Kry Lay in 2001 with students at one of the schools in Long Beach, CA. Lay, who had a Doctorate from the University of Poona (Savitribai Phule Pune University), in Pune, India, was instrumental in developing educational materials for the Long Beach Unified School District’s South East Asian Learners (S.E.A.L.) Project which assisted Cambodian refugee arrivals to learn English and adjust to U.S. schools.
A 1965 photograph of Kry Lay at the University of Poona (Savitribai Phule Pune University) in Pune, India. Lay was ordained as a Buddhist monk in his youth.
The Remembering the Killing Fields exhibit opened in 2011 and is a permanent exhibit at the National Cambodian Heritage Museum (formerly known as the Cambodian American Heritage Museum) in Chicago. The exhibit documents life under the Khmer Rouge by following a sequence of major themes: 1) “Clearing the Cities,” 2) “Destroying Society,” 3) “Constant Fear,” 4) “The Killing Fields,” and 5) “How I survived.” The exhibit was designed in part by collecting life history interviews of survivors living in the Chicago area. The six survivors pictured here (left to right: Thon Horm, Nen Sok, Horm Vin, Ly Yoeu, Riya Yoeu, and Sen Chey) mark the beginning of the exhibit. (Cambodian Association of Illinois)
At the center of The Wall of Remembrance at the Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago is a lotus-shaped stone incense holder, a mythical-bird-shaped candle holder, a large ceramic urn, and often bouquets of flowers brought by Cambodian community members. (Cambodian Association of Illinois)
The Killing Fields Memorial is a permanent fixture at the Cambodian Association of Illinois (CAI) and was designed by local Cambodian American architects. The memorial is composed of the Wall of Remembrance, a collection of eighty glass panels organized in four tiered rows, and a marble column at the center inscribed with a lotus flower and the message: “We Continue Our Journey with Compassion, Understanding, and Wisdom.” The glass panels are inscribed with the names of individuals who died during the Khmer Rouge period. Most of the names currently engraved on the panels belong to family members of current Illinois residents. CAI welcomes members of the Cambodian diaspora to submit additional names of the loved ones they lost during the period to be etched onto the panels.
