14 March 2007

កោះត្រឡាច Koh Tralach

Click the yellow cover page on the left to download this complete book. The book is in Khmer. Sorry its not in english :( But, even if you don't read Khmer, download it for your reference. It's a great book.

កោះត្រឡាច "Koh Tralach" has stuck in me. After I read Khmer book "គុក នយោបាយ Kuk Noyobai--Political Prison" by Bunchan Mol, I was even more curious where "Koh Tralach" is. Thanks to today internet, information can be retrieved at our finger tip.

កោះត្រឡាច Koh Tralach, also known as Poulo Condore, is an archipelago with 16 smaller islands surrounding one large island. It is located in the South China Sea with the distance 230 km from ក្រុងព្រៃនគរ Krong Prey Nokor (Saigon). Koh Tralach always belongs to Khmer. In 1954, the French turned over to the Vietnamese.

Koh Tralach was made into a peniteniary (prison) during the French colonial time. The French sent those who they were suspected to revolt against them for independence to this island.

Excerpt taken from introduction of the book គុក នយោបាយ.

The book I recently read was "Kuk Noyobai" -- Polical Prison by Bunchan Mol written in 1971 is an excellent book to dig into the history. It is a biography journal of the author Bunchan Mol under the French colonialism which he accounted from 1936 to 1945 the end of World War II. Through this book I was so moved how our peaceful, beautiful island of flora and fauna with pristine beaches was made into a living hell under the French then sadly was lost to the Vietnamese.



I highly recommend this book. I just uploaded electronic version (pdf) to my webpage at Esnip. Please click yellow cover page image above to download the complete text. The book is in Khmer. Sorry its not in english :( But, even if you don't read Khmer, download it for your reference. It's a great book.

Like the rest of Cambodia provinces, the Vietnamese have been trying so hard to eliminate any traces of Khmer origin. Koh Tralach these days is called by Vietnamese name 'Con Dao' or 'Con Son'. No matter how hard they're trying, just likeកោះត្រល់ Koh Tral or Koh Trol (Phu Quoc), កោះត្រឡាច Koh Tralach is always in the heart of every Khmer.

ខ្ញុំ វណ្ណះ
ភ្នំពេញ-ស្វាយរៀង

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I just read the book "kuk no you bay" at http://khmercenter.ch/Prolomlok/Kuknayobay/Nayobay.htm
The same to you, I wanted to know where Koh Trolach is and what it looks like, but I can only find where it is, but I can't any photo about Koh tro lach. Anyway, thanks your for those information about that island.

I was impressed by the author of the book, Bun Chanmol. He was only 22 years old(as I remember) at the time he joined the group of Mr. Seung ngoc tanh but he loved his country and he wasn't fear of dead.

A good story and can be a reference of cambodian history of that time.

3:19 PM

Blog By Khmer said...

You can find some pictures of Koh Trolach on the internet. Search Google for Con Son,Con Dao or Poulo Condor. Beautiful islands which the Viets turned them into resort place. I first thought I wanted to posted some pictures, then I felt so sad for the islands belong to Vietnam that's why I didn't posted any.

The introduction of the book really captured me. Bunchan Mol, what a great author he is (or was) ! truly patriotic.

Thanks for taking time to comment. Earlier you couldn't make any comment. Somehow when I posted this entry the 'Comment Allow' was turned off. Sorry. Thank you for telling me or I wouldn't have noticed it.

Vanak.

Anonymous said...

Very impressive article, really! And I hope you keep your useful reading going.


-CB-

Anonymous said...

CB
Thank u for dropping by and your comment.

vanak

Anonymous said...

Hey Vanak!

Thank you for uploading Kok Noyobaay as a PDF file. It is a great book. I've read both Kok Noyobaay and Charit Khmer. Bonn Chan Mol has alot of very interesting and important things to say about Cambodia and how to make it better.

Do you think many young people in Cambodia read books like this or they are just not interested?

Thanks again

Blog By Khmer said...

Yes. People over here do read Bunchan Mol. I always recommend my friends to read his book. Another book I really recommend is "Angka Chea Norna?" by Mrs. Kim Thi Uy (Yey Tieng). This one is very very good. I'm will tryp to upload to the internet for people especially who live in oversea can download.

These kind of books is what I always label them as "The books that Hun Sen and yuon don't want you to read".

T H E . M A L A Y . P R E S S said...

hi. How to pronunce Koh Tralach ? is it koh tra lak as schwazernbach...or tralak?

pls help.

tq