KHMER ROUGE MUSEUM
Narrative & Structure
- LOCATION
- PREAH VIHEAR MOUNTAIN, CAMBODIA
- PREAH VIHEAR MOUNTAIN, CAMBODIA
> > This is the overview page for the Khmer Rouge museum concept. Please visit the other project pages to see detailed renderings for exhibitions The Exodus, Brainwash, and The Jungle.
ABOUT THE MUSEUM
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW > >
Khmer Rouge: A Journey Through Tragedy, A Search for Hope is a concept for a museum that follows the rise and fall of communism in Cambodia in the 1970’s.
In the four years that the Khmer Rouge communist party ruled Cambodia, it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century. French for “Red Cambodians”, the party was formed in 1968 but didn’t become prominent until 1975. Through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country’s population at the time. Today, the period is often referred to as “The Killing Fields”.
CAMBODIA 1975 - 1979 < <
LOCATION
PREAH VIHEAR MOUNTAIN > >
Preah Vihear Mountain is located on the northern border of Cambodia. This area is notable for being part of the ancient Khmer Empire that ruled most of Southeast Asia in the 9th to 15th century. The ruins of a majestic temple still lay watch over the landscape.
This distinguished past is strikingly contrasted by its recent history as the location of great refugee tragedy from the end of the Killing Fields period. These cliffs bore witness to one of the most brutal forced repatriations of refugees from Thailand back into Cambodia. An estimated 45,000 refugees were forced through this mountain.
A survivor revisits the mountain 40 years later.
The steep cliffside and jungle landscape.
Preah Vihear Temple.
