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Cambodia: A Classroom Study is a wonderful website from Cornell University with information about Cambodian Culture.
(www.einaudi.cornell.edu/SoutheastAsia/outreach/
resources/CambodiaWebUnit/)
The following descriptions of Cambodian culture come with gratitude from that website.
Options for classroom activities:
- Read the following descriptions of Cambodian culture to the class.
- Watch the 56 minute video "Dancing Through Death: The Monkey, Magic & Madness of Cambodia." This video that shows how Khmer children who survived the killing fields are being taught, both in Cambodia and America, to carry on their dance tradition for the sake of cultural survival.
- Watch the 25 minute video "Hidden Temples: Cambodia’s Angkor Wat." This video depicts the magnificent temples and vast reservoirs of Angkor Wat that comprise the single largest religious complex ever built, an ancient wonder rising out of the Cambodian jungle.
- Get a copy of the Chinese horoscope animal descriptions for the students to read and take home.
- Read students a folk tale from the Cambodia: A Classroom Study website.
- Show students the items in a Cambodian Culture Kit. The kit includes a Cambodian scarf (kromar), woven basket, music cassette, Cambodian flag, and color photos of Cambodia and Chinese horoscope. Rental cost is $10 including shipping, with a $25 refundable deposit. Order through cambodiaedu@hotmail.com.
New Year The Cambodian New Year takes place in mid April, during the dry season when farmers do not work in the fields. Astrologers determine the exact time and date by calculating the exact moment the new animal protector (tiger, dragon, or snake) arrives. Cambodians spend the entire month in preparation for the celebration, cleaning and decorating their house with candles, lights, star shaped lanterns and flowers. During the first three days of the New Year, everyone travels to the temples to offer food to the monks.
Pchum Ben Pchum Ben is a religious ceremony in September when everyone remembers the spirit of dead relatives. For fifteen days, people in Cambodian villages take turns bringing food to the temples. On the fifteenth and final day, everyone dresses in their finest clothing to travel together to the temple. Families bring overflowing baskets of flowers, and children offer food and presents to the monks. Everyone says prayers to help their ancestors pass on to a better life. According to Khmer belief, those who do not follow the practices of Pchum Ben are cursed by their angry ancestors.
Water Festival Another very colorful festival is the Water Festival or the Festival of the Reversing Current. It takes place in late October or early November and marks the reversal of the Tonle Sap River so that it once again flows south from the Tonle Sap Lake into the Mekong River. The highlight of the three-day festival is the boat races that are held in Phnom Penh. Individual villages build their own boats by hollowing out a log to make a dugout canoe that is rowed by as many as forty people! The prow and the stern of the canoe turn upward and the prow is painted with an eye, just like the war vessels on the wall of the temples at Angkor Thom. On the first two days of the festival, pairs of boats race each other. At sunset on the third day, there is a big race and everyone believes that the river is happy, the fish will be plentiful and the rice crop will flourish.
Weddings Weddings are the most important social events in the lives of young people. Men usually get married between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four and women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two. Most families want their children to be married by the age of twenty-five, otherwise other people might wonder why the family is unable to find people willing to marry their children!! Most marriages are arranged by the parents. The bride and groom meet for the first time shortly before their wedding. There are traditional ways in which a family should decide if a partner is suitable or not. Each family appoints a representative to investigate the other family who makes sure that the other family is honest and, hopefully, wealthy. Once the two families agree to the wedding, they exchange gifts of plants and food and then they consult an astrologer who chooses a lucky date for the ceremony. The wedding ceremony takes place at the bride's house. The bride and groom exchange gifts and rings. Their wrists are tied together with red thread that has been soaked in holy water. A Buddhist priest delivers a sermon, and married guests pass around a candle to bless the new couple. After the ceremony, there is a grand feast. People eat fruit, meat, and small round cakes filled with rice or coconut. Musicians play traditional instruments
Funerals Most Cambodians are Buddhists. Accordingly, they do not look on death as the end of life. Rather, they consider it the beginning of a new life that they hope will be better than the one which ended. Therefore, just as performing the wedding rituals correctly is very important, it is also very important to perform the ceremonies for death in the correct Buddhist tradition. Otherwise the relative will not be able to pass on to their new life. When a person dies, their body is washed, dressed and put into a coffin. Flowers and a photograph of the deceased are usually put on top of the coffin, which is then carried to a special Buddhist temple to be cremated. All the family members walk with the coffin to the temple. If the dead person was important, everyone in the village also joins the procession. Family members sometimes show their sorrow by wearing white clothing and shaving their heads. White is the traditional color of death instead of the Western idea of black. Because the rituals connected to death affect the ability of the dead person to have a happy next life, many Cambodians were distraught that they were not able to perform the correct rituals for loved ones who died under the Khmer Rouge regime.
