Khmer Culture

I visited the royal palace in the afternoon and as I guessed I would be, was thoroughly bored. It was expensive, $6, by Cambodian standards. I saw quite a few people storm out of line when they found out the price. The structures and grounds were impressive but a lot of it was closed to the public. The King of Cambodia had left in 1970 and remained in North Korea while the republicans, communists and Vietnamese were in power until he was repatriated in 1993. I don’t know the full story about how a King ends up in North Korea to escape communists, but I intend to find out. I bet it’s an interesting one. I haven’t seen them, but I hear his body guards are large, intimidating North Koreans. It makes sense because Cambodian guards and police are not exactly awe inspiring, they look more like chihuahuas than domermans.

After making my way through the gauntlet of gift shop I finally snaked my way out of the theme park, I mean palace, and was the National Museum. I had gone the day before but didn’t have time to complete it. The museum has a beautiful collection, from pre-Khmer to recent history. The only issue I had with the museum is that there isn’t enough to explain what the pieces were. There was so much you want to know about the people who created it, but not much guidance.

On the bus to Phnom Penh, I had met a half German, half Indian man named Frank, his Cambodian wife and their new 8 week old son. Frank is a historian and filmmaker and offered to give us a guided tour through the National Museum. The scale and quality of the pieces was astonishing. This was such a spectacular culture. You can be forgiven to feel sorry for their current state. You have to keep in mind that even though they may be able to trace their history back thousands of years, they are a very new country. Their entire cultural base was nearly annihilated. They are pretty much starting from scratch and have a long way to go.

Later that night I saw an Arak concert at the French Cultural Center. Luckily I had read about it in one of the local dailies at the hotel because the introduction was completely in French. Arak is a pre-Khmer style of music that is older than Christianity or Buddhism. The trance like music evokes spirits from nature to come to the aid of the requestor by inhabiting a medium. The Khmer Rouge aggressively tried to eliminate it, along with all other arts and religion. There are currently only 7 Arak groups left in Cambodia and this was the first time the music was to be heard in Phnom Penh in 14 years. After hearing the conert, I decided right there that I would be working on SealNet’s Cambodia project the next year. Project Cambodia records and raises awareness of traditional Cambodian song and dance. PC’09 here I come.