credited to equitycam

Click the image to view the recipe.

  June 4th marks the 60th Anniversary of Cambodia’s loss territory to Vietnam. The French illegally transferred southern Cambodia (Kampuchea Krom) to north Vietnam. Since 1949 -for fifty nine years – –, many southern Cambodian (Khmer Krom/Kampuchea Krom) have been living in the darkness, suffering, torturing, ethnic cleansing, disease, human right abuse, genocide…under Vietnamese regime. [...]]]>  

  June 4th marks the 60th Anniversary of Cambodia’s loss territory to Vietnam. The French illegally transferred southern Cambodia (Kampuchea Krom) to north Vietnam. Since 1949 -for fifty nine years – –, many southern Cambodian (Khmer Krom/Kampuchea Krom) have been living in the darkness, suffering, torturing, ethnic cleansing, disease, human right abuse, genocide…under Vietnamese regime. Cambodian were forced to be Vietnamese, speak, dress, and obey their rules.  The communist’s media, billboard signs sending fatherly-like message to Kampuchea Krom that Vietnam is one. Play all tricks and lies by all means and erasing the original Cambodian history books and rewritten in Vietnamese text books that southern Cambodia did not exist and that southern Cambodian (Kampuchea Krom) are the Vietnamese "ethnic minority." Cambodian land, street, building, signs that were written in Khmer language were torn and replaced in Vietnamese language and mostly in red and yellow colors. June 4th, 1949, Cambodian southern territory was stolen and became "south" Vietnam. North and south Vietnam joined. Dark history for Cambodia.

Today, "Khmer Krom communities around the world are currently heading to their local temples to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of loss of Kampuchea-Krom to Vietnam. The rich fertile land of the Mekong Delta was transferred to Vietnam by France on 4th June 1949 without the consent of the indigenous Khmer Krom people.

Burden with a heavy hearts and great sadness, this day remains a significant event for the Khmer Krom people. Heroes and nationalists as well as Khmer Krom Buddhist monks are remembered for their bravery and sacrifice to help keep the Khmer culture alive despite Vietnam’s numerous and continuous attempts to implement cultural genocide against the Khmer Krom.

In Kampuchea-Krom such an event remains severely prohibited by the communist Vietnam government."

Source: http://khmerkrom.org/eng/?q=node/18   www.Khmerkrom.net  http://www.unpo.org/  http://www.sacrava.blogspot.com/

Propaganda billboard- Ho Chi Minh holding a child as suppose to take over Cambodia and Laos.

Human right abuse-Kampuchea Krom monks was beaten by Vietnamese authority. Women, men children were caused by disease and human right abuse.

Kuy Teaw Kho Ko- is Cambodian rice noodle with beef stew or thick broth soup. Kho (khor) means caramelize or thick soup style in Cambodian language. Ko means cow or beef. Kuy Teaw Kho Ko is one of the most popular dish in Cambodia (midland and Khmer Krom). This authentic Khmer dish is getting very [...]]]>

Kuy Teaw Kho Ko- is Cambodian rice noodle with beef stew or thick broth soup. Kho (khor) means caramelize or thick soup style in Cambodian language. Ko means cow or beef. Kuy Teaw Kho Ko is one of the most popular dish in Cambodia (midland and Khmer Krom). This authentic Khmer dish is getting very popular in many Vietnamese restaurants.  As the southern Cambodian (Khmer Krom) described this soup.

“Authentic Khmer Krom beef stew with noodle soup is delicious. This recipe is good with French bread, with *katiev* white noodle, *mee* yellow egg noodle or with rice.
Khmer Krom beef stew is very popular in Kampuchea Krom, most restaurants have Khmer Krom beef stew on their menus under Vietnamese name *Hu Tieu Bo Kho*.”

Below is a salubrious recipe from Khmer Krom (southern Cambodia) site.

