#Sar Bopha

[comparativetarot]

Page of Swords. Art by Han Siew Jian, from The Southeast Asian Myths & Stories Tarot.

Before King Monivong renamed the beautiful national park area in Kompong Speu Province Kirirom (Happy Mountain) during the 1930's, the place had a different, older name, Phnom Vorvong Sorvong, and the legend of that ancient name is still told by local people to this day. Once upon a time, a king named Preah Bat Sorya ruled a kingdom called Krasonn. He had two wives. His first wife, Vong Thyea, had two sons, Vorvong and Sorvong. His second wife, Montea, had only one son, called Vey Vongsa. As the years passed and the three princes grew up together, Princess Montea became more and more jealous of Princess Vongs Thyea and plotted to win the throne for her own son. One day, she hit upon a plan. "Vorvong and Sovong, will you take a walk with me in the royal garden?" she asked. The unsuspecting boys agreed, but within minutes the scheming second wife had grabbed them, and, while screaming loudly for help, held both boys between her thighs. "They dare to treat me so improperly!" she screamed, and the king was so convinced by her performance he fell into a rage and ordered the boys executed. The boys' mother begged that the place of execution be somewhere away from the royal palace where she would have to live. After her request was granted, she followed the executioners and persuaded them not to kill the princes if they left the kingdom immediately. Princess Vong Thyea gave a ring to each boy. "Promise you will return to me here in 10 years," she told them. The two boys took their mother's message and left the country. They wandered in the forest for many days, sleeping only when they were too exhausted to walk any further. From heaven, the Brahman god Indra looked down on the boys and felt pity. He incarnated himself into a white rooster and a black rooster and emerged from the forest pecking at wild grains near the boys. The two birds exchanged conversation. "I am a black rooster. If someone eats me, he will become a king in seven years," said the first rooster. "As for me, I am a white rooster," the other said. "He who eats me will be king in seven months." Then the two birds fought furiously and fell dead in front of Sovong and Vorvong. Famished, Sovong picked up the white rooster and Vorvong took the black one. Seven months later the boys were still traveling, and when they reached a rest hall in the forest in the kingdom of Kunthop Borei, they decided to stop for the night. The ruler of this kingdom had just died, and his mandarins were scouring the country in search of a new king. Their procession stopped in front of the rest hall just as Sovong awoke. The royal elephant bearing the ornate royal throne on its back stopped still in a manner of respect in front of where the two boys lay. "You must hold our throne," the mandarins told Sovong. But when he asked if he could bring his brother, they refused. He tried to resist their offer, but they would not hear of it, and he was forced to leave Vorvong without saying goodbye and was taken straight to the palace to marry Princess Sar Bopha, the daughter of the previous king. When Vorvong woke, he cried and called out hoping his brother would answer, but there was no reply. Following the elephant's prints, he tracked Sovong to the capital, but the royal guards would not let him see him. So Vorvong resumed his trek. He walked for five days and nights before arriving at the home of an old woman near the royal palace of another ruler called King Thoranith. "Grandmother, may I rest here for just one night?" he asked. "Of course," she smiled, but she had seen the royal ring from his mother that he still wore, and wished to trap him so she could inform the palace she had found a thief. King Thoranith was furious and had his soldiers arrest the boy. "This is my mother's heritage. I am no robber," the brave boy protested, but he was ignored and thrown into a jail cell. It looked as if his adventures were at an end and he prepared to wait out the rest of his life behind bars. One day, a cruel giant came to eat the innocent people of a neighboring kingdom whose ruler was a close ally of King Thoranith. The giant chased the palace guards away and hunted the king and his relatives as prey. The king and his family were forced to seek refuge in a cave. When he heard this, King Thoranith vowed to assist his friend. He tried to launch his fleet of warships, but they were too high on the dry season bank and would not enter the water. Desperate, King Thoranith looked for anyone mighty enough to help him. The boy seized his chance, and sent word to the king that he could manage. "If you succeed, I will not only release you unconditionally, but shower you with rewards," the king promised. Vorvong was a boy who had earned much merit in previous lives, and he launched the war boats effortlessly. The king and his daughter, Princess Kes - kesey, joined their soldiers in the boat and sailed off to help their friends. That night, Princess Kes-kesy dreamed that an old man came to her and told her that the royal boy was her husband from a previous life. When she awoke, she began thinking of Vorvong in a way she never had before. A seed of love for him had been planted. The two kings discussed tactics they could use against the giant, but all seemed hopeless. King Thoranith thought for a moment, then had Vorvong brought before him again. "Can you kill the giant?" he asked. "I can, but I will need camouflage," the boy said. "Give me your sacred sword and battle dress and I will do what you ask." Fooled into thinking it was the king coming to fight him, the giant rushed to eat Vorvong and died at the point of his sword. "You have proved to me that you are a very powerful man," King Thoranith said. "I name you successor to my crown and offer you my daughter, Princess Keskesey, as your queen." The other king, grateful to Vorvong for saving his family, also offered his daughter and his crown to the boy, who now found himself ruler of two countries with two queens. But Preah Vorvong had not forgotten his mother's request to return, nor his brother. One day, he set off to find his brother and return to his homeland to visit. After a long and difficult journey, the two were reunited and their combined armies marched on their former homeland, surrounding the country. They learned that their father, Preah Bat Sorya, kept their mother locked in an iron cage, accusing her of being evil, and had given the throne to their young half-brother. When their half-brother, King Vey Vongsa, saw the might of their armies he retaliated with his own elephant troops and was killed in the battle. Their father quickly surrendered but when he met the two invading kings he did not recognize them, convinced his sons had been killed on his own orders years before. But when he saw their rings, he finally acknowledged they were his sons and listened to their story. Realizing how wrong he had been, he ordered the executioners to take Princess Montea, the second wife who had caused the boys and their mother so much suffering, and behead her. He released their mother and offered the two sons the throne, and a long era of peace and stability for all people in the region followed. To this day, travelers to Chambok commune, in the Phnom Sruoch district of Kompong Speu province, can see a stone statue of a headless woman. This is Neang Montea, a jealous and greedy person. Everyone who passes her statue today remembers her for this and locals say they should stop and reflect on what happens to people who take this path in life.

