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Le Tonle Sap : Source of Lives |
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Culture... Cambodia is a country of water and ricefields. The rhythm of life for the Khmers, an agricultural people, follows the alternation between dry and rainy seasons. Abundant water resources (the Mekong river, Tonle Sap lake, coastal waters…) allow fishing and rice-growing, the staples of the Cambodian diet. Water has played a fundamental role in Cambodia's history, both mythical (legend has it that the country is an ancient island) and known (Indian traders crossed Southeast Asia by sea and spread their culture.) The symbolic nature of the element Water, opposed by the element Earth, or the mountain, is essential in Khmer culture. Water, represented by the mythical serpent Naga, is sacred, the source of life, fertility for the land and therefore prosperity. Water is also what the Angorian kings built their civilization on, putting in place an ingenious system of storing and redistributing water: the barays. However, these imposing reservoirs, made sacred by the presence of temples in their center, fell victim to silting and, little by little, the system had to be abandoned. 1. Cambodia is a country of water |
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...Nature... Tonle Sap is an integral part of a system including the Siem Reap river, the Kulen mountain range and Angkor, bringing together nature, culture and human life. The great lake, through a phenomenon unique in the world, quadruples in size during the rainy season to more than 12,000 km2, or 7% of Cambodia's total surface area. Around May and June the level of the Mekong river, swollen by heavy rains and melting snow in the Himalayas, exceeds that of the Tonle Sap river, which it meets in Phnom Penh at a junction called the 'Four Arms.' The Tonle Sap's current reverses, so it no longer flows into the sea but into Tonle Sap lake to the north. It's this reversal of current, among other things, that's celebrated in the Water Festival held each year around mid-November, when the river changes direction again. These successive rises and falls in the great lake give birth to exceptional biodiversity. Tonle Sap gives shelter to more than 200 species of fish, about 100 species of bird (of which several are globally threatened) and innumerable reptiles and mammals. Many species of fish and birds revolve their life cycles around the rise and fall of the water, migrating from the lake to the Mekong and neighboring countries in the dry season and back again around December. Today, this biodiversity is being threatenend by harmful hunting and fishing techniques which threaten the renewal of species, increasing water pollution and deforestation. People can conserve Tonle Sap's unique richness by adopting behavior respectful of the environment. 5. Discovering Tonle Sap lake |
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This Krousar Thmey |
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... and Man The people living around and on the lake have developed housing adapted to this unique setting. There are very high houses on traditional stilts, floating houses (resting on bamboo) and boats used as homes, for the poorest fishermen. The inhabitants of Kompong Phluk village, south of Siem Reap, change houses depending on the season: they occupy stilt houses in the rainy season (when there's 6-8 meters of water) then leave them and build small temporary huts closer to the water when the lake's level drops and the village empties out ! Three million Cambodians depend on the lake for fishing and agriculture (in the flood plain). Until the end of 2000, vast areas of the lake (or "lots") were allocated to wealthy bidders, preventing small and medium-scale fishermen from getting full access to Tonle Sap's resources. The system is now being restructured. Small and medium-scale fishing uses simple equipment made by local families. The fish is eaten locally or exported fresh, dried, smoked or in the form of prahoc (fermented paste). As for the land, made fertile by the lake's rise in level, it's worked for market gardening and, above all, for rice (up to 3 harvests a year). 12. Welcome to Kompong Phluk |
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