousness of the problem that landmines still are nowadays in Cambodia. There you can see samples of the mines cleared by Aki Ra over the years, as well as other military equipment he found in the fields. Educational paintings made by himself, showing how to deal with landmines as well as episodes of his life in the jungle. Short stories one is supposed to believe that were in fact true. Furthermore, he welcomes every year about two dozen children who have been mutilated by one of the countless mines that still exist in Cambodian soil. He welcomes them, gives them shelter and food, and even takes them to school. An extraordinary job. However not everybody thinks like that.

Monks in Angkor Wat main temple

Aki Ra dedicates all his free time to the cause of his life. A cause that should be supported by the ones who lead the country. Yet I realised during the conversation with Aki Ra that local governmental authorities do everything they can in order to try to close the museum. “They say it is bad for tourism in Cambodia”, Aki Ra told me, referring to the local authorities, including Siem Riep police.

In Cambodia, corruption is and palpable issue. “They [local government] want me to close the museum and so they oblige me to pay big money to them to keep the museum open. Every month. You know, if they just want to go out for a drink, they ask me for fifty dollars; but if they feel like going into a karaoke bar I must pay twice as much”. That's a lot of money in such a poor country like Cambodia.

(originally written in Portuguese)

Author's note: visit the Land Mine Museum Relief Fund for further info about the museum and ways you can contribute to the work of Aki Ra.

» Read Khmer Rouge, the dark side of Human Nature in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
» See Photos - Cambodia

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