Cambodia's History and Culture

For our past meeting with Team Cambodia, we were asked to research various parts of the Cambodian culture and history. Here we learned some interesting and incredibly tragic things.
Cambodia has a culture, much different to that in the US. One US dollar is worth 4,064.95 Cambodian Riel. The men do not show many feelings, and women are shy. Woman do not show their shoulders, or their knees when the dress. In Cambodia there are many farms. People often do not wear shoes, or they wear rubber sandals. When you approach someone, you must bow, especially when approaching an elderly. I also found it interesting that the head is sacred and it is considered rude to point with your feet.
About 95% of the population is Buddhist.  In Buddhism, people are trying to reach "Nirvana" by living to give back to the universe. You are never supposed to touch the Buddhist statute. When at the statue though, you must bow three times with your feet tucked.
Cambodia also has a very unique government.  In 1863 they were controlled and protected by the French. In the 1960's Cambodia becomes independent from France.  In 1975 Pol Pot over threw the government. Since 2004, Norodom Sihamoni has been the king. Since they now have a constitutional monarchy they are allowed to trade globally.  An interesting fact about the Cambodian government is that Pol Pot's sister was one of Sihamoni's father's wives.
Cambodia has a tragic history. The Khmer Rouge was the group of people who overthrew the government in the 1970's. They began to run a communist government and were aided by the Vietnamese. They wanted an uneducated peasant farming society.  In 1973 bombs were dropped killing about 3,000 people. This gained much respect for the Khmer Rouge. In 1975 they overthrew the government and Pol Pot became the dictator. 1975 was known as Year Zero, because they were looking to "cleanse" Cambodia and get rid of all outside culture. Foreign languages were banished and there were very few people in Cambodia who weren't Cambodian.  You had to work for the food you received. In 1976 they turned a high school into a torture center, the S21 Prison. This is the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide today.  Of the 14,000 people who were recorded to enter the prison, only 7 survived.   The executions were carefully kept track of and 6,000 portraits were recovered.  The head of the S21 Prison was Kang Kech Leu, also know as brother Duch. People would be beat and tortured so they would tell information but many times they made up false stories. There were many forms of torture including skinning and slitting throats.  People who were pale were executed because they were believed to be educated and spent a lot of times indoors. People with glasses must be executed because they need glasses to read. People with smooth hands were executed because they didn't work in fields. Families were split up. All of this killed between two and three million people, about 25% of the population. The killing fields where were thousands of people would lie dead after execution in open pits.
The history of Cambodia, though seems to be a nightmare is very real. Learning about this really opens up my eyes about the country I am lucky enough to travel to and has definitely changed my outlook on Cambodia.