Joint card art with Page of Pentacles:

[political-affairs]

Pol Pot

 Pol Pot (born Saloth Sar (Khmer: ប៉ុល ពត); 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998)[1][2] was a Cambodian Communist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge[3] from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1963 to 1981, he served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea. From 1976 to 1979, he also served as the prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea. Pol Pot became leader of Cambodia on April 17, 1975, and his rule was a dictatorship.[4] During his time in power he imposed agrarian socialism, forcing urban dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor projects. The combined effects of executions, forced labor, malnutrition, and poor medical care caused the deaths of approximately 25 percent of the Cambodian population.[5][6][7][8] In all, an estimated 1 to 3 million people (out of a population of slightly over 8 million) died due to the policies of his three-year premiership.[9][10][11]

In 1979, after the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, Pol Pot fled to the jungles of southwest Cambodia, and the Khmer Rouge government collapsed.[12] From 1979 to 1997, he and a remnant of the old Khmer Rouge operated near the border of Cambodia and Thailand, where they clung to power, with nominal United Nations recognition as the rightful government of Cambodia. Pol Pot died in 1998 while under house arrest by the Ta Mok faction of the Khmer Rouge. Since his death, rumours that he was poisoned have persisted.[13]

  Early life (1925–61)

 Saloth Sar was born on May 19, 1925—the eighth of nine children and the second of three sons to Pen Saloth and Sok Nem. His older brother, Saloth Chhay was born 3 years earlier. The family was living in the small fishing village of Prek Sbauv, Kampong Thom Province during the French colonialism of the area.[14] Pen Saloth was a rice farmer who owned 12 hectares of land and several buffaloes and the family was considered moderately wealthy by the day's standards. Although Pen Saloth's family was of Sino-Khmer descent and Saloth Sar was named accordingly due to his fair complexion ("Sar" means white in Khmer),[15][16] the family had already assimilated themselves with mainstream Khmer society by the time Sar was born.[17]

In 1935, Sar left Prek Sbauv to attend the École Miche, a Catholic school in Phnom Penh. He lived with his cousin, a woman called Meak, a member of the Royal Ballet.[18] In 1926 she bore King Monivong's son, HRH Prince Sisowath Kusarak.[19] She was given the official title Khun Preah Moneang Bopha Norleak Meak. Sar stayed with Meak's household until 1942. His sister Roeung was a concubine of King Monivong, so through the two women, he often had cause to visit the royal palace.[20] In 1947, he gained admission to the exclusive Lycée Sisowath, but was unsuccessful in his studies.

 In May 1975 a squad of Khmer Rouge soldiers raided and took Phu Quoc Island. By 1977, relations with Vietnam began to fall apart. There were small border clashes in January. Pol Pot tried to prevent border disputes by sending a team to Vietnam. The negotiations failed, which caused even more border disputes. On April 30, the Cambodian army, backed by artillery, crossed over into Vietnam. In attempting to explain Pol Pot's behavior, one region-watcher[specify] suggested that Cambodia was attempting to intimidate Vietnam, by irrational acts, into respecting or at least fearing Cambodia to the point they would leave the country alone. However, these actions only served to anger the Vietnamese people and government against the Khmer Rouge.

