Vann Nath
Encyclopedia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
n painter, artist, writer and human rights activist who was one of a diverse group of writers from 22 countries to receive the prestigious Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
/Hammett Award which recognizes courage in the face of political persecution which he faced during the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
. He was the eighth Cambodian to win the award since 1995.
Biography
Vann Nath was born in Phum Sophy village, Srok Battambang district, Battambang ProvinceBattambang Province
Battambang is a province in northwestern Cambodia. It is bordered to the North with Banteay Meanchey, to the West with Thailand, and to the East and South with Pursat. The capital of the province is the city of Battambang. The name, meaning 'lost staff', refers to the legend of Preah Bat Dambang...
in northwestern Cambodia. The exact date and year of his birth is unknown but it was common for poor Cambodians born in rural areas not to have a proper birth certificate. He was educated at Wat Sopee as a child. His parents were separated and he had two brothers and an older sister. They earned a living by selling a type of Khmer noodles called 'noop bangchop'. They were so poor that Nath had no chance to get a proper education. By the time he was 14 or 15, he was working at factory jobs for 500-600 riel a month (less than 25 cents).
Nath became interested in painting while he was studying at Wat Sopee. "I became very attracted to painting when I went into the pagoda and I saw people painting a picture on the side of the wall of a temple." Instead of pursuing painting, he served as a monk from the age of 17 to 21. "Every family has a son...one of the sons must go and serve as a monk — it is considered bad for the Cambodian family to not have a son who is a monk", says Vann Nath.
When his sister died, Vann Nath left the monkhood to do something which would help support the family. He enrolled in a private painting school in 1965, "School was far from my house and I couldn't afford a bicycle. Because our family life was hard, only my mother was working to support the whole family and she became older and older and I had to pay the tuition for the painting school." Later, the school allowed Vann Nath to work there instead of paying tuition. After two years he was able to profit from his own painting work.
Living Under Khmer Rouge Regime
At the time of his arrest on January 7, 1978, Vann Nath was working in a rice field in his home province of Battambang like many other Battambang locals. The Khmer Rouge took him to Wat Kandal, a Buddhist temple used as a detainment centre. They told him that he was accused of violating the moral code of the organization of AngkaCommunist Party of Kampuchea
The Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as Khmer Communist Party , was a communist party in Cambodia. Its followers were generally known as Khmer Rouge .-Foundation of the party; first divisions:...
. He did not understand what that meant.
Subsequently, he was transferred and deported to a security prison in Phnom Penh. This security prison is known as S-21 by the Khmer Rouge and it was formerly a high school known as Tuol Sleng high school. There, people are interrogated and executed on a daily basis. Towards the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the invasion of the Vietnamese army in 1979, only seven prisoners made out of the prison alive. Vann Nath was one of them.
Career
Vann Nath was a painter and writer whose memoirs and paintings of his experiences in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison are a powerful and poignant testimony to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge.Vann Nath was an outspoken advocate for justice for victims of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge and this is reflected in his writing. His 1998 memoir A Cambodian Prison Portrait: One Year in the Khmer Rouge's S-21 Prison, about his experiences at S-21
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979...
is the only written account by a survivor of the prison. It has been translated from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
.
Vann Nath was one of Cambodia's most prominent artists. His life was only spared by his captor, Comrade Duch, so that he could be put to work painting and sculpting portraits of Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
. He played an important role in helping to revive the arts in Cambodia after decades of war and genocide.
During 2001 and 2002, Vann Nath worked intensively with Cambodian film director Rithy Panh
Rithy Panh
Rithy Panh is an internationally and critically acclaimed Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter.The French-schooled director's films focus on the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia...
in the preparation of a documentary film entitled S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is a 2003 documentary film directed by Rithy Panh. Rithy, himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, brought together two former prisoners of the regime with their former captors at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former Security Prison 21 under the Khmer Rouge.-...
.Vann Nath Film Biography - Film - Time Out London Vann Nath is interviewed in the film, in which Panh brought together former prisoners and guards of the former Tuol Sleng prison
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979...
. Vann Nath confronts and questions his former torturers.
To recognize their work, both, Vann Nath and Rithy Panh have been conferred the title of Dr. honoris causa by the University of Paris VIII on May 24th, 2011.
Illness
Despite battling long-standing health problems, including chronic kidney disease, Vann Nath continued to paint and write about his experiences under the Pol Pot regime. He suffered from heart attack and went into a coma. He died on 5th of September 2011 at the Calmette Hospital in Phnom PenhPhnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
. He was approximately 66 years old.
See also
- Tuol Sleng
- Chum MeyChum MeyChum Mey is one of only twelve known survivors of the Khmer Rouge imprisonment in the S-21 Tuol Sleng camp, where more than 16,000 Cambodians were sent for execution. He survived two years of torture and fear in a Khmer Rouge death camp, sustained by thoughts of his pregnant wife and unborn child...
- TortureTortureTorture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
- John Dawson DewhirstJohn Dawson DewhirstJohn Dawson Dewhirst was a British teacher and amateur yachtsman who was one of nine western adventurers that fell victim of the Khmer Rouge during the genocidal rule of Pol Pot. Dewhirst was one of two Britons to die in Pol Pot's Cambodia....
- Comrade Duch
External links
- Vann Nath
- Vann Nath - Paint Propaganda or Die - The Art History Archive
- Vann Nath, The Economist, Sep 17th 2011