Khmer culture is featured on WHYY TV's "Art of Life" series.

Extended  Interview with Rorng Sorn

The WHYY website now features an extended interview with Rorng Sorn, who was born in rural Cambodia in 1968. In the interview, Rorng Sorn recounts the difficult road from the countryside of Cambodia to the urban streets of Philadelphia.

Rorng Sorn interviewed on WHYY TV

Despite the challenges, Rorng Sorn achieved the education she so desired, earning a Masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In return, she serves her community through her role as Executive Director of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia.

A portrait of Rorng Sorn's family before the war.

In her inspiring interview, Rorng Sorn describes her personal experience of what life was like for her family during the Khmer Rouge and the devastation that followed. Most important, she talks about how she became a leader in Philadelphia’s Khmer community so she could contribute to preserving her culture.

Links

The Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia

WHYY Art of Life features on Cambodian culture

Cambodian Dancer Chamoeun Yin – Philadelphia Folklore Project

Khmer Art Gallery – Philadelphia

Students learning the art of Khmer Classical Dance through the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia dance project.

Philadelphia, PA – A new segment on WHYY considers the artistic side of one of the world’s greatest, and most mysterious, civilizations: the Khmer.

Many Americans are familiar with the tragic Khmer Rouge genocide that brought many Cambodian refugees to our country in the 1980’s. But few know about the magnificent Khmer civilization that began flourishing in Southeast Asia in the 8th century. The Khmer legacy still inspires rich traditions of dance, music, fashion, literature and art that survive to this day.

As a segment on WHYY’s Art of Life series, producer Karen Smyles created Bridging Cambodian Culture to focus on unique people and cultural events in Philadelphia’s Khmer-American community.

The feature included Rorng Sorn, Executive Director of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia (CAGP), a foundation that has implemented social, health and education programs for Cambodian refugees and their families in Philadelphia for over thirty years.  Visit CAGP’s Facebook page here to become a fan.

The Khmer Art Gallery in Philadelphia features a variety of traditional and contemporary art from Cambodia.

The documentary also visits the  Khmer Art Gallery to meet founders Bonna Neang & Bob Weinstein. Hidden in the heart of Chinatown, the spacious gallery displays a vast array of artwork from Cambodia’s “Millennium of Glory,” from traditional pieces to the works of contemporary masters in stone, bronze, wood and fabric.

The WHYY feature coincides with the celebration of Cambodian New Year, April 13-15, a three day event filled with special meals, cultural presentations and religious ceremonies.

Watch a clip of the WHYY documentary Bridging Cambodian Culture here by selecting CHAPTER 2.

Khmer Classical Dance students in traditional costumes study with the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia dance project

NKFC dancer performs blessing ritual at Siem Reap city shrine. Photo Kent Davis.

By Aye Sapay and Cherry Thein © 2010 The Phnom Penh Post This article appears with the kind permission of the copyright holder. No further reproduction is permitted.

Siem Reap, Cambodia – Fourteen young Khmer girls, dressed in flowing white garb with coconut flowers in their hair, danced sinuously to the rhythm of traditional classical music. The Preah Ang Chiek Preah Ang Chhorm Shrine in Siem Reap, next to the Royal Residence, was the venue enlightened by their sashays.

As the girls went through their paces on the evening of January 26, a growing band of lucky tourists gathered, gob-smacked, to watch this ritual unfold. The looks of delight on the crowd’s faces proved they knew they were seeing something special, but of course they were unaware of the significance of the proceedings.

They were unaware that the shrine where the ritual was taking place was the most sacred site in Siem Reap and that the images of the divinities within the shrine are considered the most powerful in the town.

They were unaware, too, that the ritual was unfolding in the presence of royalty and that two of the three women sitting on a prayer mat among the dancers were princesses, including one of Cambodia’s most legendary classical dancers, Her Royal Highness Princess Buppha Devi, and her daughter, Princess Norodom Sisowath.

The third woman was the “mother” of the tribe of little dancers, Lady Ravynn Karet-Coxen, although she was quick to say, “You can drop the lady bit and just call me Ravynn Karet-Coxen as it is more in tune with the work I do with the most destitute, thank you.”

