January 22, 2007: Cambodian jungle woman

[Undertoad]

It's the weekly Cellar IotD/Neatorama collaboration!



From Japan's Mainichi Daily News comes this incredible story of the woman in the center, there.

Cambodian Rochom P'ngieng disappeared at age eight, while herding water buffaloes, in 1988. Now, nearly 20 years later, this woman is said to be one and the same. After living for all that time in the deep jungle, she can only communicate through a series of grunts.

Villagers in this town of 100 in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri have simply dubbed her jungle woman and turned the family's hut into the must-see attraction, with dozens of locals and journalists stopping by to peer inside for a look at her.

So far, the family says she mostly uses sign language to indicate her basic needs. She pats her stomach when she is hungry or needs to go the toilet and has taken a liking to the family's collection of karaoke videos.

Mothers, don't let your eight-year-olds handle the water buffalo herding. They are too young for it, and might get lost.



On the left. She doesn't look too happy, and in fact the caption on this image says she has tried to run back to the jungle a few times, unsuccessfully.

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