PHNOM PENH— Buddhism goes back a very long way in Cambodia. Although Hinduism was the religion of a number of kings prior to and during the Angkorian empire, that religion may have been present during the kingdom of Funan around the 5th century. And it was the religion that the famed King Jayavarman VII instituted at Angkor in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.

While some of his successors would bring back Hinduism, it is believed that, in the early 1700s, as many as 95 percent of country’s population was of Buddhist faith. And in the Cambodia of the late King Norodom Sihanouk in the 1950s and 1960s, the country was a Buddhist state.

Things changed dramatically during Khmer Rouge regime of April 1975/Jan. 1979, which banned religious practice and often used pagodas as storage space after evicting the monks and putting them on forced labor like the rest of the population. Those who disobeyed orders were killed.

In the regime’s Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea, article 20 of chapter 15 stated that “[e]very Cambodian has the right to believe in any religion or belief and has the right not to believe in any religion or belief. Reactionary religions, which destroy Democratic Kampuchea and Cambodians, are absolutely not allowed.”

Despite those drastic restrictions, Buddhism remained in the hearts of people.

In the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia of 2005 to 2023 during which Khmer Rouge leaders were tried, and eventually sentenced to life imprisonment, Buddhists’ persecution throughout the regime was one of the crimes brought up.

Nuon Chea, who was considered the second most powerful Khmer Rouge leader after Pol Pot, denied that the regime had any intentions of eradicating Buddhism, and made reference to an article of the regime’s constitution to support his argument. In his testimony at the tribunal, Chea said that allegations to the effect that the regime had forced monks to work in the fields, and punished or killed those caught in religious practice was total fabrication.

The Khmer Rouge leaders always thought of the nation as the priority, Chea said. Religious practice evolved due to the situation in the country, he said. With all the people working in cooperatives, no one had time to cook for almsgiving or could afford to give robes to monks, Chea said. And, he added, social currents were such that it made it difficult for religion to be practiced or supported by the Khmer Rouge regime. However, Chea admitted that he had actually prayed during the regime and believed that others also had.  
 

In fact, throughout the regime, Chea said, his own mother who lived in Battambang province would go to Wat Kor pagoda. But no one had the time to be a monk and live at a pagoda because everyone was needed to work in cooperatives, he said. So, monks had to leave monkhood and get married, and pagodas were used as salt depots, which was right since they were empty, Chea added.

During the trial, Nuon Chea acknowledged that Buddhism had helped him deal with the struggles of life. He said he understood that the communist theory stressed no women and no alcohol although this was not 100-percent practical. But Chea said he loved that theory since it was the same rule as for Buddhist monks. He had therefore started comparing religion and communist theories.

During the trial, Nuon Chea continuously explained that virtue in communist doctrine was different from virtue for Buddhist, which was to remain calm in a comfortable place. Compassion for Buddhism was similar except that compassion in communism was only for poor people, he said.

Moreover, Chea explained during his testimony, the difference between Buddhism and communism was that Buddhism upheld nonviolence while communism allowed people to smash those who smashed them. Buddhism taught people to have compassion even for one’s enemies but, while also having compassion, the Party [as in Khmer Rouge regime in power] would put this into action by “educating” people again and again. And if a person still did not change, the Party had to resolve this by “smashing,” meaning killing, or imprisoning the person, Chea said.

For the Khmer Rouge regime, he explained, “solution,” or “dosray” in Khmer, included mental solution, that is, a person’s change of attitude. If the person did not change, there would be the “high solution,” which was “smashing,” or “kamtech,” that is, executing the person. Smashing also meant to completely eliminate elements of class, mindset and theory, which was not killing “unreasonably,” Chea said. Also “cleaning,” or bos-sam-art in Khmer, meant to “clean” mentality those being corrupted or involved in bribery.

If a person did not change after cleaning, he/she must be imprisoned and sent to the military, Chea said. The Party did not have the right to execute people and only did “mental” education, he said. The highest authority throughout the country was the National Party Conference which, Nuon Chea said, was held every five years to appoint the Central Committee members.

As he explained, the power structure was officially: the National Party Conference throughout the country, the Central Committee, the Standing Committee.

While Nuon Chea might have been quoting the Party Statute, his explanation was completely opposite to what scholars and researchers have found. Regarding religions and communism, religions did not advise to take revenge while communism allowed to do so when one did not change, but if one changed, he/she then became friend. Buddhism and communism, however, were no different on one point as both did not advise to be individualistic.     

Nuon Chea said that his life had been successful due to the practice of the five Buddhist precepts: do not kill or do something that would threaten someone’s life; do not bear ill-will against others or steal others’ property; do not lie; do not drink alcohol; and do not commit moral offences such as stealing others’ wives. Communists valued nation as the collective priority and individuals as the lower priority, he said. It was not true that communists did not love their family, Chea said, explaining that he deeply loved his mother. But his tasks did not permit him to do as he wanted, he said, adding that this was called communist discipline. If he was occupied by family affairs and personal interest, he could not lead and be a good model for others, he explained.[1]

Nuon Chea further mentioned three factors that would improve his political life: nation, party and religion. He asserted that he followed the concepts of both Marxism-Leninism and Dialectical Materialist Buddhism. Nuon Chea's statement were in line with the statutes of the Communist Party of Cambodia.
 

Some of the Khmer Rouge documents on the building and strengthening of Marxist-Leninist parties elaborated on the theories, with practical examples in society, of the application of "dialectical materialism." In short, dialectical materialism had four rules: 1) everything is always related, not on its own; 2) everything is constantly changing, not static; 3) everything that evolves is from low to high, from small to large, from quantity to quality; 4) everything is in conflict. These four rules being the basic content of dialectical materialism had to be rigorously implemented.

Given these relations, Nuon Chea and the Khmer Rouge communists at some levels were seen influenced by Buddhism, which was widely known to have been abolished during their regime. It is, however, in the last stages of his life that Nuon Chea turned to reading Buddhist dharma books.

In his holding cell in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a photo of his parents was displayed where he could light incense and worship, along with a statue of the Buddha nearby. At one point in 2013, when he was suffering from severe bronchitis, he asked his family to put a photo of the Buddha on the wall above his head. When I met him, he often told me not to believe that the communists did not respect religion because he himself was always steadfast when fighting the enemy.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, Buddhism was revived and helped people deal with the aftermaths of that regime that had claimed so many lives, rebuild the country and help restore people’s dignity and humanity that had been deeply affected during the Khmer Rouge Regime.

Prum Phalla is editor-in-chief of D-News at the Documentation Center of Cambodia. During the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, he served as case manager, outreach coordinator, case assistant, and later on as senior evidence analyst. He is the author of the book “Nuon Chea, narrated to Phalla Prum about Communist Revolutionary Life” that was published in Khmer and is due to be published in English.