It took a combination of boats and cars and two full days travel to reach what is the most remote corner of Cambodia. Ratanakiri, which name means "Gemstone Mountain", has in fact only recently returned on the map of the country. The natural beauty and the many hidden and not hidden resources of the region are now giving reasons to many Cambodian migrants and to some foreign enterprises to settle in what is also the ancestral land of the several minority groups living in Cambodia. Known as "Khmer Loeu" (Highlanders) the minority people of the country have been left undisturbed for almost half a century.
Ratanakiri, a forgotten land. Photographs and Text by ŠAlberto Buzzola/Lightmediation Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry@lightmediation.com
1066-12: Mr. Si, a Vietnamese miner, inside a 15 meters deep self dug mine in Besok district. Si mainly mines for precious stone such a ruby and garnets.
1066-01: Farmer of the Krun Tribe working in a rice field in Lumpat district
1066-02: Portrait of a Krun tribe woman in her village of Ta Veng District
1066-03: A boat man cruising along the Sesan river with his small motor boat which he uses to take passengers around the river.
1066-04: Cha Ong Waterfall in ban Long District
1066-04: Cha Ong Waterfall in ban Long District
1066-05: Miners panning for precious stone in a minefield in Besok District
1066-06: A Toumpon tribesman smokes his pipe while walking to work in his paddy field.
1066-07: A Vietnamese miner is preparing to go down a 15 mt deep pit hole which is a precious stones mine self dug.
1066-08: A farmer of the Krun Tribewith his child working on a rice field in Lampat District
1066-09: Tompoun tribesman building a hut in his newly established hamlet in Van Sai District
1066-10: people of the Tompoun tribe i their village warming up with a little fire outside their hut.
1066-11: Portrait of a Krun tribe woman in her village of Ta Veng District
1066-12: Mr. Si, a Vietnamese miner, inside a 15 meters deep self dug mine in Besok district. Si mainly mines for precious stone such a ruby and garnets.
1066-35: Children in a rubber plantation waiting for their parents to finish a long tapping day. Rubber was introduced by the French during their colonial rule. Entire stretches of rain forest went destroyed to
1066-34: A tribesman hunting in one of the very few forests left around the tribal land of Ratanakiri region. according to the local law only tribesmen may hunt in certain areas not protected.
1066-13: A labor at work in one of Ratanakiri rubber factory. Rubber is one of the crop introduced during the French colonial time in many areas of Indochina including Cambodia.
1066-14: Woman of the Charai tribe, one of the many that inhabit Ratanakiri province, with a self made matt.
1066-15: A labor at work in one of Ratanakiri rubber factory. Rubber is one of the crop introduced during the french colonial time in many areas of Indochina including Cambodia.
1066-16: Mr. Si, a Vietnamese miner, inside a 15 meters deep self dug mine in Besok district. Si mainly mines for precious stone such a ruby and garnets.
1066-17: Uncut precious stone found by Vietnamese miners in Besok District.
1066-18: Tribal wooden sculpture outside a village in ban Long District
1066-19: A rubber plantation worker delivering freshly collected rubber at the Ban Long District rubber processing plant.
1066-20:
1066-13: A labor at work in one of Ratanakiri rubber factory. Rubber is one of the crop introduced during the French colonial time in many areas of Indochina including Cambodia.
1066-21: A young cambodian girl working in a precious stone minefiled in Besok district, just a few miles away from Ban Long Center.
1066-22: People of the Charai Tribe in their village fixing a fish net before going fishing in the ponds and rivers of the region.
1066-23: Tompoun women walking back home after having been at the weekly fresh vegetable market in Ban Long town.
1066-24: Miners panning for precious stones in a minefield in Besok District. It is said that the whole Ratanakiri Region is rich in minerals and precious stones attracting so expert miners from neighboring
1066-25: Tompoun Tribe village in Ban Long District.
1066-26: A Toumpon tribesman smokes his pipe while walking to work in his paddy field.
1066-27: Tompoun women walking back home after having been at the weekly fresh vegetable market in Ban Long town.
1066-28: A farmer of the Krun Tribewith his child working on a rice field in Lampat District
1066-05: Miners panning for precious stone in a minefield in Besok District
1066-29: A low land cambodian farmer clearing some government given land to plant rice. land distribution to farmer from lowland Cambodia is also causing deforestation.
