Kandieng ( ) is a district in Pursat province,

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

. The district capital is at Kandieng town located about 12 km from the Provincial capital

Pursat Pursat ( ; , ) is the capital of Pursat Province, Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, ...

Location

Kandieng shares a border with the districts of Bakan to the west, Sampov Meas to the south and Krakor to the east. The northern part of the district encompasses a portion of the Tonle Sap lake and there is one settlement on the edge of the lake at Reang Til. This is a Tonle Sap floating village and the location moves depending on the water level in the lake. According to the 1998 Census, Kandieng district is made up of 9 communes and 113 villages. The population of the district was 53,335 in 10,148 households at the time of the last census.

Administration

The following table shows the villages of Kandieng district by commune.

Characteristics

Kandieng is home to several villages of traditional sculptors who work in marble. Buddhist statues and animal carvings are in strong demand and pieces from Kandieng are sold as far away as

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...

and

Siem Reap Siem Reap (, ) is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia. Siem Reap possesses French-colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter ...

. The marble is quarried in the

Cardamom Mountains The Cardamom Mountains (, ; , ), or the Krâvanh Mountains, is a mountain range in the southwest part of Cambodia and Eastern Thailand. The majority of the range is within Cambodia. The silhouette of the Cardamom Mountains appears in the Sea ...

in Veal Veang district and often transported to Kandieng via oxcart. In these villages marble carving is a skill that has been handed down through families over generations. Although there are many execution sites in Pursat, Kandieng is also home to one of the major execution sites (sometimes called killing fields) of the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), and by extension to Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by Norodom Sihano ...

in Pursat province. It is located near Srae Sdok about 6 kilometres from the Tonle Sap. The Tuol Purchrey killing site was a military fort for government soldiers during the

Lon Nol Marshal Lon Nol (, also ; 13 November 1913 – 17 November 1985) was a Cambodian military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice (1966–67; 1969–71), as well as serving repeatedly as defence minister and provi ...

period. Systematic executions were carried out at Tuol Purchrey from 1975 until 1978. People were transported to the site in large trucks, ordered out, tied up at gun point, and marched to be killed. Local researchers who visited and mapped the site interviewing surviving eyewitnesses estimated that over 10,000 people were executed here over 3 years.

References

{{coord, 12, 34, N, 104, 2, E, region:KH_type:adm2nd, display=title Districts of Pursat province