HRH Princess Buppha Devi and Ravynn Karet-Coxen preparing a morning ceremony at the NKFC school. Photo © Anders Jiras.

The dancing girls were part of a troupe of more than 160 children who had been lovingly trained by Ravynn Karet-Coxen, the founder of the Nginn Karet Foundation for Cambodia (NKFC) Conservatoire Preah Ream Bopha Devi dance school, of which Coxen is chairperson.

Princess Buppha Devi, the patron of the school, had come to the sacred shrine on the evening of January 26 to partake in the ritual and to pray for the good health of King Father Sihanouk and King Sihamoni, to pray for the government so that it can lead the country well, and to pray to the dance divinity and the dance spirit of ancient Angkor.

But more importantly, the ritual at the shrine was the culmination of a day of celebration marking the third anniversary of the Royal Patronage of Ravynn Karet-Coxen’s dance school at nearby Banteay Srey; the first and only arts school in the Angkor Archaeological Park and the only school of its kind in the Kingdom.

The onlooking tourists were lucky to see the performance because usually the dancers are hidden and protected from the prying eyes to “preserve their purity” as Ravynn Karet-Coxen put it.

Girls and boys train in folk dance and traditional music. Photo © Copyright Anders Jiras.

he said her school was not intended to train dancers to entertain people for money.

She proclaimed the dancing taught in her school helps the children learn to respect their god and divinities, and explained that the little dancers usually perform in temples and sacred areas for the gratification of the Gods and the King. Last year the dancers performed their first royal private performance for the king’s birthday.

She added that her dancers are never allowed to wear heavy costumes, jewellery or make-up on their faces, like the so-called traditional dancers who perform in public for tourists. Her dancers are also instructed to dance in bare feet on Mother Earth or on simple mats, and not on stages.

“We do not dance for entertainment or money,” Ravynn Karet-Coxen emphasised. “And certainly not to amuse tourists in the hotels. We don’t need that. We are dancing for our God.”

Rural students attend the school at no cost to their families, who live below poverty level. In 2010, NKFC initiated a program enabling supporters to sponsor young dancers and musicians. The cost is only $5 per week but even that small amount of money will change a child’s life and future.

Special thanks to photographer Anders Jiras for sharing his images for this article.

Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama

A wartime twist of fate made Paul Cravath one of the only Westerners in history to gain full access to the formerly sequestered troupe of the Royal Cambodian Ballet. In 1975 he interviewed royal dancers and teachers and gained full access to their theater and archives. Then, war and genocide nearly obliterated the thousand year old tradition.

Over the ages, Cambodia’s sacred dancers have been goddesses, priestesses, queens, concubines, hostages and diplomats. Cravath’s award-winning book Earth in Flower, reveals the complete details of their tradition for the first time. This multilingual newscast from Supreme Master TV documents the book and its awards:

Royal Cambodian Dance Book Wins Awards

Earth in Flower is dedicated to Her Royal Highness, Princess Buppha Devi, the living embodiment of Cambodia’s ancient royal dance tradition. In the video below, the princess performs a dance of offering for Cambodia’s former kings before her grandmother, Queen Sisowath Kossamak Nearirath.

This ritual offering in the Royal Palace is especially significant because it marked the occasion of Queen Kossamak passing responsibility for the unbroken royal tradition to her granddaughter.

With the special permission of Queen Kossamak  in 1961-62, a USIS film crew in Cambodia captured this sacred ritual and other performances. The film disappeared for decades only to reemerge from the US National Archives late in 2008.

In presenting her credentials to Cambodia, the the new US Ambassador Carol Rodley presented His Majesty King Sihamoni with a digital copy of the entire original film showing these historic Cambodian dance performances. This documentary of the Royal Cambodian Ballet is now available in DVD form on Amazon.com.

The DVD first features the troupe performing a dance about the legendary origins of Angkor; it then covers a visit to the school of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh with scenes showing dance instruction of boys and girls, a dress rehearsal, costume design, and mask-making. Finally, the DVD contains footage of the school’s graduation ceremonies, including a presentation of novices to the school’s patron Queen Kossmak. The conclusion is the solo dance by Princess Norodom Buppha Devi featured in the clip above.