 In May 1976, Vietnam sent its air force into Cambodia in a series of raids. In July, Vietnam forced a Treaty of Friendship on Laos that gave Vietnam almost total control over the country. In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge commanders in the Eastern Zone began to tell their men that war with Vietnam was inevitable and that once the war started their goal would be to recover parts of Vietnam (Khmer Krom) that were once part of Cambodia, whose people, they alleged, were struggling for independence from Vietnam. It is not clear whether these statements were the official policy of Pol Pot.

 In September 1977, Cambodia launched division-scale raids over the border, which once again left a trail of murder and destruction in villages. The Vietnamese claimed that around 1,000 people had been killed or injured. Three days after the raid, Pol Pot officially announced the existence of the formerly secret Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and finally announced to the world that the country was a Communist state. In December, after having exhausted all other options, Vietnam sent 50,000 troops into Cambodia in what amounted to a short raid. The raid was meant to be secret. The Vietnamese withdrew after declaring they had achieved their goals, and the invasion was just a warning. Upon being threatened, the Vietnamese army promised to return with support from the Soviet Union. Pol Pot's actions made the operation much more visible than the Vietnamese had intended and created a situation in which Vietnam appeared weak.

 After making one final attempt to negotiate a settlement with Cambodia, Vietnam decided that it had to prepare for a full war. Vietnam also tried to pressure Cambodia through China. However, China's refusal to pressure Cambodia and the flow of weapons from China into Cambodia were both signs that China also intended to act against Vietnam.

 When Cambodian communists rebelled in the eastern zone in May 1978 Pol Pot’s armies could not crush them quickly. On May 10 his radio broadcast a call not only to ‘exterminate the 50 million Vietnamese’ but also to ‘purify the masses of the people’ of Cambodia. Of 1.5 million easterners, branded as ‘Khmer bodies with Vietnamese minds’, at least 100,000 were exterminated in six months. Later that year, in response to threats to its borders and the Vietnamese people, Vietnam attacked Cambodia to overthrow the Khmer Rouge, which Vietnam justified on the basis of self-defense.[38] The Cambodian army was defeated, the regime was toppled and Pol Pot fled to the Thai border area. In January 1979, Vietnam installed a new government under Heng Samrin, composed of Khmer Rouge who had fled to Vietnam to avoid the purges. Pol Pot eventually regrouped with his core supporters in the Thai border area where he received shelter and assistance.

 At different times during this period, he was located on both sides of the border. The military government of Thailand used the Khmer Rouge as a buffer force to keep the Vietnamese away from the border. The Thai military also made money from the shipment of weapons from China to the Khmer Rouge. Eventually Pol Pot rebuilt a small military force in the west of the country with the help of the People's Republic of China. The PRC also initiated the Sino-Vietnamese War around this time.

After the Khmer Rouge were driven from power by the Vietnamese in 1979, the United States and other powers[specify] refused to allow the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government to take the seat of Cambodia at the United Nations. The seat, by default, remained in the hands of the Khmer Rouge. These countries justified that decision on the ground that recognising Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia was worse than allowing the Khmer Rouge to hold on to the seat. Also, representatives of these countries argued[citation needed] that both claimants to the seat were Khmer Rouge governments, because Vietnam's Cambodian government was formed from ex-Khmer Rouge cadres.

 Pol Pot lived in the Phnom Malai area, giving interviews in the early 1980s accusing all those who opposed him of being traitors and "puppets" of the Vietnamese until he disappeared from public view. In 1985, his "retirement" was announced, but he retained influence over the party.[39] A cadre interviewed during this period described Pol Pot's views on the death toll under his government:

He said that he knows that many people in the country hate him and think he’s responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn’t keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house he didn’t know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much. For example, he allowed [one person] to take care of central committee business for him, [another person] to take care of intellectuals, and [a third person] to take care of political education.... These were the people to whom he felt very close, and he trusted them completely. Then in the end ... they made a mess of everything.... They would tell him things that were not true, that everything was fine, that this person or that was a traitor. In the end they were the real traitors. The major problem had been cadres formed by the Vietnamese.[40]

In December 1985, the Vietnamese launched a major offensive and overran most of the Khmer Rouge and other insurgent positions. The Khmer Rouge headquarters at Phnom Malai and its base near Pailin were completely destroyed; the Vietnamese attackers suffered substantial losses during the attack.[41]

 Pol Pot fled to Thailand where he lived for the next six years. His headquarters were a plantation villa near Trat. He was guarded by Thai Special Unit 838.

