Return to Cambodia

Exploring Angkorian temples never gets tiresome. Every December for the past seven years, I’ve spent at least four days running around and crawling over Angkor Wat and its hundreds of neighboring ruins. Each time something new hits me about this spectacular complex. It’s endlessly fascinating.

An invitation came my way to return for an eighth trip. Yet I hesitated. We would go in May. It’s damn hot outside in May. As I understood the itinerary, we would spend more time in the nearby town, Siem Reap, than at the temples themselves.

Of course in the end I went. And to my surprise, the highlight this time didn’t date from 1,000 years ago.

We visited a place on the western edge of Siem Reap that goes by many names. It owes its existence and design to a wonderful Australian nun who worked alongside me nearly 25 years ago in Site 2 refugee camp. When the camps closed, Sr. Denise followed the refugees back to Cambodia. She has been there ever since.

One name for this inspiring place is “Mondol Metta Karuna,” which translates as the Center for Mercy and Kindness. Some call it The Reflection Center. Taxi drivers know it as “the landmine place,” because of Sr. Denise’s leadership in Cambodia’s branch of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

Whatever you call it, this interfaith center encourages visitors to think about the challenges of Cambodia through the eyes of the poor. When Sr. Denise toured us around, she explained that the center’s founders first sat with nearby villagers to trade thoughts about what makes a successful community. That list wasn’t too hard to generate, and soon they had agreed on seven characteristics.

The discussion got more interesting when they turned to the seven things Cambodian villages find most difficult. In the end they decided the new center ought to focus on these:

• Developing so that everyone is enriched
• Educating so that everyone’s potential is realized
• Caring for the environment
• Promoting peace and reconciliation after Cambodia’s genocide
• Coping with displacement—of the home and the heart
• Disarming
• Governing ethically

Each of these challenges (which of course are also the world’s challenges) have been represented in sculpture and other artworks that are integrated into the center’s landscaping. As residents and visitors pass by, say, the lovely statue of a woman at a well, they may stop to draw water with a traditional bucket and reflect on development for all. Or practice walking meditation around the center’s winding labyrinth. Or working meditation at the wheelchair shop. One can’t avoid contemplation here.

The symbols are all repeated inside a moving multi-faith common room that sits alongside a reflection pond. The center’s layout inspires in countless ways. Mondol Metta Karuna hasn’t made my itinerary during past trips to Siem Reap, but it surely rates a place for future visits.

An interesting side note:

Westerners who leave home for long breaks or retirement often choose Thailand. Plenty of them cross my path as I go around Chiang Mai. When I ask where else they considered, I commonly hear the same places listed: Mexico, Spain, Costa Rica, and several other Spanish-speaking countries. Now and then people mention Croatia. They never say Cambodia.

So I was surprised on this trip to run into a 40-something Dutch couple living in Siem Reap who say it’s their dream town. She volunteers and advises non-profits. He commutes back and forth from Singapore. They settled here after an extensive search for a home base that satisfied their many criteria, including being able to live alongside people in need and to educate their kids in an authentic setting.

So many ways to be inspired in this area!