Khmer People

Khmer People
           
Ethnic Composition

The population of Cambodia today is about 10 million. About 90-95 percent of the people are Khmer ethnic. The remaining 5-10 percent include Chinese-Khmers, Khmer Islam or Chams, ethnic hill-tribe people, known as the Khmer Loeu, and Vietnamese. About 10 percent of the population lives in Phnom Penh, the capital, making Cambodia largely a country of rural dwellers, farmers and artisans.

The ethnic groups that constitute Cambodian society possess a number of economic and demographic commonalties- for example.

Chinese merchants lived mainly in urban centers and play middlemen in many economic cycles, but they also preserve differences in their social and cultural institutions. They were concentrated mostly in central and in southeastern Cambodia, the major differences among these groups lie in social organization, language, and religion. The majority of the inhabitants of Cambodia are settled in fairly permanent villages near the major bodies of water in the Tonle Sap Basin-Mekong Lowlands region. The Khmer Loeu live in widely scattered villages that are abandoned when the cultivated land in the vicinity is exhausted. The permanently settled Khmer and Cham villages usually located on or near the banks of a river or other bodies of water. Cham villages usually are made up almost entirely of Cham, but Khmer villages, especially in central and in southeastern of Cambodia, typically include sizable Chinese communities.

The Khmer Loeu

Royal Government of Cambodia

                                                           Royal Government of Cambodia  

In the past two decades, Cambodia has gone through many major changes reflecting the heroic sacrifice of the Cambodian people to protect and to rebuild their homeland, the standard of their living, and the prosperity of their future. With the October 23, 1991 Paris Peace Agreement, Cambodia achieves full right and sovereignty. For the result, the Cambodian people may fervently develop their country with generous assistance from international communities.

Before reaching their goal of prosperity, they facedmany critical proceedings. With His Majesty vision of Preah Bat Samdech NorodomSihanouk, the beloved king of the Cambodia people, peace and nationalreconciliation were finally achieved.

At the second session of the auspicious plenarymeeting of the National Assembly, I (Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister) have the honor to submit the Royal Government of Cambodia's Platform for approval from the august legislative body, the National Assembly. It is a foundation of governance to ensure peace, stability, democracy and development for the Cambodian people and to rebuild their country.

Khmer Music

Musical instruments for popular tales and educational

There are two kinds of traditional music: one is the Pin Peath with stringed and percussion instruments and the other the Mohory with only stringed instruments. The different instruments are: Pin Peath is a group of instruments which have Roneath (xylophone in metal or bamboo), Kong (percussion instrument surrounding the player), a pear of Skor Thom (a very big drum, which has two faces, for making the rhythm), Sampho (a big drum,which has two faces, for making the rhythm), Sro Lai (a big recorder),Chhoeng (percussion instrument hitting each other for making rhythm).

This kind of music is used to accompany dances, praying to God or spirit and other ceremonies. Mohory is a group of instruments, which have Khoem (with 35 horizontal strings instrument), Ta Khe (with 3 horizontal strings instrument), Tro (with vertical strings instrument), Skor Dai (a small drum for making rhythm), Khloy (recorder) and Chhoeng.

This kind of music is used to accompany dance, theatre, wedding and other ceremonies. There are 4 to 6 % of children attend these courses and they start learning all the traditional Khmer instruments, and choose one they prefer to form the group.

Khmer Dance

Khmer Dance
Classical Dance of Cambodia The epic poem of Rama (Ramayana) is believed to have been revealed to a Hindu holy man named Valmiki by Brahma, the god of creation. This religious literary work, dating from about ad 4, is known in various versions throughout India and Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, the story has been set to music and dance and performed by the Royal Ballet since the 18th century.
         Although the epic is also known in the villages, where it is translated orally or dramatized in the popular shadow puppet theater, the ballet was traditionally a courtly art performed in the palace or for princely festivals. The music of the ballet is performed by the Pinpeat orchestra, which is made up of traditional xylophones, metallophones, horizontal gongs, drums, and cymbals.

History  

Khmer classical dance derived from Indian court dance, which traces its origins to the apsarases of Hindu mythology, heavenly female nymphs who were born to dance for the gods. The traditions of Thailand and Java (in Indonesia) also influenced the music and dance of Cambodia. In classical Cambodian dance, women, dressed in brightly colored costumes with elaborate headdresses, perform slow, graceful movements accompanied by a percussive ensemble known as the pinpeat. Pinpeat orchestras include drums, gongs, and bamboo xylophones.
       In Cambodia's villages, plays performed by actors wearing masks are popular. Shadow plays, performed using black leather puppets that enact scenes from the Reamkern, are also enjoyed. Folk dancing is popular in rural Cambodia and is performed spontaneously to a drumbeat.

