Cambodian 'jungle woman' flees back to wild

Cambodian 'jungle woman' flees back to wild

www.telegraph.co.uk

Rochom P'ngieng, now 29 years old, first disappeared into thick hilly jungle in 1989 when she was a little girl. She was "discovered" in early 2007 and reunited with her family.

However, attempts to reintegrate her have failed. She has not learnt either of the local languages, Khmer or Phnang, prefers to crawl rather than walk, refuses to wear clothes and has made several attempts to return to the forest where she grew up.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This seems to happen every so once in a while.

What does this indicate? That once conditioned we are pretty much that? Or is more of a commentary on how people live together in Cambodia?

Or perhaps something else...

Mr Lou blames his daughter's second disappearance on "forest spirits". In a society shrouded in mystic beliefs, he has also enlisted a fortune teller to help with the search.

Could it be foul play? Could this be why she ran away from her father so long ago?



www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

If she's not hurting others then I say they should leave her alone. Let her live the life she chooses instead of the one some %^&#$@# thinks is best for her.

reply to post by Kaiju


Why do you think she disappeared?

Originally posted by Kaiju
If she's not hurting others then I say they should leave her alone. Let her live the life she chooses instead of the one some %^&#$@# thinks is best for her.

I wished the whole world would do just that. Leave people alone and stop trying to make them live their lives as some one esle see fit. That is what is wrong with the world today. It seems that every one is so intent on making other people live as they think they should. What happened to "live and let live"? Nothing makes me more mad that some fool trying to make other people live like they want them to.

I say as lone as someone is not bothering some one or hurting some one just leave them alone. But the people of today seem not to be able to do that. It just makes me so mad.

reply to post by fixer1967


We take for granted our cultures and societies. They do fine jobs of making us as they would have us. --How else will they be able to collect taxes from us?

this gal is a brave and independent soul. May she find peace in the jungle which she obviously knows as home. She will die out there probably sooner than under the care of her family. But she was a captive there, probably literally. Of course, being of the jungle she knows her fate sooner or later. And being of the jungle she knows death and has her own view of what it means. That reminds me of the book Johnathan Linvingston Seagull. Do your own thing, basically.

I recently finished a book by the title of "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes." As a missionary the author and his family spent several years working along the Amazon with a small tribe of about 200 indians that resisted most incursions of modern methods and technology upon them. The missionary gave up his religion because of what he learned about them, from them and about himself. It was a most interesting read.

How would you feel if your daughter just disappeared from your life, and then when you found she wanted nothing to do with you? I imagined you would feel hurt on the inside. To say she isn't hurting anyone is a lie, none of you would just willingly let your daughter live a savage life. There's a reason why we have cities and homes, and not living in the bush anymore.

reply to post by denynothing


Have you figured out the reason yet?

Originally posted by HunkaHunka

Cambodian 'jungle woman' flees back to wild

www.telegraph.co.uk

Not to worry, she'll be back after the sacrifices are made, according to the mystic:

Mr Lou blames his daughter's second disappearance on "forest spirits". In a society shrouded in mystic beliefs, he has also enlisted a fortune teller to help with the search. He is saving up for an offering of one wild ox, one pig, one chicken and four jugs of wine, which, the mystic assures him, will secure his daughter's return.

Yeah, right!

I saw a documentary I think on NatGeo about a scientist who married a tribal girl raised naked (I think she was from an Amazonian tribe). He brought her back to America where she lived in the suburbs and he thought she would enjoy all the modern comforts, but all she could think of was getting back to the jungle and running around naked, I guess because that's how she was raised. She really didn't like clothes any more than the woman in the OP. It's hard for me to imagine but it does seem to illustrate that upbringing can really have an influence on us.

reply to post by TKDRL


No i personally don't know why an 8 year old girl would run away, be found when she is in her 20's help the family with daily chores and then just run-off again. Unless of course the forest spirit theory is actually true, which is highly unlikely. There doesn't need to be a reason for her to runaway though, its the idea of let her be happy where she is from people who have no idea how it would feel for that to happen to them. It's like when a dog runs away, you don't just "well darn" and forget about it. You try to find it even if it's futile.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
What does this indicate? That once conditioned we are pretty much that?