In 2009, Princess Buppha Devi made her first official visit to the only school of dance in music in Cambodia under her royal patronage. Cambodia’s royal tradition now continues and individual donors are invited to sponsor dancers and musicians at the NKFC dance school to maintain this sacred legacy.

Women, children and the elderly all fell victim to the Khmer Rouge regime's brutal policies.

Banteay Srey, Cambodia – From 1975-1979 genocide swept the tiny Asian country of Cambodia like a firestorm. As the name implies, the “Khmer Rouge” perpetrators were of the same ethnic Khmer blood as their fellow citizens but communist fanaticism drove them to enslave their brothers and sisters. In four short years they killed nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, overwork and murder.

The Khmer Rouge aggressively targeted and systematically exterminated educated people, particularly those who practiced age-old traditions. An estimated 90% of the country’s dancers, musicians, artists and teachers died, leaving a cultural and spiritual vacuum in the hearts of the people. In 1979, a Vietnamese invasion wrested control from the Khmer Rouge in most of the country, but many guerillas retreated to the jungles and mountains of the north, where they dug in.

The remote Angkor region, former home to the Khmer civilization that flourished during the 8th to the 12 centuries, became a Khmer Rouge stronghold. Two decades passed. It wasn’t until 1995 that Siem Reap province was completely liberated, but by then an entire generation of people there had known only privation, fear and brutality.

A Daughter Returns to a Tortured Homeland

After Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953, King Sihanouk directed cartographer Nginn Karet to organize the Service Géographique Khmer, transferring national mapping responsibilities from the French government in Saigon to Cambodia. Through Karet’s work, Cambodia later proved ownership of the disputed border temple of Preah Vihear for the Cambodian people. Karet passed away in 1965 but left his Swiss wife and children with a profound love and respect for their shared country.

In 1994, after more than two decades of European exile, his daughter Ravynn Karet-Coxen committed herself to begin rebuilding her broken country. The family maintained many political contacts in Cambodia, including General Toan Chhay, a resistance leader who doggedly fought the communists throughout their occupation. Ravynn went to him to ask where she should begin? Where had people suffered the longest? Who had the greatest needs?

The general was quick to reply: the Banteay Srey district of Siem Reap Province had 2,500 rural families living in subhuman conditions. There were 14 villages with nearly 20,000 people trying to survive. He quickly advised Ravynn to begin elsewhere. Without realizing the extent of the crisis, Ravynn formed the Nginn-Karet Foundation (www.NKFC.org) and committed herself to begin helping the seven worst villages in the district.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Ravynn in a telephone interview. “But nothing could have prepared me for what I found. When we first went to the villages I was speechless. Housing, sanitation, education and health services were almost non-existent.

“These people lived in abject poverty, barely surviving from day to day. It is shocking to say but some were living like animals. There was no clean water or hygiene. Children ran wild without supervision, care, education or direction. The primary occupation was scavenging forest wood to sell for a daily bowl of rice. They ate whatever insects or animals they could catch for protein.

“But these were just physical symptoms. What frightened me most was seeing the psychological devastation. There was no eye contact. There was no laughter. There was no emotion. Just numbness. These families had no hope, no future and no concept of bettering their living conditions or livelihoods.

“It tore my heart apart. Many times I wept and didn’t know if I could continue. This is why I named the foundation for my father. With my respect for his memory and his name I knew I would never quit. Never.”

Ravynn Karet-Coxen (center) at a village hygiene class.

Ravynn’s struggle continued. During the first years progress was slow and building relationships was next to impossible. Successes were few and far between. She agonized over whether her group could even accomplish the seemingly simple goals they had set. These people had never experienced empathy or compassion before and lethargy abounded.

“The few who spoke to me said that during the years of the Khmer Rouge each breath was a breath of fear. The Communist leaders were paranoid and capricious. They never hesitated to incarcerate, beat, torture or even execute a villager for the slighted infraction — actual or imagined. Neighbors spied on neighbors. I saw scars on their minds and bodies.

“We worked for years building schools, wells and latrines. We helped villagers improve their houses and taught them cleanliness. But the question I kept asking myself was what could restore these broken human spirits? All these material things didn’t seem to be working as well as they should.”

