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Because of this primary responsibility of attending to the family's well-
being, women have always been the principal healers in Khmer society.
Mothers healed not only physical ailments, but also the suffering of mind
and spirit. Mothers ministered to illnesses and nourished health in every
aspect of their family's experience, for suffering, dukkha, is not just bodily
illness or emotional discord, it is the condition of being in this world. Vy
and Somaly and thousands of other Khmer women continue to do as their
mothers did, and now they have become the mothers of all the survivors of
the killing fields.

Vy believes that compassion is the heart of motherhood, as it is the heart
of Buddhism. As her own mother lay dying of starvation in a Khmer Rouge
work camp she forgave her son who had raged against her and cursed her.
Vy observed her mother's compassion, not only for her own son, but also
toward others who were in agony. She told Vy that she had nothing else left
to give. Compassion was the only legacy she could leave to her children.

Vy, Somaly, and countless other Cambodian women now transmit that
precious legacy to the next generation.


Notes
1. This paper is based on a series of interviews with Somaly Hay and Theanvy Kuoch,
conducted in 1997. Additional background information in the introduction was derived
from conversations with other Cambodian refugees and with Americans who work with
them, and from published works including the following: Usha Welaratna, Beyond the
Killing Fields, Voices of Nine Cambodian Survivors in America ( Stanford University Press,
1993); and Jeremy Hein, From Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, A Refugee Experience in
the United States ( New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995).
2. In this essay, the terms "Khmer" and "Cambodian" are used interchangeably to refer to
the people of Cambodia, their language, and their culture. "Khmer" is the term used by
the people themselves, and "Cambodian" is the English equivalent.
3. The 1990 United States Census counted 147,000 Cambodians living in the United States.
This number is believed by those familiar with Cambodian communities to be much too
low. An estimated figure of more than 240,000 has been suggested.
4. For a summary of information on women in traditional Cambodian society and on
education for boys and girls, see Nancy J. Smith-Hefner, "Education, Gender and
Generational Conflict among Khmer Refugees", Anthropology and Education Quarterly
24, no. 2 ( 1993): 140-44.

-103-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Innovative Buddhist Women: Swimming against the Stream. Contributors: Karma Lekshe Tsomo - author. Publisher: Curzon Press Limited. Place of Publication: Richmond. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 103.
    
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