1066-30: Members of a Tompoun Tribe family outside their hut
1066-31:
1066-32: A woman inside the Ban Long covered fresh market.
1066-17: Uncut precious stone found by Vietnamese miners in Besok District.
1066-33: Charai tribe people fixing their fishing net before going to the river for fishing.
1066-34: A tribesman hunting in one of the very few forests left around the tribal land of Ratanakiri region. according to the local law only tribesmen may hunt in certain areas not protected.
1066-35: Children in a rubber plantation waiting for their parents to finish a long tapping day. Rubber was introduced by the French during their colonial rule. Entire stretches of rain forest went destroyed to
1066-36: Tampoun tribesman celebrating the Harvest festivalin their village of ban Long District
1066-36: Tampoun tribesman celebrating the Harvest festivalin their village of ban Long District
1066-37: It is not unusual to see children working on a minefield in Besok district where mainly Vietnamese immigrants seek their fortune by digging pit holes that serve as mines for the mining of
1066-39: Khmer immigrants in a village of Besok District
1066-38: Toupon tribe children of a small village outside Ban Long town
1066-32: A woman inside the Ban Long covered fresh market.
Ratanakiri, a forgotten land. It took a combination of boats and cars and two full days travel to reach what is the most remote corner of Cambodia. Negotiating the last 120 kilometres of unpaved road between the old colonial centre of Kratie and Ban Lung, the capital city and major centre in Ratanakiri Province, was not an easy task even for my driver, Mr. Chak, who has lived in the area for the last ten years and drove along the rough roads of this province million times. Mr. Chak like many lowland Cambodians have in the recent years migrated to this undeveloped area of the country in search of new opportunities. Ratanakiri, which name means "Gemstone Mountain", has in fact only recently returned on the map of the country. The natural beauty and the many hidden and not hidden resources of the region are now giving reasons to many Cambodian migrants and to some foreign enterprises to settle in what is also the ancestral land of the several minority groups living in Cambodia. Known as "Khmer Loeu" (Highlanders) the minority people of the country have been left undisturbed for almost half a century. Access to the area is now made easier by the regular flights that connect the capital city Phnom Phen to Ban Lung, Ratanakiri main centre. "Since Cambodia has started to know some peace more and more low land settlers (name in which Cambodians from the plains are known) have converged in Ban Lung looking to exploit the land in which my family has lived for many generations. With very little contact with
the rest of the country for so long time, we did not worry about loosing our identity, but now things look different." Old Ta` Tom was speaking to me with clear discontent of the actual situation. His tribe cultural values and tradition were at stake because the thirst for land by the law lands Cambodians. Years ago the Taiwanese own Hero sawmill had to close thanks to continuos international and domestic pressure on the government of Cambodia. Hero had cleared hectares of forestland in order to supply wood to richer countries. Ta Tom belongs to the Tampuan tribe, the biggest of the several tribes who inhabit the Ratanakiri Province, and he is growing worry about the future of his people. Ta Tom lives in a village of 37 families who had to relocate closer to the main road from deep in the jungle. The government claims that by relocating villages closer to Ban Lung or at least to the main road that links Vietnam to Cambodia, tribe people would benefit from better government assistance in case problems would arise. But what the government would call problems to many tribe people is just the law of nature. Ta Tom believes that although infant mortality has dropped since better Medicare is available and that fewer people fall sick with deadly diseases his tribe culture and customs are more important. Younger Tan Lai, Ta Tom fellow villager, would not totally agree. "It is much more convenient to live close to the road that where we lived before. To go to work to the fields I had to walk for miles. Now I can just get to our land in much less time. At times I can even get a hitch with passing motorbikes. Life became easier!" Tan Lai had already been married for several years and had five children from his wife. Two of them died infants of a
disease he would not even know the name. My guide, Som Nang, suggested probably malaria. Malaria is indeed endemic of this area and it is not the only cause of infant and elder mortality. Other diseases such as TB and polio still quite common. "Our hospital is not really well equipped and in any case without money is difficult to get proper medical attention. Most tribe people don't have any money and so it's hard for them to pay for a good service." Som explained that government doctors would only make fifty dollars a month and therefore they have to work privately in order to make enough money to support their families or need. This is naturally creating corruption among the doctors who have not much of a choice. In education, it is the same. Som is now studying at high school. However he doesn't have any time for attending classes, as he needs to make money by offering his service as a guide and interpreter. Despite his young age Som possess a good sense of business and a good knowledge of the area. He can even speaks some of the local dialects as he moved to Ratanakiri from Kampung Chang, a city north east of Phnom Phen, when he was an elementary school student. His father works as a government employee. He is in charge of rural development of some districts in Ratanakiri province. With a job like his father, Som had all the opportunities to travel around the province, visiting many tribe people villages and interact with all the tribes living in the area. When I asked Som how he could advance in his study if he rarely attend classes his answer was simple: "I have a deal with my teachers. I pay them some money and they don't report on my absence. At the end I will take the exam and if I fail I will pass more money to
