Antonio Graceffo " />

Photos courtesy of Antonio Graceffo

In Ratanakiri province, rather than measuring distances in kilometres, you could measure by the number of diverse cultures you pass along the way.

We were headed to the Saison River, to visit a Tombon burial ground. Along the way, my 25-year-old Khmer guide, Hao, took me to a Krem minority village and told me about their way of life.

The Krem used slash and burn agriculture, planting dry rice in a rotating system. Each time they plant rice, they sacrifice a chicken, pig or other animal to make food for the spirits. Afterwards, they invite all of their friends to eat the animal and drink rice wine from a large stone jar. After the party, a shrine is built with the head of the slaughtered animal suspended on bamboo poles. They would make another sacrifice when the rice harvest had ripened.

Scarcity of land has forced the tribal people to travel further and further to till their fields. For this reason, Krem families maintained one house in the village and one near their rice fields.

When working in the field, the men go in to the jungle and hunt for animals. They use a crossbow that is similar to many other tribes, however, unlike the Tombon tribe, they use poison-tipped arrows. The poison is made from cobra venom, mixed with tree resin.

They would also catch cobras to sell to the Vietnamese in Banlung. But now the cobra is a protected species, so it is illegal to hunt them. According to Hao, the Vietnamese use the skin to make leather goods. The blood is often mixed with alcohol for drinking. "But only rich people can afford that," said Hao.

A few miles up the road, we boarded a boat which took us a long way up the Saison River to Ganjon Tombon village. The way was scenic and quiet. The thick green jungle was only occasionally broken by the appearance of a tribal village.

Although the river is quite wide, there is very little traffic. Tribal people use canoes extensively, but never venture far from their home village.

The head man, Dam Gam Pun, told us that he was 75 years old. I asked about the two coffins under his house.

"One of those will be for the old man," explained Hao. "They got the coffin while he is still alive, so no one has to go into the jungle to cut wood and miss out on the funeral party."

Dam Gam Pun was typically slim, but tall for a Tombon. Obviously happy to have visitors, he instantly became a ball of energy while running around the village and demonstrating every facet of their lives from the use of Tombon cooking pots to showing us the use of fish traps. He particularly enjoyed showing us how they drink rice wine from large stone jugs... and he reeked of alcohol. But at 75, I think he ws allowed.

Some tribal people are quite shy. But luckily, Dam Gam Pun was open and answered all of my questions. He told us that during the Khmer Rouge time he left to live in the forest.

This corroborates the story of much of my research. Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri came under Khmer Rouge control first, years before the fall of Phnom Penh. Some of the earliest recruits were among the hill tribe people who had been turned against the west by Nixon's constant U.S. bombing raids into Cambodia. But once the Khmer Rouge began tightening the screws, eradicating languages and cultures which differed from the Khmer ideal, many hill tribe people ran off into the jungle to wait out the war.

Prince Sihanouk and, later, republican Dictator Lon Nol also invested great effort in recruiting tribal soldiers. Dam Gam Pun told us that two people from the village had served in Lon Nol's army, but returned unharmed. It was a direct result of these recruiting and integration efforts that the Cambodia's tribal people were given citizenship cards and passports. Although they are facing the same issues of land grabbing, poverty, illiteracy and cultural annihilation as tribal people everywhere, citizenship is a decided advantage over the tribal people of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) who are stateless persons.

You can buy Antonio Graceffo's latest paperback, "The Desert of Death on Three Wheels," by clicking here.