04-22-10

photo documentary – Life behind the great Angkor

Located between rice paddies and flanking the Siem Reap River, the small provincial capital of Siem Reap serves as the gateway to the millennium old temple ruins of the Khmer Empire, Angkor Wat. Been a tourist destination for over 100 years, the town is actually the result of a conglomeration of several small villages built around several pagodas and subsequently united under the French and Siem Reap’s architecture reflects their influence.
Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia. Stretching over some 400 km2, including forested area, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 15th century. They include the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations.
The population of Cambodia today is about 10 million. About 10% are in Siem Reap. 90-95 percent of the people are Khmer ethnic. The remaining 5-10 percent include Chinese-Khmers, Khmer Islam or Chams, ethnic hill-tribe people, known as the Khmer Loeu, and Vietnamese.
Siem Reap is not just about the templs of Angkor. The beauty of the temples is unquestionable.  As my journey this time i decided to documented about Khmer people. Although there are millions of tourist coming from all over the world, they still have their own unique life… life behind the great Angkor.

Shom, 28 years old have been living here at Bayon since he was born. He became a monk and help the lead monk, (picture of an old monk) 83 yrs old, to take care of the temple in Bayon area. Locals from all over Cambodia come to them because they provide traditional medicine to the patients.

This 2 young Khmer girls always wanted to go to school, but their family cannot afford it. Everyday they will help their parents to run the business selling Cambodian home made clothing to the tourist in Bayon area.

A group of young beautiful Khmer girls working as a full time traditional model in Angkor Wat. If the tourist want to take pictures with them, they will charged a small fee.

Garbage collector at the top of Angkor Wat. The poor life makes them do everything to get money to survive. Can u imagine how much they earn in 1 day, but still they are happy with their life…

The old market in Siem Reap always busy all day long. U can find a lot of things here, from the unique traditional Cambodian food to the high quality of home made jewelry.

Major of locals in countryside of Cambodia used to be in paddy production. In april, normally locals in Siem Reap will look for other things to do. Many of them will go fishing as the big famous Ton Le Sap is not far away from here. Some of them will do the fruit plantation. I manage to found a small community that still can plant the paddy although it is in the dry season. The source of water is very limited in this season but still, they got to do something for a living.

regards,
azim.zainudin.