Introduction: Prey Lang Potent Landscapes

For millions of years, the potent forests and fields born of water and stone, have supported multiple ebbing and flowing tides of biological flourishing. Each species taps the potency of the earth in particular ways, and builds empires through collaborative exploitation.

In the forest called Prey Lang, between the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia, the debris from early human empires is scattered amid empires of the earth's other landscapers.

The structures that remain in the Prey Lang Forest are part of a human imperial project that reached its height in the Angkorean civilization, which spread across much of mainland Southeast Asia. As human kings fall, the imperial forest grows over the temples. The kings return in different forms and clear the forests again, exposing the temples in the name of history and in the name of progress. The French exposed Angkorian temples in Siem Reap to venerate and capture history. The current empire exposes those in Prey Lang as it captures the timber, stone, minerals, and land for global development.

The Prey Lang Forest is located in Cambodia's central northern regions and used to stretch between the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap Lake.

The maps below show forest change from 1989 to 2014 (top), from 2016 to 2019 (middle), 2020 and 2021 (bottom).

We call this series "The Potent Landscapes of Prey Lang" because the potency of this forest is what puts fish in the rivers, lizards, mamals, insects, and people in the air and on the land. Prey Lang supports every empire -- elephants, termites, and humans alike.

Parts of Prey Lang have been populated for at least two thousand years by Kuy people, a Mon-Khmer speaking collective from the Austroasiatic family.

The Kuy continue to occupy lands at the border regions of contemporary Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos, and have a long history of interface with the rising and falling kingdoms of this territory.

The forest holds the remains of this interface in iron works and ancient temples, rituals and myths, and the persistent technologies for tapping potency and making a living under the forest canopy.

We will tell three kinds of stories with this series. The first relates to the potent places scattered throughout the forest. The second shows the current variety of livelihood prowess that people use to make a living within the forest. The third engages with Kuy and Khmer technologies for interdimensional communication, which help people stay healthy while making a living tapping forest potency and were instrumental in the land grabs of early kings.

The story we cannot tell is that of the mega fauna and rich biodiversity of the landscape, which has has been severly damaged by market forces. Today, only isolated members of its once rich society remain.

This map shows the Prey Lang Landscape today. Timber extraction for global markets continues to drive deforestation -- despite laws against it. Market crops like rubber, sugar, cashews, and cassava, further impact forest health through both industrial (grey shapes) and small holder farms.

The pentagons in red, yellow, and tan are the potent places. This section introduces the natural formations of rock and water, the sites to make offerings to the honored ancestors (who are also often natural formations of rock and water), and the ancient temple structures from the preAngkorian period of Khmer civilization.

The green triangles represent subsistence livelihood activities: rice fields, resin trees, honey collection, hunting, fishing, and farming. This section describes the technologies of daily subsistence in the forest.

Both livelihoods and potent places require a variety of ritual performances for interdemensional communication with the potent landscape. These rituals will be mapped over one calendar year, with descriptions of the event and the activities.

Through this series we will tell a history from below. Based in the knowledge of resident Kuy and Khmer villagers, this is an intimate view of forest life through the lens of its inhabitants.