Dângrêk Mountains

Coordinates: 14°20.25′N 103°55′E / 14.33750°N 103.917°E / 14.33750; 103.917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Dângrêk Mountains
Rock age
Jurassic
Rock types
Silhouette of the Dângrêk Mountains, looking north from Cambodia at dawn.
The Preah Vihear Temple area, on the shoulder of one of the Dângrêk Mountains.
Preah Vihear Temple and border lines on dispute

The Dângrêk Mountains (

Anlong Veng is the final stronghold of the Khmer Rouge of Democratic Kampuchea and the Maoist dictator Pol Pot
(Saloth Sar) which is also the final resting place in his jungle headquarters.

Geography

Despite the length of the range, the Dângrêk are a relatively low mountain system, the average elevation of the summits being around 500 m. The highest peak is

Khao Banthat (เขาบรรทัด) at the western end.[2]

The northern side of the Dângrêk Mountains is gently sloping, while the sides facing south are usually a steep escarpment that dominates the plain of northern Cambodia. The watershed along the escarpment in general terms marks the boundary between Thailand and Cambodia; however, there are exceptions. The main road connecting the two countries in this area cuts through a pass in the Dângrêk Mountains at

Phanom Dong Rak District, bears the name of this mountain range.[3]

Geology

The mountains are formed mainly of massive

Ubon Ratchathani Province
.

Ecology

The Dângrêk Mountain range is mostly covered by dry

Forest fires are also common in the hills during the dry season.[5]

There is not much wildlife left in the Dângrêk Mountains. Wild hog, deer,

endangered species, the white-winged duck
deserves mention.

The

Preah Vihear Protected Forest
on the Cambodian side.

History

The Dângrêk Mountains were part of the ancient

Shaivite temple of the Khmer imperial times dated from the reign of Suryavarman I[10]: 96  in a dramatic location on top of a high hill.[11]

In 1975, following the fall of the Lon Nol regime on 17 April the Khmer Rouge entered the capital Phnom Penh. But the final area held by the ill-fated Khmer Republic in any form would be the Preah Vihear Temple in these mountains. Khmer National Armed Forces occupied the place in late-April that year.[12] They held on for a few weeks until the hill where the temple stands was finally taken by the Khmer Rouge on 22 May.

Between 1975 and 1979 many Cambodians fled the violence in their country across these mountains. In one of the worst cases of enforced repatriation in UN history, the Thai military forcefully sent as many as 40,000 refugees back into Cambodia often through heavily mined areas despite their unwillingness to return. Many would die of lack of food and exposure in the mountains. To compound matters, there were also bandits hiding in the forests preying on the hapless refugees. At that time there were many corpses, lying rotting unburied, strewn about the Dângrêk Mountains.[13][14]

In the 1984 movie The Killing Fields, the Dângrêk Mountains are the final escarpment that Pran, portrayed by actor Haing S. Ngor, climbs in order to reach the safety of the refugee camp across the border in Thailand. The contrast between the steep-faced Cambodian side and the smooth northern slope of the cordillera is well displayed in this movie.

Even though some areas have been cleared, vast numbers of

landmines were laid by the People's Republic of Kampuchea government in the 1980s as part of a huge planned operation using thousands of conscripted workers along the Dângrêk mountain range and other parts of the Thai-Cambodian border. The alleged purpose was to hinder Pol Pot's regrouped Khmer Rouge from entering Cambodia from Thailand. This defensive line, part of the legacy of the violent conflicts that engulfed Cambodia in the latter part of the 20th century, is known as the K-5 Belt
.

After the end of the

Anlong Veng became the final resting place of the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot (Saloth Sar) where it was used for the Khmer Rouge
to rebuild their former bases on 18 February 1994.

There is still an unexcavated site in a forest with landmines in the Dângrêk Mountains, about 6 km north of Anlong Veng where 3,000 people were allegedly killed by the Khmer Rouge for having become "corrupted" as late as between 1993 and 1997. These executions were carried out during Ta Mok's leadership in the area.[15]

phayung ('Siamese rosewood') is rampant in the Dângrêk Mountains.[4] Although officially a protected tree, the logs cut on the Cambodian side are usually smuggled into Thailand by the hundreds.[16] In Thailand and China this wood is highly valued in the furniture industry.[17]

Preah Vihear temple dispute

Main article: Cambodian–Thai border dispute

In 1959, the Thai military seized the ancient Khmer Preah Vihear Temple from Cambodia. In 1962 Cambodia gained worldwide recognition for sovereignty from the International Court. Recently the issue of Cambodian sovereignty in the Cambodian–Thai border dispute has been used by certain nationalist factions in Thailand as a tool to help discredit the current Thai government as part of the continuing power struggle within Thailand.[citation needed]

In mid-2011, three districts of Surin Province in the Dângrêk Range were declared "disaster zones" following border clashes between the Thai and the Cambodian military. The area declared a disaster zone included a total of 142 villages.[18] Following this official declaration, about 6,000 civilians were evacuated from the villages of the area.[19][20]

See also

References

  1. ^ Roadway Thailand Atlas, Groovy Map Co., Ltd. © 4/2010
  2. ^ Chong Bok
  3. ^ "Phanom Dong Rak". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17. "Phanom Dong Rak Sub". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  4. ^ a b DSI claims illegal logging rampant - Bangkok Post
  5. ^ Community Forestry International - Oddar Meancheay
  6. ^ "Phanom Dong Rak Wildlife Sanctuary". Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  7. ^ "Yot Dom Wildlife Sanctuary". Archived from the original on 2014-02-27. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  8. ^ "Huai Sala Wildlife Sanctuary". Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  9. ^ Bernard Pjilippe Groslier, Prospection des Sites Khmers du Siam, Paris, 1980
  10. ISBN 9781842125847
  11. ^ Svasti, Pichaya (22 May 2008). "A fine line; The sovereignty dispute over sacred site Preah Vihear continues". SEAArch - Southeast Asian Archaeology. Bangkok Post. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  12. ^ Fenton, James (25 April 1975). "The bitter end in Cambodia". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on 20 June 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019. "The bitter end in Cambodia". Archived from the original on 20 June 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. ^ The Mental Health Conditions of Cambodian Refugee Children and Adolescents
  14. ISBN 9781740591119
    .
  15. ^ Kelvin Rowley, Second Life, Second Death: The Khmer Rouge After 1978 Archived 2016-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Cambodians caught for phayung smuggling - Bangkok Post
  17. ^ Illegal Cambodian loggers add to tensions
  18. ^ Bangkok Post - 3 Surin border districts 'disaster zones'
  19. ^ Relief Web - Over 6,000 people in Surin evacuated after border clashes
  20. ^ Bangkok Post - Evacuation images
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