Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Music in the Killing Fields: Daran Kravanh

Host Intro:

"I cannot tell you how or why I survived; I do not know myself."

So begins the book Music Through the Dark, the remarkable story of how Cambodian musician Daran Kravanh survived the "killing fields" and genocide under the Khmer Rouge regime. Producer Dmae (DEE-MAY) Roberts of the Crossing East series visited with Daran (Da-RAHN) Karavanh (Krah-VAHN) in Tacoma, Washington and has this story...

NAR: Daran Kravanh came from a musical family that totaled 11 people. He was immediately drawn to the accordion and took to it instantly.

DARAN: First I touch the key and no sound at all. And then I say oh, he had to put his accordion on his shoulder?to make that sound and then I start to play and then?

SOUND: ACCORDION FADES UP AND UNDER

DARAN: You know my brother, the oldest one, he play drums, he play violin, flute, Troh, troh, that?s the name of the Cambodian violin. My other brother played guitar, drum. Another brother, my younger one played guitar. And so we had a band that played together, just for fun for the family.

NAR: But Daran?s family came to an abrupt and tragic end when the Khmer Rouge took over on April 19th 1975. Daran was 21 years old and going to college when the tanks with soldiers rolled into the cities. They rounded up people and took them into the fields and forests to start a new agrarian life. Anyone educated, professional or ?capitalist? meaning Westernized was executed. Daran who was wearing a shirt and tie was immediately singled out.

DARAN: They say who?s a doctor?that man, he raise the hand, professor, raise the hand, soldier, raise the hand. And then they say student and I raise my hand.

NAR: One of his brother was with him at the time and Daran appealed to the soldiers to keep them together. But they refused.

DARAN: Seven soldier come to escort us to the forest. And that time we start to know that we must be killed. And so we just walk, walk, walk, walk, until the person, I think he?s a doctor. He just move his head and then they shoot him, pow.

NAR: The surviving ten men knew they had to do something. Together they overpowered the soldiers and ran into the Cambodian forest and tried to survive in the wilds toward the Thailand border. They had nothing to hunt with or anything to keep them warm when it rained. And each day they sent Daran, the youngest and most able, to climb the tallest tree to look out for wild animals or worse, the Khmer Rouge soldiers. Even then, Daran was composing music finding inspiration from nature.

SOUND: MUSIC FADES UNDER

DARAN: In the forest, there are wild animal, like snake, cobra, tiger, elephant. And different kind of wild animal, so that?s not easy to live in the forest, but also you see the beautiful things in the forest. I can see the birds, I can see the mountain, I can see everything , except the faces of my family. So that?s why I create that song in my head that time. I call the Top of the Tree.

SOUND: MUSIC FADES UP THEN SLOW FADE OUT LATER

NAR: One by one the men died of starvation or were killed by predators or soldiers they encountered. At one point, Daran tried to cross the border to Thailand through the mine fields. Daran to this day believes the animals came to save his life. A deer ran in front of his path and was blown up. Then a rabbit.

SOUND: MUSIC FADE OUT

NAR: Rather than risk the minefields, Daran surrendered himself to the Khmer Rouge and was put to work in the camps. He farmed without tools.

DARAN: Even the corn, I have to steal my own corn I grow, and you?re not allowed to do that. So that?s why, you cannot possess anything. You must be killed if you steal that.

NAR: Daran worked in the killing fields through the entire reign of the Khmer Rouge until 1978. He says he wouldn?t have survived if something miraculous had not happened.

DARAN: I go to the forest a little bit and pick the leaf of the tree a little bit to fill my stomach, and I just saw an accordion on the stump of the tree. And I said oooh. Who does it belong to? Whose accordion does it belong to? And ooh, I want to touch. And I?m really surprised and I say that?s a dream really come true. I just think about that and an accordion come. God provide this instrument to me or what? And then I touch . I just play a little bit and then Khmer Rouge come.

SOUND: ACCORDION

DARAN: Just that song and Khmer Rouge come and say ?hey who touched my accordion??

NAR: Daran says the soldier told him to keep playing and at the end gave him that accordion. The Khmer Rouge let him play. The music drew people from neighboring camps. Children came and then other musicians. The Khmer Rouge gave them instruments so they could play for festivals that glorified the new regime.

DARAN: Every kid, every adult people, they all come to see me. I become famous in that time. Famous in the hell time. And the person said ooh, you play that, I know how to play the troh, that?s a Cambodian violin. And another one say I know how to play takai. I know how to play kim, I know how to play troh-ooh. And then flute and chapai, that?s a kind of guitar. And then I say why, get together. And then also Mr. Saisun Ehr, he?s a famous writer. He play mandolin. And then he died, they killed him.

NAR: The Khmer Rouge didn?t need any reason to kill. And each day after a meager meal of rice, Daran would play his accordion and wonder if any of his family was still alive. He continued working and starving until January 7, 1979 when the Cambodian leader Pol Pot fled the country to escape a military offensive from Vietnam. Pol Pot also left three million of his people dead and four million starving. The Khmer Rouge soldiers just said ?Go Home?? Daran walked the long road to his family home. All that was left was a gate post, the cement steps and one younger brother. He points to a photo of his 11 family members posing on the steps.

DARAN: When I go there I hug that post and then I cry and I just see the post but I didn?t see my family?the steps and the post and my brother, that?s all. See this picture? All my family, all of them were killed.

NAR: Daran lived under the Vietnamese-installed government in Cambodia till 1984. He then escaped into Thailand and lived in a refugee camp for four years before coming to America. He still sends money back to support orphans in Cambodia. Daran says when he gets together with his Cambodian musician friends, they rarely talk about what he calls the hell time.

DARAN: If you ask them why they don?t want to talk about it, they say too much suffering. That?s more than enough for them. Because they feel that we respect you, we want you to respect us back. That mean we can help each other, but for one thing, suffering thing, they don?t want to share with you because they don?t want you to suffer like them. So that?s why even my own story, I don?t want to tell you, to make you suffer. When you say one word, how do you survive? I cannot answer. Killing fields, several civil wars and killing fields and minefield and refugee camp and here, I?m here. Across everything I cannot believe how can I survive. But I am here and I am still Daran?

SOUND: MUSIC UP

HOST OUTRO: The profile of Daran Kravanh was produced by Dmae (DEE-MAY) Roberts for the Crossing East Asian American history series.

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