The Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau (also called Phnom Sampov) are a place of beauty, turned tragedy, turned beauty all over again. The cave is found halfway up a mountain that is dotted with stunning wats, statues, and lookout points over the village below. Macaque monkeys roam the side, and millions of bats are often seen at dusk. Stairways snake up the mountain and back down again into stone caves and canyons. One of these caves is the Killing Cave.
The descent into the cave is sort of stunning – the rock is covered in green vegetation and low-hanging vines. The cave is quite large inside, and a large golden Buddha reclines in the center of the room. But at the bottom of the stairs sits a chicken-wire cage full of bones. The atrocities that happened in this stunning spot suddenly become very present. There is a memorial of human remains, these encased in a glass box.
These are the bones of the doctors, teachers, men, women and kids killed by the Khmer Rouge here at this cave. At the top of the cave is the natural skylight that the Khmer Rouge took people to, lining them up, then bashing them and letting their bodies fall into the darkness below.
Today a combination of mostly Cambodian tourists mills around the cave, and people sing and take pictures. It is an astonishingly jovial atmosphere considering the horror of what happened. But as many Cambodians will tell you, joy is the best way to move past tragedy.