Ingredients :
8 Cups water
1 Package rice pho noodle
ｽ lb Beef tripe
ｽ Cup vinegar
3 Tablespoons baking soda
4 Cups water
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Yellow onion, chopped
ｽ Teaspoon grated fresh fresh ginger
1 lb Beef chucks, cut in to 3 inches cubes
ｼ Teaspoon cloves powder
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
ｽ Teaspoon paprika pepper
ｼ Teaspoon black pepper
6 Cups of water
1 canned, 8 oz Hunt’s tomato sauce
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 cloves of star anise
3 Stalks lemon grass, bundle and tie together with it leaf
2 carrots, cut 1ｽ inches in length
4 Stalks of green onion, chopped
Herbs and condiments:
A handful of sweet basil leaves and cilantro
ｽ lb bean sprout
1 Lime or lemon, sliced
Chopped hot chili pepper( option)
Procedures :
Put 8 cups water in large pot, cook till water bubbling, add noodle to boiling water and cook till it tender, do not over cook noodle. Pour cooked noodle in a colander, rinsed under cold water, drained and set a side.
To clean beef tripe, soaked in vinegar and water, rinsed well, rubs baking soda on beef tripe, rinsed well. Put beef tripe in a small soup pot with 4 cups water, cook for 20 minutes. Removed beef tripe from soup pot, drained, rinsed and cut to chunks bite sizes, set a side.
Pre-heat a large soup pot.
When soup pot is hot, add oil,saut・garlic, onion,ginger,beef meat, cloves powder,stirs well.
Seasoning with soy sauce, fish sauce, salt, sugar, paprika pepper and black pepper, stirs well.
Add water, tomato sauce, tomato paste, stirs well, add star anise, lemongrass and simmering till beef almost tender.
Add carott and beef tripe, stirs and cook till carrot tender.
Top with green onions before serve.
Serve hot with French bread or with noodle.
To serve with noodle:
Put some cooked noodle in a large bowl, add beef stew and top with green onion. Serve hot along with ingredients from * Herbs and condiments.*
To serve with bread;
For creamier soup to eat with French bread, mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with ｼ cup water in a small bowl, pour in beef stew, stirs till soup thicken.

Source: www.KhmerKromrecipes.com

Ingredients: Khmer water spinach  (trokuon)pork ribs, cut in pieces  ripe tamarind or tamarind powderChicken flavored broth or chicken broth cubefish sauce saltcooking oil [...]]]> Somlor Machu Kreung Ktih Sach Chrook – Flavorful Cambodian pork rib and beef tendon braised coconut with water spinach, lemon grass paste and ripe tamarind. A combination of nutty and tangy taste.

Ingredients:
Khmer water spinach  (trokuon)
pork ribs, cut in pieces 
ripe tamarind or tamarind powder
Chicken flavored broth or chicken broth cube
fish sauce
salt
cooking oil
coconut milk
prohok (fermented fish)
Mreas Prov (holy basil)
beef tendon (optional)
Lemon grass paste – Kreung

Making Kreung: (Lemon grass paste) 1) Remove seeds from dried chili and soak in water until soft.  Squeeze the water out. Then mince it. 2) Thinly cut lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galanga, tumeric root, garlic and  fresh shallots *Pound  # 1 & 2 well together  in a (Cambodian) mortar or grind them in the blender.	**Extract tamarind: Put water and ripe tamarind together and bring to first boil. Smash it with a ladle or spoon to release the sourness. Then drain and keep it for later use.	Separate trokuon leaves from the stalk. Then wash well. Drain it and keep it for later use.

Preparation:

A) In medium high heat, add cooking oil in a pot, then add Kreung, a little bit of fish sauce and salt. Cook for about 7 or until Kreung is a little dry. Then add coconut milk. Stir well, cook the coconut milk until thick.	B )Add pork ribs. Stir well  until the meat is cooked. Then add beef tendon, prohok. Add water and loosely cover and let it boil until the meat is tender.	C) Add trokuon stalk. Cook until soft then add tamarind extract or powder, stir and add trokuon leaves. More or less salt, sugar, chicken flavored broth or cube… adjust your taste! *Serve hot and top with mreah prov (holy basil).

**Note** 
-In case you can’t find ripe tamarind, you may use tamarind powder made by KNOR. It’s more convenient. And if you are using tamarind powder, you do not need to use chicken flavored broth or chicken cube since both have the MSG base. 

-Beef tendon (optional). If you’d like, in a separate pot, slow cook it for hours until translucent and tender. Then slice cube and add  it to the soup (see letter B).

Making chei peou chu`aem: Wash the salted preserved turnips well and pat dry. Thinly slice [...]]]> Chei Peou Chu`aem – Cambodian sweet and sour preserved turnips. Made with salted preserved turnips, dried chili, lemon, sugar.
 