National Geographic's recreation of Angkor Wat temple in 1,150 AD.

Is Cambodia Actually a Land of Plenty?

In ancient times, the Angkor area was known as “The Land of Gold” and Cambodia was known throughout the region for its wealth. Rich forests and plains yielded far more fruit, rice, vegetables, fish and animals than the people could use. The Khmers exported their natural bounty to China and other neighbors. Yet today modern visitors find Cambodia a wasteland filled with starving, uneducated, impoverished people. What happened?

“I was baffled to see my country, where 80% of the population was involved in agriculture, suddenly forget how to grow even the most basic crops,” said Ravynn. “For generations, my people lived simple but comfortable lives of abundance in the forests. But now they have forgotten how to plant for the seasons, to make organic compost, to harvest and preserve vegetables, and so much more. In previous generations Cambodian mothers prided themselves in maintaining tidy homes, now I saw them living in squalor with children who no longer knew how to even brush their teeth. My heart ached.

“We spent years rebuilding the most basic village systems: providing clean water, sanitation, housing. Gradually villagers began, once again, to learn personal hygiene, farming skills, child care skills. People became more self sufficient, began taking charge of their futures and started to practice healthier lifestyles. But something was still missing.

“Then, two years ago, something wonderful happened. Some older villagers approached me to ask for our help opening a small school to teach traditional Cambodian dance. Here I pause to explain how powerful, important and sacred the dance tradition is to the culture of my country.

“For Khmer people, traditional dance and music are passions that flow in our veins. In Cambodia, dance is much more than entertainment or even art: dance is our way to speak to our gods and to thank them for the gifts of this rich land that we inhabit.

“The discipline, power and purity of Cambodian dance embraces all our religious and cultural values, values that have been passed down to us since the time of Angkor. Our dance not only teaches our most ancient legends and Buddhist values, these ancient rituals purify the soul and make Cambodian people one with our land. Cambodian dance gives inner peace.”

Children at NKFC study Cambodian classical and folk dance, as well as music.

New Blessings for the Khmer People

With the formation of NKFC’s dance school everything suddenly began to change. Parents remarked to foundation workers that children attending the new classes gained confidence, energy and strength. The revival of the traditional Khmer arts of music and dance drew families closer together, inspiring emotions and vitality unseen for decades. The power that permeates the land of the Khmers seemed to return to the area through the children.

According to Ravynn:

“We accidentally rediscovered the missing key, a timeless language of nature that flows in our veins. These simple arts began unshackling broken people from painful pasts, these gentle rhythms were a balm that brought love to their numbness. The children stood with confidence and walked proudly. Parents re-embraced traditional Cambodian family values in their hearts and minds.

“I realized that our earlier efforts had gone to improving physical things — homes, crops, water supply — but even then, the eyes were still empty. But now, through the wellspring of Khmer traditions, we are reviving ancient strengths and sacred arts that heal villagers and their children from the inside. For the first time, I clearly see that we are truly nourishing the souls of our people.”

The skill of the dance and music school students has progressed beyond everyone’s expectations. The modest facilities, open air thatched roof pavilions with three full time teachers, accepted new students as donations allowed.

NKFC students practice 6 days per week, in open air pavilions and no electricity. Music is provided by cassette players powered by car batteries.

In 2006, Ravynn met with Her Royal Highness Princess Buppha Devi to present the idea of a rural dance and music school. The Princess, already familiar with Ravynn’s record of success with village improvements offer to become the school’s official patron. Ravynn organized the school but waited more than two years before formally accepting the royal acknowledgment.

In 2009, the students performed for King Sihamoni at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, an incredibly rare honor for any dance performance in Cambodia. Following that performance, Ravynn officially named the school the  “NKFC Conservatoire – Preah Ream Buppha Devi Chhouk Sar – Banteay Srey.”

NKFC students dance for His Majesty King Sihamoni at the Royal Palace.

H.M. King Sihamoni recognized every dancer with a personal greeting as Ravynn Karet-Coxen witnessed the blessings.