Birthdays Cambodian children do not celebrate their birthdays and it is not a special day for them. Often their parents just remember what season they were born in, but not the exact day so they don't know for sure. During the Khmer Rouge years, many people were separated from their families and they lost their birth certificates. However, all Cambodians know which year they were born, and what it means in the Chinese animal calendar: Do you know which year were you born in and which characteristics you should have?
Language Cambodia's national language is Khmer. It is the only language taught in the country's schools and is used in government documents. The Khmer writing system comes from an Indian alphabet that was brought into Cambodia over a thousand years ago. In Khmer, everyone refers to each other as older brother and older sister, or Aunt and Uncle. Many ancient words are borrowed from Pali or Sanskrit and many more recent words are from French, words such as "chocolate" and "gateaux." Khmer grammar is very simple. For example, there are no tenses. If you want to change "I go to the market" into the past tense, you just add the word already. But Khmer is precise in ways that English isn't. Like many languages, it has many words for articles which are useful for Cambodian people, for example there are over one hundred words for rice!! Also, there are different words for "you," depending on whether you are speaking to a child, a parent, a Buddhist monk, or a member of the royal family. Under the Khmer Rouge regime, they tried to forbid some of these pronouns so that everyone was placed on the same level. Among educated Cambodians over fifty years of age, French is still a second language. In the mid 1980s, however, French was overtaken informally by English as the European language that urban Cambodians wanted to learn. In rural areas, not many people speak a foreign language.
Literature The greatest piece of literature in Khmer is called The Reamker. It is the Cambodian adaptation of the Indian epic of the Ramayana. It dates from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The story of Hanuman and Sovann Macha (which is described separately) is derived from this story and made into a dance. Many Cambodian dances, and shadow plays are also taken from the Cambodian version of The Ramayana. The Ramayana is found in many cultures throughout Southeast Asia. Cambodians also like to tell their children chbaps or moral proverbs which school children memorize, as well as stories from the Reamker of folk tales. The chbap teaches the values of Cambodian society, such as being obedient to your elders and protecting those who are less fortunate than yourself. Here are some examples of Cambodian Proverbs: "Don't take the straight path or the winding path. Take the path your ancestors have taken." "Don't let an angry man wash dishes; don't let a hungry man guard rice."
Cambodian Food
Have you ever tried Thai, Chinese, or Vietnamese food? Well, Cambodian food is a relative of all of those foods! In Cambodia, the foods that everyone eats every day are rice and fish. People eat the rice, fried, steamed, or as rice noodles. They eat the fish fresh, dried or salted. Seasonings which Cambodians like to use include hot peppers, lemon grass, ginger and mint.
A Cambodian Food You Might Not Want to Eat! Cambodians always want to ask foreigners if they want to eat "prohoc," which is one Cambodian food which they think foreigners can't possibly be able to eat. Prohoc is made from rotten fish which is left to ferment to become a fish paste, which they eat with rice. Although this description makes prohoc sound worse than it is, many foreigners have a difficult time getting accustomed to its rather strong taste! What is especially interesting is that Cambodians call cheese "prohoc barang," which means French prohoc. To Cambodians, cheese must taste like rotten fish paste!
Many older Cambodians chew betel nuts. Chewing betel nuts turns their teeth and gums a dark shade of red. The Cambodians consider dark teeth to be beautiful because white teeth are like the teeth of a skull. Even Cambodians who do not chew betel nuts often deliberately darken their teeth with paste. So, don't be alarmed when you often see people spitting out a jet of red liquid which looks rather like blood. This is in fact the juice from betel nuts, chewed for its digestive and mildly stimulating effects!
Desserts are made from either fruit or rice. Cambodians love to eat very sweet desserts. In the cities, ice cream is popular but in the countryside there is no way to keep it cold. Tea is the most readily available drink but Cambodians also like coffee which was introduced by the French. They like to drink it with very sweet condensed milk.
