The Phnom Penh Post
MORE than 300 villagers distributed fliers to passing motorists outside Kandal provincial court yesterday, condemning a local development company’s recent threats to tear down a nearby pagoda.
On August 15, representatives from the Heng Development Company, which is owned by businesswoman Sieng Chanheng, set an August 30 deadline for villagers and monks to tear down Tuol Tamork pagoda in Kandal Stung district’s Ampov Prey commune, said Kong San, a pagoda committee member.
“We will not agree to tear down the pagoda because the company has no right to that land,” he said, and challenged it to produce a land title to support its claims.
He said the monks asked the company to extend the deadline until the conclusion of Buddhist Lent in October.
Chea Hy, a village representative who helped to hand out the leaflets, said that the pagoda was constructed in 2000, and was officially recognised by local authorities as a legal religious structure in 2007.
“The company’s owner is trying to use her power to remove the pagoda,” Chea Hy said.
“How can someone do that if they are a good Khmer citizen who respects Buddhism?”
On August 15, representatives from the Heng Development Company, which is owned by businesswoman Sieng Chanheng, set an August 30 deadline for villagers and monks to tear down Tuol Tamork pagoda in Kandal Stung district’s Ampov Prey commune, said Kong San, a pagoda committee member.
“We will not agree to tear down the pagoda because the company has no right to that land,” he said, and challenged it to produce a land title to support its claims.
He said the monks asked the company to extend the deadline until the conclusion of Buddhist Lent in October.
Chea Hy, a village representative who helped to hand out the leaflets, said that the pagoda was constructed in 2000, and was officially recognised by local authorities as a legal religious structure in 2007.
“The company’s owner is trying to use her power to remove the pagoda,” Chea Hy said.
“How can someone do that if they are a good Khmer citizen who respects Buddhism?”
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