June 6th, 2007 | Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Model, Siem Reap, Travel |
This is Sokhoun, who happens to be looking for an American wife
(note: I added this to my Portraits portfolio that you can see more of here)
This is Sokhoun.
Sokhoun’s dream is to leave his Buddhist order and go to a university in Siem Reap, Cambodia, but it costs $700 a year and he thinks this dream may be "too crazy" because of the expense. He wants to get a bachelor’s degree so perhaps he can become a tour guide and save enough money to someday visit USA.
Sokhoun is currently a Theravada Buddist monk in Angkor Wat. He saw me laying on my back inside the quincunx taking photos one day and he invited me over to talk.
He told me about his history and what happened after the US pulled out of Vietnam. Pol Pot enslaved all his people to work in rice fields and convert the Angkor Wat reservior and surrounding land to huge agrarian Communist food machines. In the process, Pol Pot killed many members of his family and another 2 million Cambodians (about 1/3 of the population). Even after Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime was defeated in 1979, Sokhoun’s family still spent most of their lives escaping and running through the jungle to escape the Killing Fields.
However, Sokhoun is peaceful, and he is very happy to meet me. We sat in the ruins of Angkor Wat for about four hours talking. He said he always wanted an American friend.
"Do you have any Buddhist Monk friends, and would you like one?" he asks excitedly and shyly.
We made plans the next day for him to travel around the countryside of Cambodia so we could visit various temples together. I could not have had a better or more relaxed time with Sokhoun. We had many more interesting and fun discussions that I will mention in future posts/pics from the ruins of Cambodia. Also, we have agreed that I will select some interesting books for him to read that I am mailing to him now. We’ll start with The Fountainhead. Sokhoun is a voracious reader and the previous Communist regime did not allow books like this in the country and many of these patterns persist.
He secretly confided in me that perhaps when he leaves the Wat in three years that he would very much like to marry an American woman because they seem open, nice, and understanding. But he said this is a foolish dream and no American woman would want to marry him. I told him that was silly and I will try to hook him up. So wussup ladies? Send me your vitals so I can pimp you out monk-style!
June 7th, 2007 05:32
Wow, that is so cool. =D
June 7th, 2007 05:44
You make me so envious sometimes…
Here’s 2 suggestion: 1) Specimen Days by Michal Cunningham (which uses the poetry of Walt Withman briliantly). 2) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
June 7th, 2007 07:29
haha - okay on the list
June 7th, 2007 09:24
If I wasn’t married already, I’d be all over it. Nice shy Buddhist monks? Sign me up! …Though he’s damaged goods once you poison him with The Fountainhead… >,
June 7th, 2007 10:30
Hah. Funny a monk looking for a wife.
His eyes look very intense. Any manipulations?
This photo seems a little on the fence, is it a HDR?
June 7th, 2007 18:58
Haha damaged goods indeed! We can’t have him practicing any rugged individualism.
No - there is no HDR in here… I did a few secret-monk techniques in Photoshop to make things pop, but nothing off-the-map like HDR