Desserts are made from either fruit or rice. Cambodians love to eat very sweet desserts. In the cities, ice cream is popular but in the countryside there is no way to keep it cold. Tea is the most readily available drink but Cambodians also like coffee which was introduced by the French. They like to drink it with very sweet condensed milk
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Websites Related to Cambodian Culture
Cambodia Culture Links – use Google to find Marsh Jr. High Library’s Cambodia Links
Dance – The Spirit of Cambodia www.asiasource.org/cambodia - listen to Cambodian music or watch a dance, many articles on Cambodia and A Study Guide About Dance, Ecology, and History
Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia www.suasdey.com – "Art and Culture" has nice descriptions of the dance and music, with photos
Cambodian Court Dance www.users.rcn.com/tskramer/dance
Taansooa - crafts from Cambodia www.taansooa.com
Books and Teaching Materials about Cambodian Culture
The Arts of Cambodia and Its Neighbors. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. 1997. A resource packet designed as supplementary material for their teacher workshop on Southeast Asia. The packet includes 20 slides and descriptions, an essay providing a historical overview of Cambodian art and that of surrounding countries, charts, drawings, maps, lesson plans and bibliography.
Cambodia. FACES: People, Places and Cultures. Volume 15. Number 1. September 1998. Coblestone Publishing Co. Peterborough, NH. This issue of FACES focuses on the country of Cambodia. Topics include the revival of the Khmer culture, the Royal Cambodian Ballet, and Angkor Wat. This issue also profiles two Cambodian teenagers whose lifestyles are very different: a novice Buddhist monk and an young woman highlander. Articles on food, festivals, the smallest bear in the world, and a Cambodian folktale are also included in this issue.
Chandler, David P. The Land and People of Cambodia. Harper Collins Publishers. 1991. David Chandler offers a comprehensive and readable introductory portrait of the history, geography, people, culture, government and economy of Cambodia. He examines how a proud people who once had built the great temples of Angkor Wat and who had established their own culture, endured repeated foreign invasions, civil war, and repression and who must now find the cultural resources to rebuild their nation and their lives.
Ebihara, May M., Carol A. Mortland and Judy Ledgerwood, eds. Cambodian Culture since 1975. Homeland and Exile. 1994. Cornell University. A collection of essays by scholars.
Phim, Toni Samantha and Ashley Thompson. Dance in Cambodia. 1999. Oxford University Press. An introduction to Cambodian dance as it is practiced today. Chapters on shadow theatre, masked dance-drama, classical and folk dance with cultural and historical contexts.
Emily’s Books is an online bookstore with an excellent collection of books on Cambodia for children and adults, also music and videos. www.emilysbooks.com
Videos about Cambodian Culture
House Of The Spirit 42 min; video; color. A Cambodian midwife, a shaman, an herbal doctor, and a Buddhist monk explain the Cambodian world view, their perceptions of health and well-being, and the natural and supernatural forces responsible for illness and mental disorder. (American Friends Service Committee; 1984)
The Tenth Dancer 52 min; video; color. Provides a fascinating and rare window on women's lives in Cambodia, a country under cultural and political reconstruction following the brutal Pol Pot regime. Under Pol Pot over 90% of Cambodia's artists were killed, including most of the classical dancers of the Royal Court Ballet. Only one in ten survived. This poignant portrait is the story of the tenth dancer and her relationship with one pupil. This is an extraordinary tale of human dignity and survival and testament to the critical role culture plays in rebuilding society in Cambodia.
Cambodian Dance 50 min; video; color. Cambodian classical and folk dances performed at Cornell University in November, 1979. The program includes Apsara, The Magic Scarf, Elephant Hunting, Sovan Macha, Cambodian Music, Krab, Chhayam, and Dance of Greetings and Best Wishes. Price: $29.95
Dancing Through Death: The Monkey, Magic & Madness of Cambodia. 56 min; video; color. This video that shows how Khmer children who survived the killing fields are being taught, both in Cambodia and America, to carry on their dance tradition for the sake of cultural survival.
Hidden Temples: Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. 25 min; video; color. This video depicts the magnificent temples and vast reservoirs of Angkor Wat that comprise the single largest religious complex ever built, an ancient wonder rising out of the Cambodian jungle.
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