Wat Sakor Borei, located at 2289 Lewis Avenue is pictured during a special ceremony in 2002. The monk at the far left was a police officer visiting from San Diego who was in residence for one month. Becoming a buddhist monk is not a lifetime commitment. Traditionally, all adolescent males were expected to spend some time as a novice monk in their local village temple, but the decision to continue as a monk or return to secular life was largely up to the individual. It was also possible for men to return to the monkhood after an absence of several years. Other monks pictured here are from left: Sophea Chan, Keng Kem, Lok Ta Chea (visiting from Australia), Peow Say, Saret Chhiv, Saeoun Saet, Thorn Saveoun, and Kim Hon.
Chantara Nop is distraught that his family had left after waiting for him for 10 days at his sister’s Phnom Penh house. Nop apologizes as his sister, Bopriek, offers incense to the family shrine. (The Long Beach Press-Telegram, May 1, 1989. Photographer: Bruce Chambers)
Chantara Nop surveys an empty grave in the killing fields outside of the Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. All of the corpses – some of them children – have been removed by the government. (The Long Beach Press-Telegram, May 2, 1989. Photographer: Bruce Chambers)
Prince Norodom Sihanouk (seated on the left) and his wife, Princess Monique, attended a conference in Long Beach, California held in 1980, the year after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge by the Vietnamese.
In attendance at the first National Conference of Cambodian associations was from left to right: General Pok Sam An; Eunice Sato (Long Beach City Councilmember, 7th district); and Prince Sisowath Sirirath.
