Chinese Temples in Phnom Penh.

Chinese Temples around Phnom Penh.

With Chinese New Year just around the corner, I thought I'd show a few of these often unnoticed places around town.

Unlike Cambodian Buddhist temples with their huge compounds, towers and spires, Chinese temples are often quiet hard to spot. Even though they often have quite elaborate gates, they seem to slot in between other shop houses and city buildings in such a way that if you aren’t looking for them, you can easily miss them. Some of these temples are Buddhist, and others are Taoist, but I can't claim to know a lot more about them.

The top photo is a fairly plain looking temple on St 167, near the huge Chinese school. The second shows a very elaborate looking one on St 232, in the Boueng Prolit area. It has a recent date outside, and was set up around 2003. The third picture down is of a garish looking place on 276 street, not far from the intersection of Monivong and Sihanouk Boulevards.The fourth picture is the gate of a newly built and ornate temple on Chruoy Changva peninsula, about a kilometer north of the bridge on the banks of the Tonle Sap river. The next picture shows one of the interiors and altars of the same complex, and the one after the staircase down to the river. The second last picture is a temple on Sisowath Quay in the port area, and the last is probably the best known one in town, on St. 13 near Kandal Market. There is one more Chinese temple on St 230 near the Mondiale Center, and a further one on St 53 near the 108 street park, I haven't managed top photograph either yet. If you know of any others let me know.

Cambodian Churches

Catholicism never really took off in a big way in Cambodia, the first missionaries turned up in the late 1600s with the Portuguese explorers and freebooters who were the first Europeans in the region. They had little success, in contrast with widespread conversions in neighboring Vietnam, and among the hill tribes of Vietnam, Laos and Burma. There were small missions and chapels set up around the country, and although at one stage at least one king toyed with the idea of converting, Cambodians in the main just weren’t interested. Many a priest spent their lonely days rotting at missions in far-flung villages where they were at best humored or ignored, but never believed.

During more recent years of war and strife, many more Cambodians, especially in the border camps, became Christian. Nowadays things are a little different, and besides the Roman Catholics there are a plethora of missionaries, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other denominations that operate with varying success and often run large operations around the country. I wasn’t so much interested in these modern churches and their buildings, but more with the older church buildings in Cambodia. What I found most interesting was one thing. We constantly hear that during the Pol Pot era all traces of foreign influence, religion and culture were wiped out and smashed, yet here we have quite a few churches which survived intact, often with big crosses standing on their roofs. Democratic Kampuchea was certainly not a country where religion could be freely practiced, even though its constitution stated so, but it doesn’t seem like they were trying very hard to make it or its symbols disappear.

Kiang Khleang Church ( The Carmelite Chapel)

This was the first one I went for, mainly because I had seen it so knew it still existed, and also because on an old map it was directly opposite the next one I wanted to look for, on the other side of the huge Tonle Sap River. The road to it runs under the east pier of the Chrouy Changva Bridge, and it’s quite amazing what a difference a hundred meters makes, because it’s dusty-track and village-style all of a sudden. Then you come across what at first appears to be some sort of anomaly, a church building, with a big cross at the top. The building isn’t a church anymore, but is part of what seems like a well-kept orphanage complex. It has a second level and steps, and a few great murals painted for or by the kids there. Some of the murals have a distinctly Christian message which leads me to believe that a Christian organization still runs the place. The chapel, and a nearby tower and some other connected buildings are all in very good repair, and despite their age have obviously been well maintained. The top three pictures are of this church and the nearby tower.

The Chapel of the Sisters of Providence Hospice.

This sits down a little lane opposite the port. It is completely surrounded by a slum neighborhood, and it was difficult to get a good view of it. It’s a long time since services were held here too; the whole chapel building and all its nooks and crannies have been turned into a bunch of separate living quarters. These are all divided up with light plywood walls, and looking up from any of the living spaces you can see the beautifully plastered old church ceiling. The 4th, 5th and 6th picture are exteriors of this building, and the next one shows the interior ceiling above all the internal partitions. 

Russei Keo Church

The site is easily reached by going through a large arch with “Catholic Church” in huge lettering off the main Phnom Penh to Oudong road. On the old map it has a large cemetery behind it, and I was surprised to see that the whole grounds still existed as they had on old maps. There were a few modern buildings near the entrance, perhaps for teaching and administration, and there was an obviously very new chapel around the back. Not far behind that was a sala-style building. A sala is a type of open-sided meeting room found in most villages around Cambodia. The sala was completely normal if a little small and plain, but it had a big cross on the back wall. Next to it was a stupa, like the sort you can see around any pagoda, a big faux-Angkor Wat cement construction. The funeral urns piled up inside had a mixture of decorations varying between photos of the deceased and Icons of the Madonna or Bleeding Heart of Jesus. There is one huge old French-period building in the middle of the grounds that is currently being refurbished, and it is sure to be a wonderful looking one soon again. There was a big problem though. This was the only church in the area that I had a few really old photographic references for, and it was gone. It was a shame to see that nothing remained of the old church but it was interesting to see that the place still serves its original purpose and is run by the same organization as before. The 8th picture down shows the church as it was in the early part of the 20th century, the 9th shows the unusual Christian sala, and the 9th shows the old buildings which are being refurbished on the grounds.

North Russei Keo Church.

This was somewhere on the opposite side of the Tonle Sap from where the Kiang Khleang church still is. Although old maps show some big or important roads and intersections around this area, the only one that still matters is National route 5, the road to Oudong. Going anywhere off it entails going down a warren of lanes through wild neighborhoods leading to who knows where, and after much effort I gave up on finding this for now. 

