Wat Thmei is a Buddhist pagoda on the road to Angkor Wat that houses Siem Reap's main Khmer Rouge memorial — a glass-walled stupa containing the skulls and bones of about 500 victims of the 1975-79 genocide, many of whom were killed on the pagoda grounds. The memorial is a smaller, more localised counterpart to the famous Killing Fields memorial at Choeung Ek near Phnom Penh, and provides context for Cambodia's recent history that the Angkor narrative tends to skip.
The pagoda also functions as a living Buddhist temple, and the monks will often speak to visitors in English about Cambodia's recovery from the Khmer Rouge period. Visits are usually free, with donations appreciated. The memorial is most meaningfully visited early in your Siem Reap trip, before the temples — it provides the shadow against which the temples' survival and reconstruction becomes more poignant.
Verified Facts
The memorial contains skulls and bones of about 500 victims
The Khmer Rouge period was 1975-79
Many victims were killed on the pagoda grounds
Wat Thmei is on the road to Angkor Wat
Get walking directions
Charles de Gaulle Boulevard, Siem Reap
