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Ratanakiri

Remote, primitive and stunningly beautiful, Ratanakiri Province, its roots in the distant past and much of its daily life virtually unchanged for centuries, is emerging into modern times and emerging, according to a legend of the ethnic tribes people who make up most of the population, from a long period of hard times. According to the story, jealous villagers spread the word that the beautiful wife of the head of the tribe had been unfaithful. Distraught, the tribal leader called a village meeting to pass the traditional sentence-death by fire or beheading. The wife protested her innocence to no avail. Just before dying, she placed a curse on the land that for eight generations. The crops would fail,

the gems would be scarce, and life would be hard. This is the end of the eighth generation of hard times. Things are looking up for Cambodia’s frontier province” in the northeast bordering Laos and Vietnam. Life is improving and tourists are coming. Provincial officials are eager to attract more tourists, but at the same time they want to be sure they can preserve the province’s beauty and traditions. It is a land of mountains and rain forests, rare tigers and elephants, and perhaps even a few Kouprey, the mysterious jungle cow. It is a land of stream-cut valleys and sweeping vistas, crashing waterfalls and fields of bright yellow wild sunflowers. And it is a land of “highlanders” who worship the spirits of the land, sky, water and fire, and of their ancestors who lived the same life far back into the past, beyond memory.

“What we have are the natural places, waterfalls, the mountains, the volcanic lake. And the ethnic tribes and traditions,” says the provincial tourism officer, Tra Nuth Sean, who will help implement the government’s three to five year plan to develop Ratanakiri into an eco-tourism destination, a place of natural delights only an hour-and-a-half flight from Phnom Penh. A flight to the new capital of Banlung is in many ways the  start of a trip back in time. The 20th Century is just beginning to touch the lives of the people of the picturesque villages

accessible only with sturdy four-wheel drives or by trek. Known collectively as the Khmer Loeu highlanders Ratanakiri’s hill tribes number around 20 including the Tampuan, Kreung, Jarai, Brau, and Phnong, each with its own language. They make up 80 percent of the province’s 72,000 people, with the rest including Khmer, Lao, Chinese and Vietnamese. Some of the tribes are semi-nomadic farmers, clearing fields out of forest and moving every few years to new fields, a practice that the provincial authorities would like to discourage.
 
The ancient worship pervades their life. If someone is sick, the village assembles to pray for help and guidance from the past, putting food on mats for the spirits of their ancestors. In bad times, the people pray to the spirits of nature, asking them to stop punishing the tribe. In such ceremonies, villagers sacrifice a buffalo, and dance and drink wine until all are inebriated and in touch with the offended spirits. The highlanders follow their own laws and traditions, in addition to state law. Couples marry traditionally and divorce, as well. In many villages, small “virgin huts” stand outside the family home, courting houses for the daughters to audition prospective mates. She may court many before choosing her husband.
 
If a spouse is unfaithful or a husband abusive, the tribal leader will call a village meeting and pronounce a divorce. The courts are not involved. At a remote Tampuan village, at the end of a steep path flanked by bamboo thickets. are the village showers: a dozen hollow bamboo poles imbedded in the Cliffside above the stream, taping cool underground water. In the village at the top of the hill, an old man sits on his porch, in the shade of a thatched roof, putting the finishing touches on a basket.
The people of all tribes have their own distinctive features. Some groups favor tattoos or large pierced earlobes. others wear brass ankle bracelets. It is a common sight to see group of pipe-smoking women, carrying baskets on their backs, walking Single file on the way to market or to the fields.
Modern times are touching the lives of the ethnic minorities, though especially those in villages near towns.
 
Many people wear Western clothes, children go to school and some people have converted to Buddhism.
And modern times are touching the splendid natural beauty of Ratanakiri but in many places just barely. The quiet old hardwood forests are still The quiet old hardwood forests are still thick with ancient mahogany trees. Lush hills are dotted with coffee bushes, bananas, papaya, mangoes and jack fruit trees.
Wildlife is abundant. Birds flock overhead and sing in the forest. A few hundred tigers. found only in the remotest parts of the jungle, are protected from hunting, but their skin and bones are valued for their alleged healing properties and can bring upwards of $1,000. With that kind of financial incentive, the tiger population is dwindling. Locals swear they have seen tracks of the Kouprey, the endangered “jungle cow” in the isolated forests.
 
North of Banlung is Veal Rum Plang, a rocky plain in the middle of the forest. It is a magic place, according to the legend recounted by a guide: “A young boy’s kite got caught in a tree, and when the boy climbed up the tree to fetch it, he fell, and was killed. The boy’s body was buried near the rock plateau, and now the spirits offer protection to the plain and the majestic trees surrounding it.”
Just east of Banlung is Yeak Laom, a deep lake in the crater of a long-dead volcano. It is said to harbor spirits. It is perfect for a dip on a hot day and various plans have been made to build a country inn on its shores. Ratanakiri also has three crashing waterfalls.

Ratanakiri got its name, “Gemstone Mountain,” in the past half century under colonial rule it was known simply as the northeast Province. The name refers to the lodes of gems underground. At one zircon mine near the Vietnam border, tall bamboo rods stick up like fishing poles. They are hand-operated cranes over deep holes, to hoist up buckets of gem-rich dirt filled meters underground.
The officials of Ratanakiri are eager for more tourists to come, but they realize that tourists are part of the advance of modern times – and civilization – that threatens the very things, primitive and beautiful, that make the province attractive. "We don’t have the monuments like Angkor Wat,” says tourism officer Tra Nuth Sean. “All we have is natural beauty. We must protect it.”

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