Khmer Traditional Apsara Dance

At the heart of classical form is the Apsara, the joyful, almost wanton dancer whose images are everywhere. Princess Buppha Devi, who currently serves as the Minister of Culture, is a master of Apsar dancing, which dates to the 1st century. The graceful movements of the Apsara dancers, adorned with gold headdresses and silken tunics and skirts, are carved on the walls of many of the temples at Angkor.

Estimates are that there were 3,000 Apsara dancers in the 12th century court of King Jayavarman VII.
Over the centuries Khmer dancing lent its influence to the classical ballet of neighboring countries, and some of its postures and movements are similar to other Southeast Asian dance forms. But according to Princess Buppha Devi, "The Khmer kingdom started its traditions in the 8th century, 500 years before Thailand." In 1400, with the sacking of the Angkor Empire, the Apsara dancers were seized and taken to Thailand. Apsara dancing is one of two elements of classical ballet, the other being "today" dancing, the depiction of early
myths. Many of the dances involve performing a fragment of the Ramayana, the ancient Indian epic that is one and a half times as long as the Odyssey. Others are based on the legendary battles and mythical sagas carved in bas relief on the walls of the temples of Angkor-including the Churning of the Sea of Milk, the great battle between gods and demons for the holy liquid that gives immortality. There are 100 dances and dramas.

Phnom Bakheng

Phnom Bakheng
Location:     1300 m north of Angkor Wat, just south of Angkor Thom.
King:     Yasovarman I
Date:     9th-10th century
Religion:     Hindu
Access:     At the east side.
   

"Phnom" means "hill" in the Khmer language. Phnom Bakheng is a 65-metre hill a few hundred metres south of the gate to Angkor Thom.

It is the only natural hill in the area. Climbing the hill after a day walking around the monuments can be a challenge, but the view from the top just before sunset is a rewarding sight. You see the sun go down over the western Baray while the five towers of Angkor Wat slowly disappear in the jungle to the east.

You enter Phnom Bakheng by a steep path with some steps on the east side. On the top you will find one of the oldest temples, built by

Yasovarman I.

Preah Khan Temple

Preah Khan, the sacred sword

Location:     North of Angkor Thom
King:     Jayavarman VII
Date:     1191
Religion:     Buddhist
Access:     At the east and west side.
   

Preah Khan is a large temple complex mostly hidden from the view if you pass by on the main road. For some reasons it is not visited often, probably because everybody is passing it on their way to Ta Prohm. A visit to Preah Khan is however very interesting. The architecture is pretty complicated, and the style is quite different from other sites. It has the customary outer wall with large gates, but the main temple is no temple mount, and one building (marked red in the map) with round colums looks like the Romans must have visited
here. Take at least a few hours to visit this site as it is bigger as it seems, the outer walls are some 800 metres in length. They are not shown in the plan above.

At the inside of the walls you will find reliefs of giant serpents and 7 meter high Garudas, the largest to be found in any temple in the region.
Prah Khan looked a bit like Ta Prom, with large figtrees towering over the ruins. Some time ago Preah Khan was declared a World Monument and extensive restoration is taking place. It will take quite some time before the work is finished. However, the site is so large that it is was not closed to the public, and there is plenty to admire here.
Most of the trees have gone, as has the smaller vegetation which had reclaimed the site after an earlier restoration had to be abonded in 1972, when the civil war forced all foreigners out of the country. Some bases of trunks are still standing, including a big one appearantly struck by lightning.

Phimeanakas Temple

Phimeanakas Temple
Location: Angkor Thom, north of the Bayon
King:     several
Date:     Late 10th century
Religion:     Hindu
Access:     At the west side.
   

Coming through the woods from the Baphuon temple you pass the sandstone wall of Phimeanakas at the south gate. You'd better stay on the path, as landmines are still bundant in Cambodia! The temple

is essentially a three-level temple mount with little decoration. The sanctuary itself is in a bad condition, the walls and stairways are slowly sagging. If you want to climb to the upper level better use the western stairway..


         The grounds were once crowded with wooden housing for the king and its court. Little remains today, the jungle has reclaimed almost everything. I think this contributes a lot to the charm of the complex, and I hope it will be decided to leave it in it's present state.