the teachers and that's should be enough." In Ratanakiri everybody seems to have a double job. Som's father too cannot rely on his government salary which is a meagre 30US$ par month. Fortunately for the lowland Cambodia jobs are not too difficult to find in this relatively virgin land. "The Ban Lung population increases every year as more people are attracted by the business possibility offered by this generous land." Miss Kim, a Chinese Cambodians was one of the first to see that the place could also be exploited by setting up facilities for the local and foreign tourists that look in Ratanakiri in a new place to pass their vacation. The Virachay National Park is just a twenty minutes drive from Ban Lung and it attracts more and more visitors since it was open to foreigners. An almost unspoiled large and untouched stretch of land that span all the way to the Laos border, the national park offers incredible landscapes and host innumerable kinds of wild animals. Among the foreigners who visit Ratanakiri, the Vietnamese are far the most. Their reason to leave Vietnam to Cambodia is, though, of a different kind. Gem mining seems to be one of the most profitable activities that can be undertake in the region. Experienced in digging tunnels, Vietnamese immigrants are often at the forefront of this peculiar job. Digging the ragged soil of Ratanakiri forest to search for gems is in fact a rather tough task. A narrow trail negotiable only with a two wheeler takes to Beisrok area where gem mining has been going on for the past several years. As mining also exhaust the land, gem mines shift from time to time and from place to place. "This is a good mining area. We had to clear a bit of forest before starting the digging of tunnels but now some reward is
is coming out of the long and hard work." Si is a Vietnamese nationals who had moved along with his wife and a partner, Tu, to Ratanakiri with the intent to make some money out of the gem trade. Si admitted that in four years of hard work he wasn't able to safe much money and he was still waiting to find the rich lode he still looking for. Many of his colleagues, who are for the majority Vietnamese, work in the same area and share Si same dream: becoming rich! "Mining can be like gambling. We dig and not always with a satisfactory reward. The new mine looks promising but I don't want to be over enthusiastic as it happens all the time. First we find many stones but not for too long. So we have to dig another mine somewhere nearby." The mines consist in a cylindrical pit of less then a meter in diameter that goes down from ten to fifteen meters. At the bottom tunnels of not more then half-meter high ramifying in three or for directions. The miners crawl along these tunnels and when they see the presence of minerals stones they fill buckets with soil and with the help of a rope and a winch they have it pulled up. Once out of the mine the soil is dumped in a small water pool where other people will be in charge of panning it and separate the eventual stones from the soil. In the water the stones would shine and would easily be recognisable among all that soil. The job to dig and to work underground is as hard as dangerous. Si told me that a month before one of the mines collapsed and a man was trapped. He went down alone one evening and nobody knew he was there. People found out only the next day what happened to his mine and there
was nothing they could do to save the man. Accidents like that are not uncommon and Si was in beginning reluctant to let me down in his mine to photograph him and his colleague working. Eventually I persuaded him and after a brief lecture on a few security tips, I wondered what kind of security measure ones could take in such a situation, Tu let me down with the rope right after Si descended. Although going below the earth for fifteen-meter does not sound like going into real profundity it seemed to me to be in a totally different world. Si had a small headlamp to light his way through one of the three narrow and low tunnels dug at the bottom of the central fifteen-meter deep pit. The tunnel was perhaps ten meter long and a small fading candle was placed just a few meters inside the tunnel. Si crawled until he reached the far end of it. Than he started to dig further. He then examined every inch of the tunnel wall. With the help of a small hand made metal shovel he dug a few inches into the tunnel wall. At times he used his bared experienced callous hands that had scratched and caressed acres of humid soil in search of the shining objects. " We work twelve to sixteen hours a day, and in one day I go up and down my mine as many as fifty times. " Si fifty immersions into darkness would give him a few dollars profit, a not bad salary in a place like Ratanakiri but a misery for the kind of job Si had dedicated his still young life. That day I also made several trips down the mine and observed Si and other miners working in the procurement of their living. Temperature in the humid narrow tunnel made me sweat like if I was in a sauna. The feeling of crumbling soil falling slowly in my neck and back through my then earthy-red and socked shirt made me
