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12. Welcome to Kompong Phluk |
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Tonle Sap: Source of Lives |
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What does Kompong Phluk look like? Kompong Phluk is not a floating village, but a village on stilts located south of Siem Reap in Prasat Bakong district. While fishing is often done by ethnic Vietnamese, Kompong Phluk is almost exclusively inhabited by Khmer fishermen. Of the 2,500 people living there, more than 90% are involved in fishing or related activities. The village pagoda is built on the only hill in the area and therefore has no stilts. It is the village meeting point and the dwellings are distributed around it, usually in straight lines. The only primary school, which is also on stilts, is near the pagoda too. However, school attendance is very low due to poverty. |
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From one place to another… What makes Kompong Phluk unique is that its villagers regularly change houses. In fact, people migrate every season and have been doing so for ages. They live in stilt houses during the rainy season, when the lake is more than 6m deep. As the water recedes, they first move to a lower level built under their houses. When the lake starts to dry up, the families leave the village to settle in small, light huts nearer the water. At this time of year, Kompong Phluk is empty. People spend a few months in their temporary houses before dismantling them and moving back to kompong Phluk as the water level rises again. Kompong Phluk looks very different during the wet and dry seasons. [next] |
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