Bokor Church

Not in Phnom Penh, but high on the Bokor plateau, this place has been mostly silent since the early seventies. It’s a solid concrete construction, and has a strange lay out where the vestry seems to take up a lot more space than the alter and pews. It was the scene of a battle back in 1979 where Khmer Rouge troops took refuge in the church while Vietnamese soldiers fired at them from the Palace Casino a little further up the hill. Back in its day the church was white, but it has by now developed an attractively rustic bright orange lichen and green moss covering. The 10th picture is one I took of Bokor church at sunset in 2005, it almost looks like somewhere in Europe.

Battambang Cathedral

This was an impressive- looking structure in its day, sitting on top of a hill, but unfortunately nothing remains  today except the hill. The last picture is of Battambang Cathedral sometime in the early 20th century.

St. Michael's Church Sihanoukville

This was built during the Sangkum Reastre era and was designed by eminent Cambodian architect Van Molyvan along with the Father Ahadobery, a Basque priest. The last picture shows this strangely modern-looking church in 1960.

The Canal/Park at St.108

The park which now runs between Sisowath Quay and the Railway Station was once a canal. Called the Canal de Vernéville, it was built around 1894 to drain the nearby area. It was filled in in the 1920s and became a park. The top picture is an aerial view of the canal and the "Dollar Bridge"near the quay, from the early part of the 20th century. You can see that the city didn't extend too far away from the river at that time. The second picture is a close up of the "Dollar Bridge". The third picture shows the uninterrupted view of the park from the railway station to the river in the 1940s, and the color picture shows a view from Norodom up to the railway station in 1960.
In recent times the park had become rather worn out and dusty looking in many places. Down near the river was a quite decrepit, but popular outdoor stage. This area was developed and became the night market. For a time around 2006, the whole park was refurbished, with new flower beds, paving and lighting. Unfortunately this didn't last, as more recent work on the new center city drainage scheme and the Canadia Bank Tower has turned much of the park into a construction site. When all the work is finished it should look good again.

The scale of Tuol Sleng.

Anyone who has ever visited Phnom Penh probably knows this place. A very dark place, also known by the designation S21, it was at first located on Street 51 where the municipal police headquarters were, but in 1976 was moved to the former location of the Chau Ponhea Yat high school. It became a by-word for terror and was where the enemies of the Khmer Rouge were exterminated, many of them from within the organization’s own ranks. What most people don’t know is the original scale of this place. The central part has been preserved as a museum, but while it was still in operation it actually extended much further than just the grounds of the school. The elite Khmer Rouge Division 703 was in control of this place, and from their reports it stretched out from Monivong Boulevard in the east, across to Street 163 in the west. It apparently reached as far as Sihanouk Boulevard to the north, and down to Mao Tse Tung south. All of this area was surrounded by walls, fencing and barbed wire.
Very recently, I have had conversations with residents who contend that it was even bigger than previously reported. One resident who has lived in the neighborhood since 1982 has informed me that the compound didn’t stop at 163 but actually went as far as 199 to the west. At that time he says the previously enclosed area was obvious, and many of the now built up areas didn’t look anything like they do now, and for example some streets weren’t paved, but had banana trees planted all the way down the centre. On the map, the red area is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum that is still preserved. The green part is the area which former Division 703 members say was the compound, and the blue area is the part which people in the neighborhood have told me was also included in the compound.
It is my understanding that the central, red part of the map was the actual prison, where people were incarcerated. There have been many studies which have shown that buildings close to this central area were used as interrogation centers. The greater areas which I have marked were probably not parts of the actual prison, but were enclosed areas where staff lived and grew vegetables etc. The reason that I feel this is important is that many of the Khmer Rouge top leadership have said they knew nothing of the existence of the place, and obviously this is doubtful because it is a very large section of the city.

The top black & white picture shows children who were rescued by Vietnamese troops from Tuol Sleng in January 1979. Most of these children still survive and are around middle age now.For a long time it was thought that only 7 people survived the centre, but recently it has been disclosed that quite a few more did. The color picture shows an exterior view of the Tuol Sleng museum as it is now. There are many high-school buildings around the city with similar appearance.

Le Royal.

This hotel, completed in 1929, for a long time held the distinction of being Phnom Penh’s highest building. This honor was later taken by The Intercontinental Hotel, and is at least for now held by the new forty-storey Canadia Bank headquarters. It was then, and remains, one of the finest hotels in the city. During the Khmer Rouge regime many of the leadership lived here. After the Vietnamese intervention in 1979 it was where the few international organizations that tried to aid the country’s recovery were based, along with many of the visiting journalists. It was called The Sammaki during the 1980s. The first picture shows the hotel in 1960, the other is recent.

Crowds

The older picture shows French colonial troops at Wat Phnom for a visit by Marshal Joffre, a WWI hero, in 1921. There was an Avenue Joffre named after him for a time, it is the one that runs from Le Royal to Wat Phnom. The other picture is a similar same view but in 2006, showing crowds at Water Festival.

Bon Om Tuk or Water Festival

Most holidays in Cambodia involve city people leaving towns to visit their ancestral villages, but Water Festival is different. Millions of people from the countryside flood into Phnom Penh for the three days of the festival. They watch boat races, watch concerts and have a good look around, as many don't visit the capital often. The picture shows some dragon boat racing around 50 years ago, I'm not sure where. It is the biggest festival of the year, and celebrates a long ago naval victory and the reverse of the Tonle Sap river among other things. It falls on the 1st,2nd and 3rd of November this year.