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Overview of Cambodia Landmine Museum
Established by DIY deminer Aki Ra, this museum has eye-opening displays on the curse of landmines in Cambodia. The collection includes mines, mortars, guns and weaponry, and there is a mock minefield where visitors can attempt to locate the deactivated mines. Proceeds from the museum are ploughed into mine-awareness campaigns. The museum is about 25km from Siem Reap, near Banteay Srei.
Full Detail of Cambodia Landmine Museum
The Cambodian Landmine Museum was established in 1997 by ex-child soldier Aki Ra. After years of fighting he returned to the villages in which he planted thousands of mines and began removing them, by hand, and defusing them with homemade tools.
In 2008 he established a formal demining NGO, Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD). CSHD is a separate NGO and apart from the Museum. They clear landmines throughout the country.
The idea for a Relief Facility came around when Aki Ra saw many children wounded by landmines and those in extreme poverty. He brought them to his home, where he and his wife raised them as their own, alongside their own children. Originally, all of the children at the facility were landmine victims. Today the facility cares for children who suffer from a variety of difficulties.
The Relief Facility houses over 2 dozen children from small villages in Cambodia. The children are enrolled in public government school to continue their education. The Facility also has its own school building to enrich the children’s education with a computer lab, a library, English language classes, a playground, and a staff of 14. The Relief Facility accepts volunteers to help teach English, work in the Museum and assist in the office. Please see the Volunteer page to learn how to become a volunteer.
Mission
The Cambodian Landmine Museum and Relief Center serves to educate the public on the dangers of landmines, and in addition it supports and educates at-risk and landmine affected youth that reside in the Relief Center. This home was created so that it might serve as a place of healing for bodies, hearts and minds. We believe that love, support and education are the essential means to secure a better future for the children that live here and our visitors.
Goals
The Museum
At the museum we focus on educating our visitors about the dangers of landmines, where they came from, who laid them, how they work, and their presence in Cambodia. One mine means one life impacted and those odds are still far too high in Cambodia.
Location
The Museum is approximately 25 km north of Siem Reap (30 minutes by tuk tuk), just 7km south of the Banteay Srey Temple complex in Angkor National Park.
Hours of Operation
The tiny 12th-century Buddhist temple of Neak Pean (sometimes written Neak Poan or Neak Poun sits on a circular stone island in a square pool, framed by four more pools, all built on an island in the middle of a lake. The temple’s name means “entwined serpents.”
A favorite Angkor sunset spot, Pre Rup is a 3-tier mountain temple topped with five sanctuary towers. Built in 961 AD as a temple to the Hindu god Shiva, Pre Rup’s name means “turn the body,” and some believe it was used for cremations. Its warm brickwork and red laterite stone look beautiful at sunrise or sunset.
The sprawling temple complex of Angkor Thom, an ancient Khmer capital formerly ringed by a crocodile-infested moat, surpasses the world-famous Angkor Wat in both size and scale. Each of the site’s five gates are heralded by avenues lined with 108 deities that represent good and evil, which provide spectacular photo opportunities before you even step inside.
The Siem Reap Art Center Night Market is open from morning until late in the evening, but it is more of a night market than an art center. Close to the Old Market (Phsar Chaa or Phsar Chas), the site boasts a wealth of stalls selling crafts, souvenirs, the obligatory elephant pants, and snacks.
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Cambodia Landmine Museum