In 2010, the school has accepted 163 students to train. Children and their families pay nothing to attend so the opportunity is based on finding personal sponsors for each child. The cost is less than $5 per week per student, but even that amount is beyond the ability of the local families.

Sponsoring a young dancer or musician is easy,  quick and rewarding. You truly have the opportunity to participate in the spiritual and cultural reawakening of a deserving land.

Princess Buppha Devi of Cambodia (color version of this photo below)

By Lucretia Stewart

Princess Buppha Devi was twenty-three when she danced for General de Gaulle on the terrace in front of Angkor Wat. That was over forty years ago, in 1966, before the Vietnam War and the Cambodian holocaust, when Cambodia was a very different place.

In his memoirs, Sihanouk Reminisces, her father, King Sihanouk, recalled the occasion. “One of the highlights of the de Gaulles’ stay was a visit to the temples of Angkor and the spectacular son et lumière I arranged in the venerable setting of Angkor Wat, the magnificence of which had never been seen before. De Gaulle was spellbound by the fireworks and by the performances which followed.”

Princess Buppha Devi, now over sixty, is Minister of Culture and Fine Arts in her country’s government, a job she takes very seriously. She has not danced – in public, at least – she says, for ten or fifteen years. But Cambodian classical dance, which she regards as part of the national heritage, remains her passion. When I interviewed her recently at her office in Phnom Penh, she told me that she had learned “to dance almost as soon as she could walk.” Her mother, a commoner, was also a dancer, but it was her grandmother, Queen Kossamak, who took charge of her and moulded her as a dancer.

“Dance has been in my family for generations,” she said, “My mother, my grandmother – my father even played a musical instrument to accompany the royal ballet. But it belongs to all Khmers and, as I see it, our principal aim is now the preservation of classical dance – not only dance, but all of our culture.”

1962 - Princess Buppha Devi presents an Indonesian dance.

The Princess, like most Cambodians, is tiny. As you would expect, she holds herself beautifully and she still has the figure of a young girl. Although she can seem rather intimidating (I found myself simultaneously curtsying and putting my hands together and bowing my head in the sampeah, the traditional gesture of respect, every time we met or said goodbye), her smile is very sweet and she has an easy way with people. She is determined that Cambodian dance should reach a wider public (the royal ballet has already toured the United States).

She told me that Cambodian classical dance – or court ballet, as it is sometimes known – dated back to the time of the Khmer Empire at Angkor (the ninth to the fifteenth century) and had been associated with the Royal Court of Cambodia for over a thousand years. It is composed primarily of episodes from the Reamker, which is the Cambodian version of the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana.

Princess Buppha Devi - 1962

Although it is based on the Indian epic, the Reamker contains many episodes that do not exist in the original, and, unlike the Brahmanist Ramayana, it is interpreted from a Buddhist point of view. It is also a uniquely Cambodian representation of social relationships and the moral universe, where the dancer embodies the Khmer ideals of beauty, grace and continuity – continuity not only between past and present, but also between the realm of the gods and that of men.

“Cambodian classical dance has always been under the protection of the royal family, of my family,” she said, “with dancers traditionally being taken into the Palace and being brought up there. Even today, when dance has become less associated with our family, it is not unusual for dancers to spend a certain amount of time at the Palace.”

A special building, the Chan Chaya, meaning of the Shadow of the Moon Pavilion, intended for performances of classical dance, was constructed by King Sisowath, Sihanouk’s great-great-uncle, within the Royal Palace compound. In 1906, Sisowath took a troupe of nearly one hundred dancers to France.

There the sculptor, Auguste Rodin, then aged sixty-six, was entranced by the dancers when he saw them perform at a reception given by the Minister of Colonies in the Bois du Boulogne in Paris.

“The Cambodians,” Rodin wrote afterwards, “have shown us everything that antiquity could have contained. It is impossible to think of anyone wearing human nature to such perfection; except them and the Greeks.” Rodin drew the dancers over and over again, saying, “The friezes of Angkor were coming to life before my very eyes.”