interesting thoughts

i suppose it might be as simple as her being 'overwhelmed' and just wanted to revert back to whatever she knows best

now that i think about it, how old was she when she wondered away into the forest? was she 'taken in' by any animals or did she learn to survive all by herself??? either of those would be amazing enough! ( full grown people have simply died in survival situations )

maybe you are right though, it can take alot to break through a conditioned existence, i certainly can't claim to know what is best for her but it would be interesting if she learned to speak and to hear her story, how she views her own existence and the rest of humanities existence, and other psychological and philosophical aspects that her seclusion might have 'earned' her

reply to post by denynothing


Actually I meant the reason we live in cities lol. They are just pretty cages, chains we cannot see or feel. The problem about the dog analogy, as much as some parent's might think they do, you don't own your children like you do a dog.

reply to post by denynothing
There daughter is gone. She ceased to exist 20 years ago. They are more about what they feel is right for them than for her. She is barley even what one could all human any more. Here mind has been reset 10 maybe 20 thousand years. She is for the lack of a better word a 'cave woman'. Oh you can catch her, cage her like an animal but more mater what you do you will never get back even a bit of what was lost. I am sorry but that is the way it is. Her mother and farther are lucky she did not kill them to get away.
I know she will most likely be dead in 5 or 10 years but she will die FREE. Or would you have her caged like a animal just so she may live a few extra years?

reply to post by TKDRL


Well there are many different reasons for cities... I suggest you read the book "Emergence: the secret life of ants cities and software"

It's an amazing read... And it covers the abstract principles of why cities emerge. Basically though, its flows of consumable energy. Nomads follow their food, and they would make use of pretty much anything, animal or plant. All it takes it one fertile crescent full of all the tribe would really need , and a few years of realizing it comes back every year, for them to stay for a while.... Add that to the beer which has been made as long as bread has been being made, and you start the process of staying in one place through many seasons of life.

You build dwellings, and all your friends have kids, and they have kids.

Then as other nomads follow the game left behind, they stumble on your dwellings... Either alliance or violence follows... But they bring news of another place like yours but with much different fruits. This leads to trade, and cities built along rivers instead of just around fields and groves.

One thing just leads to another...

Now for me, i grew up in a rural area, which had no visible opportunity that I could see at the time, so I followed the consumable energy to the city where I had access to many different fruits from many different places....

Eventually I came to have ownership of my own business so that I can work from home, and chose to move to the outskirts of this same city as now I had many friends and family in the city.

Just my .02

reply to post by HunkaHunka


I just don't understand why they don't let her go! Obviously she was comfortable there. Mufasa and Simba have let her be. She knows how to survive and she is an adult! If their elite are anything like ours then I can fully understand why she wanted to go back. Let her go.

reply to post by fixer1967


The article states that she was starting to gain back her humanities, so in this instance the "caging" you speak of was beneficial to her and to all. She disappeared again, maybe due to her reported companion coming around or some other reason. I agree with you that she is more wild than a normal person, but that does not take away from the human being she is. She is missed by her family that cared enough to never stop missing her and hoping. You may say she ceased to exist but the idea of her existed all the remained was finding the body behind the idea.

reply to post by TKDRL


I didn't mean the dog analogy as for ownership, I just meant it as something you care about. When something you care about runs away you don't simply forget immediately about it. As for the cities, the main reason was agriculture but also safety. It is more safe to be inside the city walls or inside your house, than fend for yourself everyday out in the wild

reply to post by denynothing


You mean civilities... Humanities are with us no matter what... That's just what we are

reply to post by Kaiju


So if that was your daughter, you'd just let her go into the wild?

If she was 9 years old you would have a very good chance of turning her around but at 29 years old her programing is burned in too deep to be changed. Short of locking her up you never would keep her from going to the only life she has ever known in the jungle. No matter what you did you would never have a daughter back. The best you could hope for would be a "pet". I do understand how they feel about their daughter but they are only going to make themselves worse by trying to get back something that is lost forever. The whole mess is sad. In the end no matter what happens everyone loses. I know it is a bad thing to say but everyone would have been better off if she had never been found. But now they just have to deal with it the best they can.