I once heard a definition of "tragedy" that really struck me...."something dies, but something lives."
This is so true of Tuol Sleng, or S-21 as it's also known. Tuol Sleng is the location where the Democratic Kampuchea regime, or Khmer Rouge regime, set up a prison to detain individuals accused of opposing Angkar. It was the most secret organ of the KR regime. S-21 stands for "Security Office 21". It was formerly a high school, but during the reign of the Khmer Rouge it was turned into a prison and was used to detain, torture, and kill the Cambodian people.
Today as we walked through this prison, now a genocide museum, the history of this culture took me to the point of tears. We walked through some of the darkest rooms and cells I have ever seen. There were beds where prisoners used to lie as they were tortured and murdered. The instruments of torture lying near the beds. In some rooms you could still see the blood stains on the floors and the walls. Barbed wire encasing many of the buildings...pictures of the thousands of victims at the prison posted in each of the rooms...and bones and clothing placed throughout the museum were all a reminder of how dark humans can be.
According to the Khmer dictionary, the word, "tuol" means the ground that is higher in level than that around it. The word "sleng" can be a noun or an adjective. When it is used as an adjective it means "supplying guilt" or "bearing poison" as a noun is means two kinds of indigenous Khmer poisonous trees. So "Tuol Sleng" literally means a "poisoness hill" or a "place on a mound to keep those who bear or supply guilt." The pastor at our church preached a sermon on this picture a few months back after visiting Cambodia himself. He saw this place as a picture of the cross (a tree) on a poisoness hill (Golgotha)...there the guilt and the shame of the world was carried by Christ for us... and out of that place life was able to continue. This is true for the Cambodia people as well. Though they have a sad history in the Khmer Rouge Regime, that is not their entire history...God continues to work and is very present here.
This is so true of Tuol Sleng, or S-21 as it's also known. Tuol Sleng is the location where the Democratic Kampuchea regime, or Khmer Rouge regime, set up a prison to detain individuals accused of opposing Angkar. It was the most secret organ of the KR regime. S-21 stands for "Security Office 21". It was formerly a high school, but during the reign of the Khmer Rouge it was turned into a prison and was used to detain, torture, and kill the Cambodian people.
Today as we walked through this prison, now a genocide museum, the history of this culture took me to the point of tears. We walked through some of the darkest rooms and cells I have ever seen. There were beds where prisoners used to lie as they were tortured and murdered. The instruments of torture lying near the beds. In some rooms you could still see the blood stains on the floors and the walls. Barbed wire encasing many of the buildings...pictures of the thousands of victims at the prison posted in each of the rooms...and bones and clothing placed throughout the museum were all a reminder of how dark humans can be.
According to the Khmer dictionary, the word, "tuol" means the ground that is higher in level than that around it. The word "sleng" can be a noun or an adjective. When it is used as an adjective it means "supplying guilt" or "bearing poison" as a noun is means two kinds of indigenous Khmer poisonous trees. So "Tuol Sleng" literally means a "poisoness hill" or a "place on a mound to keep those who bear or supply guilt." The pastor at our church preached a sermon on this picture a few months back after visiting Cambodia himself. He saw this place as a picture of the cross (a tree) on a poisoness hill (Golgotha)...there the guilt and the shame of the world was carried by Christ for us... and out of that place life was able to continue. This is true for the Cambodia people as well. Though they have a sad history in the Khmer Rouge Regime, that is not their entire history...God continues to work and is very present here.
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