feel that the place was insecure and that at any time the whole thing would collapse. Si and the miners had to constantly live with that feeling. I could see in their eyes that despite the years of experience the possibility one-day things would turn into the worst was always present. As they swiftly and gently moved in and around the narrow dark tunnels their eyes like white dots in the obscurity were constantly grazing at the tunnel ceiling and the few wooden props placed here in there to stop the tones of soil above them fall. At times they would check the props, test their strength and determine whether the chosen position for them was the proper one. Si would not talk much while working. Sometimes he gave me a smile as if he had found something interesting or perhaps just to reassure me that everything was under control. But in a mine of this kind total control is not a reality. I was glad to see again the sunlight at every ascent. Si as well looked happy each time he would stick his head out of the deep pit, as to say: "Even this time I have made it alive". Not far from the mining area a group of young men was clearing a patch of forest. I asked them why they were doing that. "We have just bought a piece of land from the government and we want to turn it into a farm." Tee the one who looked the oldest of the group, was from Kampung Cham and along with his brothers and relatives left the lowland town for Ratanakiri a year ago. They first worked as labours in another farm owned by a big landlord. Now they wanted to start their own business and after saving some money and taking advantage of the government policy on allocating new plots of land to
farmers at advantageous price they finally started to see their dream becoming reality. "It will take a year before we had cleared enough land to begin to plant, but we are determined." Tee's family will have to keep working at least part time at the same big farm they have worked for the last year in order to have enough money to survive before their land will start to give profit. Still they have no precise idea on what to plant but probably coffee. Coffee, a legacy of French colonialism, fetch high price in the international market and Cambodian production has already started to reach many European destinations besides the near Asian countries. Tree producing rubber is another cash crop that is still expanding throughout Ratanaikiri. Entire areas of tropical forests where huge teak trees once stood now host hundreds of rubber trees, from where the pricey white juice flows into plastic bowl e regularly collected by rubber plantation workers. Although some of the labours at the plantations belong to the minority groups original of the area, most of them are Khmer Loeu who had for long resettled in Ratanakiri. For a dollar or two a rubber plantation worker spend an average of 12 hours a day tapping in a spiralling motion tree after tree in symmetrically lined up plantation which gigantic size deny one's glimpse on the horizon. Rubber production plays an important role in the region economy and more rubber trees are planted every year. A Chinese Cambodian, Mr. Hu is managing the rubber factory located a few miles outside Ban Lung. Every year the factory process tones of rubber that mainly reaches neighbouring countries, such as Vietnam, and further processed into products to be sold all over the world. "During the high season I employ over sixty people but during the rest of the year
I can do with less then twenty people between labourers and accountant. Things are going well and the factory is overall productive." At the time of my visit only a few people were in charge of receiving freshly collected rubber from some locals plantation. It was not yet high season and rubber production was not at its peak yet. Two trucks, two motorcycles and a young girl on a bicycle were lining up to deliver their daily production. The men on their bikes and the young girl had plastic tanks strapped to their two wheels vehicle full of the white material that soon would have been cooked packed and loaded in trucks with destination Vietnam. The border of Vietnam is only 40 miles away from the factory and although the road is still a pretty roughed one drivers can manage two trip a day. Collecting rubber is nevertheless not making life easier for the native tribe people who mainly find occupation in rice fields, fishing and hunting. I found myself in a Jarai village where I met Raman Swan, a hunter by profession. I asked him how many people in his village work on the rubber industry. Raman Swan answered that very few of them work as a seasonal workers in the plantation but none at the factory. "We have some rice paddy a few kilometres away from the village. We do fish and hunt and today is my hunting day." Raman Swan is known in the village as one of the best hunter and almost every time he returns with some pray. Birds, forest dears and other small rodents are Raman Swan games He still uses a crossbow with poison arrows as a hunting
