JUNGLES OF CAMBODIA
Main Piece:
While I was at work I went on REDDIT to learn more about ghost stories I could find about Cambodia. I found one story on reddit from someone’s great grandparents a story about how one must never one must be extremely careful before establishing, going forth into the jungle, or hunting in the jungle.
There was one story where one traveler visited a town and asked the leader for guidance into the jungle. The leader was hesitant but eventually they both went into the jungle armed. the leader had told the traveler of the dangers and the things he must be very careful of doing such as talking to the animals. the traveler laughed and took no regard to this and one day attempted to speak to the animals. the next day he went missing.
the leader knew what had happened to him and fled back to town.
my thoughts behind this story is that these animals are of no ordinary animals but they are perhaps possessed by spirits or demons of the jungle.
these stories are somewhat similar to some of the things my father said about the jungles (father lived in Cambodia as a farmer/villager in his youth)
Background Information:
Why do they know this piece?
From reading a post on reddit – interest in learning about ghost stories found online through Cambodian ancestors.
Where/Who did they learn it from?
Reddit – a post made by a Cambodian male. (but this story also resonated/aligned with what the subject’s father told her when she was young – the father was a villager/farmer in Cambodia during her youth).
What does it mean for them?
Coming from a Christian family who had no interest in telling me stories such as these it means a lot learning about real stories coming from ancestors who believe in the spiritual world. It also teaches me about what life was like in the jungles of Cambodia and how farmers like my ancestors survived.
Context of Performance:
Sitting inside friend’s room talking.
Thoughts:
Here it is interesting yet again that in the modern 21st century, people can learn about their ethnic/cultural folklore (that may be lost through sequences of immigration, naturalization, or assimilation) through mediums outside their family, such as the internet (Cambodian folklore part of Reddit).
Although I am aware that such accounts gotten from the internet, such as Reddit, may not be the most accurate, I do stand by this account because she (the subject) told me how this story was very similar to those that she was told by her father a long time ago when she was much younger.