Pol Pot officially resigned from the party in 1985 citing asthma as a contributing factor, but continued as the de facto Khmer Rouge leader and a dominant force within the anti-Vietnam alliance. He handed day to day power to Son Sen, his hand-picked successor.

In 1986, his new wife Mea Son gave birth to a daughter, Sitha, named after the heroine of the Khmer religious epic, the Reamker.[42] Shortly after, Pol Pot moved to China for medical treatment for cancer. He remained there until 1988.

 In 1989, Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge established a new stronghold area in the west near the Thai border and Pol Pot relocated back into Cambodia from Thailand. Pol Pot refused to cooperate with the peace process, and kept fighting the new coalition government. The Khmer Rouge kept the government forces at bay until 1996, when troops started deserting. Several important Khmer Rouge leaders also defected. The government had a policy of making peace with Khmer Rouge individuals and groups after negotiations with the organization as a whole failed. In 1995 Pol Pot experienced a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body.

 Pol Pot ordered the execution of his lifelong right-hand man Son Sen on June 10, 1997 for attempting to make a settlement with the government. Eleven members of his family were killed also, although Pol Pot later denied that he had ordered this. He then fled his northern stronghold, but was later arrested by Khmer Rouge military Chief Ta Mok on June 19, 1997. Pol Pot had not been seen in public since 1980, two years after his overthrow at the hands of an invading Vietnamese army. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a Phnom Penh court soon afterward.[43] In July he was subjected to a show trial for the death of Son Sen and sentenced to lifelong house arrest.[44]

  Death

On the night of April 16, 1998, the Voice of America, of which Pol Pot was a devoted listener, announced that the Khmer Rouge had agreed to turn him over to an international tribunal. According to his wife, he died in his bed later in the night while waiting to be moved to another location. Ta Mok claimed that his death was due to heart failure.[45] Despite government requests to inspect the body, it was cremated a few days later at Anlong Veng in the Khmer Rouge zone,[46] raising suspicions that he committed suicide.[47] His ashes were scattered in a nearby forest.[citation needed]

  International support

  Support from China

The People's Republic of China was regarded as the main international support for the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol Pot. The Chinese provided financial and military support to the party;[48] their motivation being its intense rivalry with Vietnam at the time, which coincided with Pol Pot's plans to regain the ancient lands of the kingdom, which were and remain within neighboring countries such as Vietnam. Beijing communist government did not condemn the persecution of the ethnic Chinese within Cambodia's borders.

  Support from UN

During the Khmer Rouge regime and a period of time directly after, the Khmer Rouge was recognised by UN as a legitimate government, therefore retaining a seat at the UN.[49] While many leaders at the UN attempted to appeal this,[citation needed] the majority allowed the Khmer Rouge (later titled "Democratic Republic of Kampuchea") to keep their seat for 15 years[citation needed] following the genocide.

[comparativetarot]

Page of Pentacles. Art by Ong Hung, from The Southeast Asian Myths & Stories Tarot.