Chei Peou Chu`aem is usually eaten with congee as breakfast ( as seen in the photo) or can be served with steam rice.

Making chei peou chu`aem:
Wash the salted preserved turnips well and pat dry.
Thinly slice and soak in cold water for 10 minutes to get rid of the salt.
Then wash it a few times and squeeze it dry.
Marinate it with sugar, lemon or vinegar.
De-seed  dried chili and thinly slice, then gently mix with chei peou.

By Sandra Wilson  Source: CampusAsia

Born and brought up in Cambodia, one [...]]]> These days Vichara Chhy spends her time studying for her exams at Murdoch University in Western Australia and chatting with friends, like any other student. In fact, though, she is a remarkable young woman and, at only 22, a true citizen of the world already.

By Sandra Wilson 
Source: CampusAsia

Born and brought up in Cambodia, one of the world’s poorest countries, she has already won a Cambodian government scholarship to study in Japan, studied English at the University of California at Berkeley, been selected for a Japanese university exchange program to study for a year at Murdoch University, and won selection to attend international youth congresses in Glasgow in June and in Quebec in August 2008.
Vichara is full of ideals. Most of all, she wants to do something to help the recovery of her country. Cambodia still suffers the lingering effects of the disastrous Khmer Rouge period of the 1970s, in which perhaps one-third of the population died and a great deal of infrastructure was destroyed.

More damage was done even after the overthrow of Pol Pot, during the Vietnamese occupation and the long civil war that followed. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find anyone in Cambodia who is still not affected by those terrible years, and in many ways the country remains in shock.

Now that peace has come to Cambodia, Vichara says, “it is time to begin reconstruction to help Cambodia’s economy to catch up with other countries in the region, and to give hope to the young generation.”

“I want to use everything I learn from abroad to help Cambodia achieve sustainable development in this new century.”

Her own ambition is to specialize in Economics, because it will play such an important role in reconstruction.

Some of her own family were killed during the Khmer Rouge years, and Vichara is also driven by a desire to make up for what those relatives couldn’t do in their shortened lives. She studied hard and has a special love for mathematics.

In 2002 she was placed among the top ten best students in the National Mathematics competition in Cambodia. Then she was selected with two other students for a Cambodian government scholarship to study in Japan. Her desire to study in Japan, she says, stems from the conviction that Japan provides the best example in Asia of economic transformation, especially in its recovery from the disastrous effects of the Second World War. Vichara is currently majoring in Economics and English at Ryukoku University in Japan. Then in early 2008 she arrived in Perth, courtesy of Ryukoku’s partnership agreement with Murdoch University.

Murdoch University has exchange agreements with several Japanese universities, enabling Murdoch students who study Japanese language to spend a full year studying in Japan as part of their Bachelor of Asian Studies specialist degree.

Australia, Vichara says, is not only an ideal place for her to improve her English, which will be vital in her future career, but is also a great place to study economics. In recent decades, she says, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy.

‘It has impressed me a lot to learn that robust business and consumer confidence, together with high export prices for raw materials and agricultural products, are fuelling the economy, particularly in the mining states. The Cambodian economy, too, is based on agriculture and raw materials, including rubber, oil and gas, so there is a lot for me to learn here’.

Vichara was selected to attend the 8th World Assembly in Glasgow in June of CIVICUS, an international alliance formed in 1993 to encourage citizen action and democracy. Then she plans to go on to the 4th World Youth Congress in Quebec City in August, though she is still seeking funding to allow this dream to come true.

Recipe in Khmer:

(Request from Mrs.Kay N.)

Source: KI-Media Letter from Amb. Julio Jeldres to the PPP regarding Preah Vihear temple 23 July 2008

The EditorThe Phnom Penh Post888 Buidling F, 8th FloorPhnom Penh CenterCorner Sothearos & Sihanouk BlvKhan Chamkarmon, Phnom PenhCambodia

Dear Editor:

My attention has been drawn to your reporting of events concerning the temple of [...]]]> Preah Vihear is Khmer temple NOT HINDU TEMPLE!

Source: KI-Media
Letter from Amb. Julio Jeldres to the PPP regarding Preah Vihear temple
23 July 2008

The Editor
The Phnom Penh Post
888 Buidling F, 8th Floor
Phnom Penh Center
Corner Sothearos & Sihanouk Blv
Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh
Cambodia

Dear Editor:

My attention has been drawn to your reporting of events concerning the temple of Preah Vihear over the past week. I notice that your reporters have referred to Preah Vihear as being “a disputed 11th century Hindu monument”.

May I point out that the temple of Preah Vihear is not a “Hindu monument” but a Khmer sanctuary, built by Khmer kings and dedicated to Shiva the Hindu god. Indeed, construction of the temple was began under the rule of the Khmer king Jasovarman I (889-910 AD) and completed during the rule of one of his successors, king Suryavarman II (1113-1145).

It should be understood that for past Khmer kings, a sanctuary was first and foremost a cosmological recreation. Thus, the construction of Khmer sanctuaries in the form of multi-tiered Pyramids meant that the place was considered a sacred cosmic mountain. This was particularly noticeable in the temples dedicated to Shiva, because of the association with the god’s mountain home –Mount Kailasa-. A mountain or a cliff top location, as in the case of Preah Vihear, was always the first choice for the Khmer architects building these major temples.

The fact that Preah Vihear is a Khmer sanctuary and not a “Hindu monument” has been extensively acknowledged by most experts in Khmer architecture including in such books published in Thailand by Thai authors like Professor S. Siribhadra of Silpakorn University in Bangkok in 1992, Dr. Dhida Saraya in 1994 and by the Italian author Vittorio Roveda in 2000.

There is no dispute over the temple itself but rather over surrounding land that is claimed by both Cambodia and Thailand. The temple has always been Khmer, except for a period when it was occupied by Siam from 1431 to 1907. In 1431, under the reign of the Siamese king Chao Saam Phraya (Boromrajadhiraj II) who ruled from 1424 to 1448, in what is known as the Ayutthaya period of Siamese (Thai) history, the armies of Siam defeated the Khmer armies and forced the evacuation of Angkor and the capital of the Khmer Empire was moved to Oudong and then to Phnom Penh. The Siamese armies occupied Battambang, Sisophon, Siemreap-Angkor as well as Preah Vihear and they were annexed into Siam.

On March 23, 1907, king Chulalongkorn (Rama V) signed the Franco-Siamese boundary treaty with the President of France, by which Siam agreed to return Battambang, Sisophon, Siemreap-Angkor as well as Preah Vihear to Cambodia, under French protectorate, in exchange for Chantaburi, Trat and the land of Dan Sai in Loei province of today’s Thailand.

According to the American scholar Lawrence Palmer Briggs and to other French scholars, Siam had made no attempt to colonize the provinces or to convert its citizens into Siamese subjects. Indeed, during the whole period of Siamese suzerainty this region was the hereditary fief of a Cambodian family and was ruled according to Cambodian customs and few could speak the Siamese language, using always Khmer to communicate.

Thailand took advantage of the Second World War to regain part of the territory that it had previously returned to Cambodia, under French protectorate. However, we the defeat of the Japanese and the end of hostilities French authority was restored in Indochina and in 1946 by the treaty of Washington, Thailand ceded the border provinces back once again.

In 1953, when King Norodom Sihanouk obtained full independence for Cambodia and refused to join the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), Thailand, under the pretext to strengthen its border, established a police post in the Dangrek mountain range, just north of Preah Vihear temple and hoisted the Thai flag over the temple and expelled the Cambodian officials posted to the temple by the Royal Cambodian government.

Cambodia sent several diplomatic notes to Thailand seeking a negotiated solution of the problem but Thailand did not reply until August 1958 when negotiations were held in Bangkok but ended in failure.

At that time, in a gesture to keep the friendship between the two countries, Cambodia proposed two solutions to Thailand: a) the joint administration of the Khmer sanctuary and b) that the matter be referred to the International Court of Justice.

As Thailand did not reply to the Cambodian proposal, in October 1959, King Norodom Sihanouk decided to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice for adjudication.

Commenting on Cambodia’s decision to take the case to the ICJ, the leading Bangkok newspaper “Siam Rath” editorialised as follows:

“If Cambodia has taken this matter to the ICJ, we cannot prevent her from doing so. It is her right to do it. She is in her right because the ICJ is an organ of the United Nations having the mission of peacefully settling differences between its members… As for the Thai government, faced with this correct attitude on the part of the Cambodian government, it should accept it in a friendly spirit and with the honesty worthy of a member of the United Nations”.

On June 15th 1962, the judgment of the ICJ was announced. By nine votes in favour and three against, it held that Preah Vihear was under the sovereignty of Cambodia. The ICJ urged Thailand to immediately withdraw any military, police and any other guards or keepers from the site.

Thailand was disappointed by the ICJ’s judgment. It withdrew its Ambassador from France and its delegations from the SEATO Council and the Geneva Conference on Laos, in protest to what it felt was the “uncooperative behaviour of some of its SEATO allies”, members also of the ICJ, and which had voted for Cambodia.

The Thai Foreign Minister at the time, Mr Thanat Khoman, rejected the ICJ ruling of behalf of the Thai government and wrote to U Thant, the UN Secretary General, expressing his government reservations but providing no new legal argument which would back up the Thai government’s reservations.

Furthermore, and I think this is of fundamental importance, he attached to his letter to U Thant, a map in which it was clearly stated: ”The map representing the area where the Temple of Preah Vihear (Pra Viharn in Thai language) is situated, over which Thailand has relinquished her sovereignty”.

I fear that by continuing to refer to Preah Vihear as a “disputed 11th century Hindu monument”, your esteemed newspaper is contributing to the misunderstanding existing over the sovereignty of the temple which has always been a Khmer temple, built by Khmer rulers in honour of a Hindu god.

Yours sincerely,

Ambassador Julio A. Jeldres
Official Biographer of HM the King Father
Samdech Preah Upayuvareach Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia
Research Fellow, Monash University’s Asia Institute

“According to the joint statement of 18 June 2008, signed by the Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Sok An, and by Thai Foreign Minister Mr. Noppadon Pattama, and Mrs. Françoise Rivière, UNESCO Deputy Director for Culture, about the listing of the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage Site, and [...]]]> Post found in Blog By Khmer:

“According to the joint statement of 18 June 2008, signed by the Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Sok An, and by Thai Foreign Minister Mr. Noppadon Pattama, and Mrs. Françoise Rivière, UNESCO Deputy Director for Culture, about the listing of the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage Site, and a new map that the Cambodian government sent to UNESCO, we found a part of Cambodian territory at the west and the north of the temple (or Area 3) is lost.
“The Cambodian government seems to fall into a trap of Thailand by listing only the body of the Preah Vihear Temple and the areas which extend 30 meters from the temple, but do not include the Area 3 which should also have been listed.

“According to our own experience from visits with students from different universities in Phnom Penh in 2001 and 2004, we found that the Cambodian government is creating a loss of land, by agreeing to create a new map, especially as it does not include Area 3 as Cambodian territory. Obviously, based on two visits, we found that the loss of land in Area 3 is an obstacle for tourists to climb up to the Preah Vihear Temple from Cambodia, because the areas at the east and the south are extremely steep to climb up and go down.
“According to the Deputy Director of the Cambodian Border Committee, it shows that The Hague International Court of Justice in 1962 used a 1:2000 scale map for the Preah Vihear Temple, and that map is being kept at the court. In addition, the French-Siem [Thai] Treaties in 1904 and 1907 show clearly the land border and sea border between Cambodia and Thailand, especially they show that the Area 3 definitely belongs to Cambodia, which contradicts some Thai positions which say that the border at the Preah Vihear Temple is at the steps to the temples.
“We agree with UNESCO, working to maintain cultural heritage, but we cannot give up the Hague verdict of 1962 about the Preah Vihear Temple and its area, based on the 1904 and 1907 French-Siem Treaties, especially the listing of land in Area 3 – otherwise Cambodia will lose this land to Thailand.
”We found that Thailand never dared to invade territories of Malaysia or Burma, because the governments of both countries are strongly committed to protect their territories. Only the territory of Cambodia has repeatedly been invaded by Thailand.. Moreover, Thailand never dared to protest officially on the international level; it just tries to make trouble for Cambodia. This shows that Thailand intends to invade Khmer territory and to block the Cambodian economic breath of tourism, absorbed by the Preah Vihear Temple. “We would like to give the recommendation to the Cambodian government, that if the government is still intent to list the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage Site, being an independent nation with patriotism, the government has to:
Remove the new map and use a map from The Hague for the proposal of the listing of the temple.
__________________________________________________________________________________

“Preah Vihear was built in the 10th and 11th century by the august kings of former Cambodian Empire- Suryavarman I and Suryavarman II ” before the arrival of Tai (Thai) tribes from southern China.