Southeast Asia: Table of Contents
Organizer and Chair: John Marston, University of Washington
Discussant: David P. Chandler, Monash University
This panel attempts in a broad way to re-examine the question of what is Cambodian about Cambodian religion—from a historical perspective, from the perspective of the way a range of Cambodian religious practices interrelate, and from the perspective of the ways that personal identity is negotiated in relation to religious practice. The first paper will explore the roots, in French colonialism, of Cambodian Buddhist institutions deliberately developed to be discrete from those of Thailand. The second paper will examine more grass-roots religious practices as they can be compared to similar practices in Thailand and Burma. The last two papers will look at cultural and political identity in relation to spirit medium practice, based on case studies in Cambodia and the analysis of a traditional ceremony as it was held in Long Beach, California.
Anne Hansen, Harvard University
This paper examines Buddhist education in turn-of-the-century Cambodia, a period in which institutional Khmer Buddhism was revitalized, in large part by Thai and French political control and the introduction of print in Cambodia. Buddhist education became a central focus in this period for both French colonial administrators and Khmer intellectuals. Fearing Thai aspirations for political and economic control in Cambodia and sentimentally committed to reversing the degeneration of the civilization that had once built Angkor, French officials sought to strengthen Sangha education in Cambodia. Competing French, Khmer, and Thai ideas of reform resulted at first in a contested notion of what it meant to be Buddhist, aptly symbolized by the unsuccessful establishment (by the French) of a Pali school in a remote forest near Angkor. Subsequent reforms led to the inauguration of Pali schools affiliated with the Biblioteque Royale where a new generation of Khmer monks were trained with a pedagogy that drew on both Southeast Asian and European conceptions of Buddhist knowledge.
Serge Thion, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris; Elizabeth Guthrie, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
We would like to open a discussion starting with the famous and infamous statement by Coedes: "the Khmer is a Hinduized Phnong." While this paper does not dispute that most Khmer are Buddhist, it will ask what lies at the heart of this Buddhism—that is to say, what common themes underly and unify different strands of Khmer religious practice.
A primary concern of Khmer religion seems to be to placate and neutralise the dead in order to send them away, as far and as quickly as possible. Many additions have been constructed around this religious vision. We will look at some of them: the presence of parami, divinities who make their abode inside the image of the Buddha, and the cult of the neak ta, the ancestral spirits who have a complex but uneasy relation with mainstream Theravada Buddhism. We will ask about the stone apparel that we call an Angkorian temple. And about the errant souls of the dead, who bring sickness to the living, and who must be taken to the forest and "lost" there so they cannot return home to plague the survivors.
A comparison with neighboring Siam and Burma will show that similar constructs have been established throughout the region, either by means of political power, or with the connivance of power. We feel that all these questions are relevant to an understanding of the religious world of Cambodia, but that answers may be hard to come by.
Ashley Thompson, University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh
There is no creative expression in contemporary Cambodia, many observers conclude. No original literature, sculpture, painting or architecture. No compelling aesthetic traditions engaged in re-reading or re-deploying the rich Khmer cultural antecedents toward the creation of modern artistic works. The legacy of the past weighs too heavily on the present, some argue. The population is passive, dissuaded from taking an active role in integrating influences and producing ideas by social structures enforcing conformity.
Exploring the phenomenon of spirit possession in contemporary Cambodia as a nexus of artistic, religious and political expression, the proposed paper will attempt to address these issues through an extended meditation on belief in Cambodia today. Based primarily on field observation, the study considers the genetic, social and mythological genealogies of mediums, relationships between mediums and spectators, ritual processes, cultural references to sculpture, literature, dance and theater, as well as mythico-historical references to past, present and in particular, future events. Traditional perceptions of ritual participants—mediums and spectators alike—as passive victims, can be reformulated in view of documented demonstrations of individual and collective will. The "truth" of possession is conceived as lying not only in the reality of cultural constructs, but in the fundamentally political drive to speak forbidden truths and to give passage to another world. For the truth of the "other" world, by definition, only begins beyond the limits of that of this one.
It is here, where the cultural practice of possession crosses potentialities of belief, representation, and the struggle for expression, constraint and liberty, in this very particular political theater, that a future for Cambodia may already be playing out.
Teri Schaffer Yamada, California State University, Long Beach
This paper will chronicle a public flag raising ceremony for the spirit of Khleang Moeung which was held by Cambodians in Long Beach, California in March 1966. It will document folk traditions associated with the spirit of Khleang Moeung, including the use of spirit mediums, and discuss the social meaning a particular ceremony takes on in a diaspora community.
Khleang Moueng was a legendary 15th century army commander who sacrificed his life to defend Cambodia against its enemies. His cult is popular in the western province of Pursat. The event in Long Beach was initiated by Saphan Keam, a Cambodian intellectual originally from Pursat, in coordination with the largest Cambodia-run social service agency in the community.
Although many private ceremonies involving spirit mediums have taken place in Long Beach to honor Khleang Moueng, this was the first successful public flag-raising ceremony. Keam hoped that the event would symbolically unify the Cambodian community and link it to the social service agency, United Cambodian Community, as well as providing symbolic links to Cambodia. Unable to find a text describing the ritual, he consulted two spirit mediums, one who told him how to construct the altar and organize ritual procedure, and one who agreed to serve as the medium for the public ceremony.
The paper chronicles the public ritual through photographs taken of the event, reconstructs the history surrounding its organization, and discusses the effects of the public ritual on the religious life of the Cambodian community in Long Beach.