Before King Monivong renamed the beautiful national park area in Kompong Speu Province Kirirom (Happy Mountain) during the 1930's, the place had a different, older name, Phnom Vorvong Sorvong, and the legend of that ancient name is still told by local people to this day. Once upon a time, a king named Preah Bat Sorya ruled a kingdom called Krasonn. He had two wives. His first wife, Vong Thyea, had two sons, Vorvong and Sorvong. His second wife, Montea, had only one son, called Vey Vongsa. As the years passed and the three princes grew up together, Princess Montea became more and more jealous of Princess Vongs Thyea and plotted to win the throne for her own son. One day, she hit upon a plan. "Vorvong and Sovong, will you take a walk with me in the royal garden?" she asked. The unsuspecting boys agreed, but within minutes the scheming second wife had grabbed them, and, while screaming loudly for help, held both boys between her thighs. "They dare to treat me so improperly!" she screamed, and the king was so convinced by her performance he fell into a rage and ordered the boys executed. The boys' mother begged that the place of execution be somewhere away from the royal palace where she would have to live. After her request was granted, she followed the executioners and persuaded them not to kill the princes if they left the kingdom immediately. Princess Vong Thyea gave a ring to each boy. "Promise you will return to me here in 10 years," she told them. The two boys took their mother's message and left the country. They wandered in the forest for many days, sleeping only when they were too exhausted to walk any further. From heaven, the Brahman god Indra looked down on the boys and felt pity. He incarnated himself into a white rooster and a black rooster and emerged from the forest pecking at wild grains near the boys. The two birds exchanged conversation. "I am a black rooster. If someone eats me, he will become a king in seven years," said the first rooster. "As for me, I am a white rooster," the other said. "He who eats me will be king in seven months." Then the two birds fought furiously and fell dead in front of Sovong and Vorvong. Famished, Sovong picked up the white rooster and Vorvong took the black one. Seven months later the boys were still traveling, and when they reached a rest hall in the forest in the kingdom of Kunthop Borei, they decided to stop for the night. The ruler of this kingdom had just died, and his mandarins were scouring the country in search of a new king. Their procession stopped in front of the rest hall just as Sovong awoke. The royal elephant bearing the ornate royal throne on its back stopped still in a manner of respect in front of where the two boys lay. "You must hold our throne," the mandarins told Sovong. But when he asked if he could bring his brother, they refused. He tried to resist their offer, but they would not hear of it, and he was forced to leave Vorvong without saying goodbye and was taken straight to the palace to marry Princess Sar Bopha, the daughter of the previous king. When Vorvong woke, he cried and called out hoping his brother would answer, but there was no reply. Following the elephant's prints, he tracked Sovong to the capital, but the royal guards would not let him see him. So Vorvong resumed his trek. He walked for five days and nights before arriving at the home of an old woman near the royal palace of another ruler called King Thoranith. "Grandmother, may I rest here for just one night?" he asked. "Of course," she smiled, but she had seen the royal ring from his mother that he still wore, and wished to trap him so she could inform the palace she had found a thief. King Thoranith was furious and had his soldiers arrest the boy. "This is my mother's heritage. I am no robber," the brave boy protested, but he was ignored and thrown into a jail cell. It looked as if his adventures were at an end and he prepared to wait out the rest of his life behind bars. One day, a cruel giant came to eat the innocent people of a neighboring kingdom whose ruler was a close ally of King Thoranith. The giant chased the palace guards away and hunted the king and his relatives as prey. The king and his family were forced to seek refuge in a cave. When he heard this, King Thoranith vowed to assist his friend. He tried to launch his fleet of warships, but they were too high on the dry season bank and would not enter the water. Desperate, King Thoranith looked for anyone mighty enough to help him. The boy seized his chance, and sent word to the king that he could manage. "If you succeed, I will not only release you unconditionally, but shower you with rewards," the king promised. Vorvong was a boy who had earned much merit in previous lives, and he launched the war boats effortlessly. The king and his daughter, Princess Kes - kesey, joined their soldiers in the boat and sailed off to help their friends. That night, Princess Kes-kesy dreamed that an old man came to her and told her that the royal boy was her husband from a previous life. When she awoke, she began thinking of Vorvong in a way she never had before. A seed of love for him had been planted. The two kings discussed tactics they could use against the giant, but all seemed hopeless. King Thoranith thought for a moment, then had Vorvong brought before him again. "Can you kill the giant?" he asked. "I can, but I will need camouflage," the boy said. "Give me your sacred sword and battle dress and I will do what you ask." Fooled into thinking it was the king coming to fight him, the giant rushed to eat Vorvong and died at the point of his sword. "You have proved to me that you are a very powerful man," King Thoranith said. "I name you successor to my crown and offer you my daughter, Princess Kes - kesey, as your queen." The other king, grateful to Vorvong for saving his family, also offered his daughter and his crown to the boy, who now found himself ruler of two countries with two queens. But Preah Vorvong had not forgotten his mother's request to return, nor his brother. One day, he set off to find his brother and return to his homeland to visit. After a long and difficult journey, the two were reunited and their combined armies marched on their former homeland, surrounding the country. They learned that their father, Preah Bat Sorya, kept their mother locked in an iron cage, accusing her of being evil, and had given the throne to their young half-brother. When their half-brother, King Vey Vongsa, saw the might of their armies he retaliated with his own elephant troops and was killed in the battle. Their father quickly surrendered but when he met the two invading kings he did not recognize them, convinced his sons had been killed on his own orders years before. But when he saw their rings, he finally acknowledged they were his sons and listened to their story. Realizing how wrong he had been, he ordered the executioners to take Princess Montea, the second wife who had caused the boys and their mother so much suffering, and behead her. He released their mother and offered the two sons the throne, and a long era of peace and stability for all people in the region followed. To this day, travelers to Chambok commune, in the Phnom Sruoch district of Kompong Speu province, can see a stone statue of a headless woman. This is Neang Montea, a jealous and greedy person. Everyone who passes her statue today remembers her for this and locals say they should stop and reflect on what happens to people who take this path in life

Joint card art with the Page of Swords: