Human Settlement and Agricultural Practice

As noted above, this area used to be the ancient capital of a Khmer kingdom:

By the early 7^th century the centers of political power… had shifted away from coastal; an agricultural economy, rather than maritime trade economy, predominated. (Vickery 1998: 20)

107 Kampong Thom province is located in the central part of the Tonle Sap region, and according to the Ministry of Planning Census 1998 has a population of 569,060 (272,8444 males and 296,216 female).

108 See ecological profile of Sambo village in Map 4

109 In this thesis, I have followed the spelling of Khmer names used by local government and development agencies, hence

“Sambo.” It should be noted that this spelling differs from that found in the General Population Census of Cambodia, 1998 and on topographic maps, in particular those printed before 1970s, reflecting historical differences in the way that Cambodian words have been Romanized.

110A vat is a Buddhist temple complex or monastery. As well as a center for religious worship, a vat is also a place where community members gather to relax and visit with each other, hence the common phrase tao leng Vat: “go to visit/enjoy[oneself] at the temple.”

Vickery describes two typical chiefdom leaders in the pre-Angkor period of Cambodian history, pÕn and mratãň. Both were titles of a chief or leader in a different period; pÕn was the title of leader sometime before the 8th century, and mratãň was the title used after the 8^th century.¹¹¹ PÕn was a position inherited matrilineally through the sister’s sons, and mratãň was inherited through patrilineal kinship (Vickery 1998:

19 and 23). Both of them were leaders of a village or a community.

“A pÕn was chief of a settlement, and the typical pÕn-dom was a large village, or a supravillage of several hundred or a thousand or more villagers living around or near a pond, sometimes one artificially constructed, and growing at least enough rice for self-sufficiency.” (Vickery 1998:19)

The chiefs had authority to assign their subjects to work duties for the benefit of the clan or community, or eventually for the chief themselves. These low-ranking persons were called kñum (Vickery 1998: 27)¹¹². Inscriptions such as K.155 (Vickery 1998: 303) describing donations of people, cattle, buffalos, rice fields and clothes to temples, as well as the ancient monuments, also testify to the rich cultural history of the area.

Another source for the reconstruction of the history of Sambo is the history of rice cultivation in the region. As stated by Huke (1990):

The earliest settlements of those persons responsible for domestication undoubtedly were in areas offering a wide range of plant and animal associations within a limited geographical area. Such sites offered a variety of food sources over a span of seasons to societies dependent on hunting and gathering for their food supply. These earliest settlements might well have been near the edge of the uplands, but on gently rolling topography and close to small rivers that provided a reliable water supply…The earliest agriculture, a simple form of swidden… (Huke, 1990).

Sambo village has many of the characteristics of Huke’s description of a typical early settlement: there is a river running nearby and the topography is gently lower from the north to toward river at the south (see also Chay et.al., 2003: 210). There is also evidence of an ancient anthro-morphological landscape, confirmed by aerial photography and field surveys. Many ancient ponds have been found in the northern part of the area, and traces of ancient canals and embankments have been found near a natural river (see aerial photo of Sambo village).

The earliest form of agriculture was probably a simple form of swidden, a form of rice cultivation that does not require leveling the field (Huke, 1990). As van Lière (1980:267) argued, “early farmers tried to avoid the strenuous labour of clearing densely overgrown lands; they appreciated the value of farm systems that required little or no labour.” While the people of nearby Kampong Chheuteal village practice flood recession rice cultivation, the peasants of Sambo village seem to have always preferred shifting rice cultivation, and may never have practiced the technique of flood recession rice cultivation until after the Khmer Rouge period. During my ethnographical field research, an 87 year-old woman reported being told by her great-grandfather that:

111 The title pÕn disappeared from the inscriptions by the eighth century and was replaced by terms based on the title mratãň (Vickery 1998: 23).

112 Kñum for this term, some scholars translated as slave, as they referred to modern Khmer terminology. The other meaning of kñum, are: I or Me or My.

Our grandparents never practiced dry-season flood recession rice…to cultivate rice, it was very easy, while the raining season comes…plough and then broadcast finally harvest. The production was very huge…at that time we did not need to add any fertilizer to the rice field and we did not need to work hard as today!)¹¹³

Shifting agriculture, like flood rice, does not require the leveling of the field, and involves a dry harvest, which is easier than the wet harvest of flood rice. Reciprocal labor systems are needed to plant rain-fed rice, and a joint work force is needed to harvest on time in the rainy season.

These clues, when brought together with other evidence, allow for a tentative reconstruction of the history of the Sambo region. Initially, the inhabitants lived in groups, and food was gathered using reciprocal labor systems under the supervision of a chief. This “chiefdom” evolved into a “pÕn-dom”

sometime before the sixth century. Shifting agriculture — in which peasants clear the land, burn it and then plant or broadcast seed rice (techniques still practiced today in Sambo village) — was practiced. Peasants would have been familiar with shifting agriculture because they were of “wild” origins, and “le Cambodgien est un homme de la forêt” (Ovesen et. al. 1996: 24). Epigraphical and archeological evidence shows social units scattered to the north of the present day Sambo village in an area where there are many ancient ponds (see aerial photo of Sambo village). The peasants planted rice somewhere near their households, and drew water from the ponds for irrigation and domestic uses.¹¹⁴

Sometime in the late sixth century, peasants in the Sambo region began practicing both shifting and flood rice agriculture. This is perhaps the period when the region began to be influenced by what is now the southern part of Cambodia, a region where flood rice and trade dominated. However, shifting remained the predominant form of agriculture in the Sambo region, and reciprocal labor systems were led by pÕn.

Reciprocal labor systems were promoted for agricultural purposes, and for purposes of religion, trade and the institution of kingship. The causeway (see aerial photo of Sambo village) that extended out from the main temple to the east, connected by a large stairway that can be seen to this day, was the result of one of these reciprocal labor systems organized by mratãň, and some pÕn. By the eighth century, during the time of Sambo Prey Kuk’s prosperity, the social organization of pÕn had been completely replaced by mratãň, peasants practiced recession rice, and reciprocal labor systems were almost completely controlled by the state. (Vickery 1998:23).

From the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, even after the centers of political power moved to Angkor, the Sambo region continued to experience development in agricultural techniques. As ecological and socio-economical systems changed as a result of demographic increase and over-exploitation of forest, support from reciprocal labor systems was required. At this time people’s livelihoods were based on shifting, broadcasting¹¹⁵ (both rain-fed and flood-fed) agriculture, and perhaps also transplantation. Reciprocal labor systems played a role with all three types, mostly for the first and third type, as these two types require

113 Personal communication with a group of old people- 65-87 years old, at Wat Sambo, September 2002.

114 Hanks (1972) argues that shifting agriculture requires more labor than lowland broadcasting or transplanting, but his calculations may have been based on broadcast shifting agriculture

115 Broadcasting rice can be watered either by floodwater (“flood-fed rice”) or by rainwater (“rain-fed rice”). Even in the highlands, where floodwater does not reach, people broadcast rice, which is fed by rainwater.

more labor participation: transplanting and harvesting require precise timing and are difficult for a small group or family labor to carry out. The second type, flood-fed agriculture, may have been practiced inside the family unit. As at Angkor, political leaders used reciprocal labor systems for religious and trade reasons as well as political legitimacy. This means that two labor systems co-existed side by side: reciprocal labor systems (practiced among peasants) and labor service (a client serves patron without payment). The reciprocal labor systems were more decentralized in nature, while the latter was more centralized.

It is necessary to note here that in some inscriptions, there was mention of the movement of people from south to north in order to make a new kingdom in northern Cambodia. Jayavarman II the first of the Angkorian kings brought both officials and ordinary people from the south to settle in the new capital (Vickery 1991a: 3). In some of the first Angkorian inscriptions, there are records of the list of districts from which these people came (Vickery 1991b: 4) including Bhimapura (located in present day Battambang province), Sresthapura (modern-day Kampong Thom and Kampong Cham provinces) and Isanapura (Sambo Prey Kuk region). Fox and Ledgerwood (1999) assert that recession rice was important at Angkor Borei (believed by historians to be the first Khmer kingdom). This may be is true, but other forms of rice cultivation doubtlessly existed as well.

Between the 15^th and 17^th centuries, Angkor was abandoned as the capital, and the basis of the economy reverted to river trade in forest products. New capitals emerged in the south near Phnom Penh. The great hydraulic works of Angkor were never repeated. (Chandler 1993, Helmers 1997: 1). In the Sambo region, peasants cultivated rainy season rice using three different types of cultivation techniques: shifting agriculture, flood rice, and some transplanting. Recession rice was abandoned as forest product trading provided enough surplus income for subsistence. At that time, reciprocal labor systems were used mainly for shifting agriculture.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, rural life and rice production were dominated by war, as Thai, Vietnamese and Khmer forces fought throughout Cambodian territory, destroying villages, and killing and displacing the inhabitants. (Chandler 1993, Helmers 1997: 2) During this period, peasants in the Sambo area had to live in the forest to avoid capture and destruction by foreign enemies. Instead of cultivating lowland rice, they practiced shifting agriculture. Fields of smaller size were used, and reciprocal labor systems had fewer participants to avoid discovery by enemies.

In 1863, the French established a Protectorate in Cambodia, which would eventually be incorporated into the French Indochina Union. The French colonial presence would last for the next 90 years. One of the French policies toward rice exportation from Cambodia was to create a higher per capita rate of tax on rice than anywhere else in French Indochina (Helmers: 1997: 3). This meant that the more surplus rice peasants produced, the more tax would have to be paid. In Sambo village, peasants repeat the stories of their grandparents about the difficulties of rice cultivation during the French period. Their grandparents had to hide some products in the forest and underground to escape from taxation. Labor was also taxed, in the

form of head taxes. Each family had the duty of sending a member to join colonial-run corvée (labor force mobilizing) projects such as road construction.

Since peasants were heavily taxed, they had no motivation to increase production by using variant types of rice cultivation, such as transplantation. (Mak 1998: 32) They used reciprocal labor systems only for shifting agriculture and for plowing rice fields for broadcasting on some occasions. Elderly peasants who are now 70-87 years old told me about the richness of natural resources and fertile soil which favored rice cultivation: “We just plowed the field and then broadcast, and didn’t care about water, fertilizer and pesticides.”

After Cambodia’s independence, between 1953 and 1970, rice production was controlled by the state via two governmental institutions: the Office of the Royal Cooperative (OROC) and the Société nationale d’exportation et d’importation (SONEXIM). At the rural level a state convention model cooperative Reach Sahakkor (Royal Cooperative), was created. The existing OROC parastatal became responsible for the purchase and processing of the rice export crop, which was then sold through SONEXIM (Helmers 1997:4). During my fieldwork in Sambo village, the Reach Sahakor was never mentioned. Instead, peasants described rice cultivation activities carried out by the head of the family, using broadcasting techniques of rain-fed lowland rice. During this period, the use of reciprocal labor systems was very rare, perhaps only used by peasants for shifting cultivation.

Between 1970-1975, there was a civil war between the Khmer Rouge resistance and the United States-backed Lon Nol government. During most of the civil war, the Sambo region, like many remote areas, was under Khmer Rouge control. Informants reported no change in rice cultivation practices or the use of reciprocal labor systems during this period, but the constant warfare meant that peasants all over the country found it difficult to cultivate and harvest rice, and Cambodia suffered a food shortage. In 1974, 282,000 tons of rice had to be imported by a US “food for peace” program (Mak 1997: 38).

When the Khmer Rouge held power between 1975-1979, “southern” kraom, or “below”¹¹⁶ techniques of flood recession rice cultivation and the use of the irrigation tool “pedaling noria” (rohat theak) were imported into the Sambo region¹¹⁷. Villagers complained to me about the hard work involved in operating norias during the Khmer Rouge time. They told me that they were forced to dig a canal (which has now been refilled; no trace remains) and attempted to build a dam across an ancient canal. During this period, there were no reciprocal labor systems; everyone belonged to the state-designated Sahakor (“co-operative”).

116 “southern” kraom, or “below”, the usage of these terms depends on the geographical position where the speakers are located within the Cambodian territory. People of the most northern part of Cambodia, such as in Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri people uses these terms to refer to the people of lower part of the Cambodia, and for them “Kraom” is located in Kampong Cham province or others. For people of Preach Vihear province, they used Kraom refer to people from Kampong Cham or Kampong Thom provinces. The people of Kampong Thom used these terms to call the people or location in Takeo or Kandal provinces. The people of Phnom Penh use these words to call the people from the Kampuchea Kraom (the former territory of Cambodia, which is now day is the southern part of Vietnam).

117 I would like to reiterate my argument here that Sambo villagers have never used dry-season recession rice.

After the Khmer Rouges were forced out of power in 1979, a Vietnamese-backed, socialist government held power between 1979-1989. Solidarity groups known as krom samaki, consisting of 20-25 families, constituted the basic unit of production, and were organized under village and commune administration.

(Helmers 1997: 6). As reported by Ovesen et.al. (1997:19) and Frings (1994:49) the krom samaki “not only aimed at organizing the peasants in order to increase production, but also doctrinated them to serve the political objectives of the government and fight enemies”. Mak (1997: 49-50) lists three types of krom samaki:

Type one involved the greatest level of collectivization of means of production such as land, farm tools, work force and farm work. Type two was approached in two ways. The first way was that, after all rice land had been transplanted by collective work, the fields were distributed to each family to look after and harvest individually. The second way was that, land and farm tools were distributed to groups families (10-15) within the village; the land was farmed on a family basis but they help each other in ploughing, uprooting, transplanting and/or harvesting as in pravas dai (exchange labour) that used to be done traditionally. Type three involved division of land among families, and all production was organized individually.

As we see from this, type two was mixed with the traditional reciprocal labor systems, and it was the dominant type, due to the advantages it provided in organizing production and for purchasing subsidized farms inputs. (Mak 1997:50) But this is not the whole picture. The reality was that peasants themselves initiated these reciprocal labor systems because they suited the local situation (in terms of agricultural technique, ecology, socio-economy and religion) more than the state-promoted krom samaki.

The state-sponsored krom samaki systems were not instituted in the Sambo region due to political insecurity in the area. Even though the area was nominally under government control, between 1979-1992 Khmer Rouge forces were active in the area, moving from place to place and disturbing the government.

Today, large areas of secondary forests (especially inside the ancient monument area), abandonment of dry-season recession rice cultivation and discarded irrigation tools (which had been imported during the Khmer Rouge regime) demonstrate that the peasants have rejected the krom samaki system¹¹⁸. Instead, they took the land allotted to them by the state (based on the number of family members) and resumed shifting rice, wet rice, lowland broadcasting, and transplantation rice cultivation. Peasants also returned to traditional reciprocal labor systems to support shifting and wet rice lowland cultivation.

In 1989-1992, Vietnamese troops were withdrawn from Cambodia, and in 1992- 1993 the government was under the supervision of the United Nation Transitional Authority of Cambodia (UNTAC). Despite the presence of UNTAC forces, the area was still insecure, with a Khmer Rouge presence inside the forest;

UNTAC staff were attacked and a civilian Japanese UN volunteer was killed in a village near Sambo.¹¹⁹ During this period, a free market economic system began to officially replace the krom samaki system across Cambodia. However, this change did not affect the Sambo region where the krom samaki system had never been applied.

118 “Secondary forest” here means vegetation regrowth in an area formerly used for shifting agriculture.

119 In memory of this event, Atsu village has adopted the name of that Japanese volunteer, Atsu.

6.3.2 Some Differences between the Past and the Present