tool and that day he invited me along. We walked for miles around a patch of jungle that lies just behind Raman Swan's village. He seemed to know every trail and every place where pray might be. Silently, with his eyes always wide open and his ears attentive to every single sound, he led me into a small aperture of the jungle where a large shallow pond seemed to serve as a place to quench jungle creatures thirst. A few white birds were standing in the mid of the pond perhaps waiting for some small fish or simply refreshing themselves in what was for me a rather hot scorching day. The hunter gave me a sign to stop and to be quite. He then moved in a slow motion towards the birds. As he got at about forty yards from them he cocked its crossbow, aimed at one of the birds and??. even this time the pray could slip away before the hunter could strike. "Birds are sensitive creature. They can detect unusual sounds or noise. They always know when they could be in danger!" Raman Swan stopped for awhile, inspecting its crossbow. In a minute we were again off in the jungle. The hunt continued. That day Raman the Hunter had to return home without anything. He acknowledged that hunting becomes more difficult as the years pass by. Forest clearing for further development with more roads laid across the region had pushed wild animals further north in what is now one of the major regional National Park. There, animals are relatively safer as hunting is now totally banned in the entire park. The tribes of Ratanakiri have lived off the land since their appearance in this part of the world. Hunting, fishing animals breeding and basic farming were and in large extent still are the means of living for
the remaining 60,000 tribal people living in this antique land. Traditional slash and burn farming is gradually substituted by a more intensive one with perhaps an over use of fertilisers and pesticides. This, which came along the lowland Cambodian settlers, is creating some environmental problems and has to some extent changed the life of the original inhabitants of Ratanakiri. The 12 tribes that still live in the province had to adapt to new way of life often at the cost of tradition and customs. The people of the Brou tribe though seems to resist changes more then others. At the swinging bridge across one branch of the Sesan River in Van Sei District an old woman warned Som and I that we were not welcomed at Phum ta Veng village, a small hamlet on the Sesan River where eighty families of the Brou Tribe dwell. That day a purification ceremony was going on and outsiders, no matter what nationality, tribe or ethnicity, were not supposed to enter the village, which narrow path leading to it was blocked with tree trunks and foliage. Som called out for some of the villagers who seeing us at the entrance came and greeted us. They informed that nobody outside their tribe could enter the village for the next few days until all the ceremonies were over. If by accident a stranger entered the village the ceremonies have to be called off and a penalty would have to be pay by the trespasser. The chief of the village handed to Som a piece of a hand written paper with the rules of the village during this peculiar time of ceremonies. If I had trespassed the village entrance line I would have had to replace all the animals they used for that day ceremony. That day offerings was quite rich: several pigs, goats, chickens plus five bags of rice and an unspecified
amount of alcohol in the form of a locally made liquor made out of fermented rice. Apparently a stranger entering the village during this time would contaminate the offerings and therefore displease the "spirits" of the village. Although in the last half a century many tribe people have converted to Christianity, this due to the intense work of missionaries during the French rule, and Buddhism, Animism is still wide followed by the indigenous who believe that everything on earth possess a soul. The ceremonies indeed were meant to appease the people who have died in the village but whose souls still linger around. Other ceremonies were meant for the spirits of the forest to assure the village a good hunting season. Though I couldn't visit the village I was satisfied with the eloquent explanation of the chief who extended an invitation to return and share some rice wine with him once the whole ceremony was over. That's would have been the next day at the same time my fly back to Phnom Phen was due to take off. It was with the chief of Phum Ta Veng village that my visit to Ratanakiri terminated. It was his last few words and his sincere smile that gave me a further insight on this wild land where simple people like him had lived all their life in symbioses with nature challenging its not always easy law and survive over it. Now the Ratanakiri original inhabitants find themselves facing a new and not at all easy challenge: modernity.
Captions. 1066-24: Miners panning for precious stones in a minefield in Besok District. It is said that the whole Ratanakiri Region is rich in minerals and precious stones attracting so expert miners from neighboring Vietnam. 1066-35: Children in a rubber plantation waiting for their parents to finish a long tapping day. Rubber was introduced by the French during their colonial rule. Entire stretches of rain forest went destroyed to accommodate rubber plants changing so the ecosystem of the region dramatically. 1066-37: It is not unusual to see children working on a minefield in Besok district where mainly Vietnamese immigrants seek their fortune by digging pit holes that serve as mines for the mining of precious stones for which Ratanakiri region it is said to be rich in.