In Cambodian classical dance, a dancer usually dances only one, or at most, two roles. Princess Buppha Devi’s role was, fittingly, always that of “Apsara”, as the heavenly dancing girls who decorate the walls of the temples at Angkor are called. In pre-Vedic Indian mythology, the Apsara were water nymphs who lived in lotus pools. They were very beautiful and sometimes lured men to their deaths; they were also associated with fertility rites. Apsara was also the name of Sihanouk’s first feature film; Princess Buppha Devi starred in the title role.

This is how Sihanouk’s biographer, Milton Osborne, described what was normally laid on for visiting Heads of State:

“All would watch the traditional classical Cambodian dances performed to the music of the pinpeat orchestra, a mix of drums, gongs, traditional clarinets and strings. Seen for the first time, this was a truly exotic scene as dancers, richly clad in silks shot through with gold thread, played out stories drawn from ancient Indian legends. At times the dancing was slow and measured, full of abstract grace. At other times it was marked by buffoonery, as dancers playing the parts of monkeys in aversion of the Ramayana scratched for fleas beneath their armpits. Adding a special touch of glamor to these performances was the fact that the principal female dancer was Sihanouk’s beautiful daughter Buppha Devi.”

De Gaulle wasn’t the only world leader to be captivated by the Princess’s dancing and by her beauty. She also performed for General Tito, China’s Chou en-Lai and President Sukarno (the last admired her so much that he apparently asked Sihanouk for her hand in marriage), as well as for Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Margaret.

1962 - Prince Sihanouk presents his daughter Princess Buppha Devi to President Sukarno of Indonesia after a special performance.

But, when the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country in 1975, the dancing had to stop. Millions of Cambodians died and many fled their homeland. Princess Buppha Devi was amongst those who left. “I went with my grandmother to Peking in 1973 – she died there in 1975 ten days after the fall of Phnom Penh – and I wasn’t able to come back to Cambodia until 1991 when my father also returned home.” I asked her where she had spent almost twenty years of exile. “Well, after Peking, we were in Korea and then we ended up in Paris where I came across many Cambodian musicians and dancers who were also exiles. I gave lessons to young dancers and, in 1982, I went to the refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border and taught dance there.”

An oil painting of Princess Buppha Devi in an early performance.

One Monday morning in early October, on the first day back at school for the students at the Faculty of Fine Arts, where both classical and traditional dance are taught (as well as Khmer literature), I went to watch Ouk Phalla rehearse. Phalla is a prima ballerina and also the dancer who is said most to resemble Princess Buppha Devi in the role of Apsara. I had interviewed her at the school few days before. Like all classical dancers, she began her rigorous training as a child when she was just nine years old. She first performed in public at the age of thirteen. Now aged twenty-three, she is as beautiful as a lotus blossom and as graceful as a willow. I asked her to show me how far back she could bend her fingers. Effortlessly she pushed them back until they touched her wrist.

Minutes after Phalla had returned from changing into her practice outfit, a piece of dark cloth folded to make a pair of loose trousers and worn with a silver chain belt, and a tightly-fitting low-necked blouse, the Princess, flanked by her three Pekinese dogs, arrived to supervise the rehearsal. Someone fetched a cushion and she took a seat on a low platform next to the musicians. The skeleton rehearsal orchestra started up: a double-sided drum, a gamelan (which is a sort of oriental xylophone) and a big wooden wheel festooned with tinkling bells. Simultaneously a chorus of four elderly women began a kind of high-pitched, nasal chant. While the dogs jumped on and off the stage and ran round and round in circles until they finally settled at their mistress’s feet, Princess Buppha Devi, waving a cigarette in the air, carefully scrutinised three dancers, including Phalla, as they performed the Apsara dance.

Princess Buppa Devi accompanied by the Royal Cambodian troupe following a performance.

The dance, the Princess told me, can involve as few as three and as many as nine dancers (one of whom is always the star – in this case, Phalla). It had a curious, dreamy quality to it, a serenity and a kind of timelessness as though it could go on forever. This was in part because of the music which seems other-worldly, in part because none of the movements were fast – they were all slow and graceful but intensely controlled – and in part because of the ethereal beauty and incredible sweetness of expression of Phalla.

Princess Buppha Devi - circa 1962

As the Pekes frisked around Phalla’s contorted legs, Princess Buppha Devi demonstrated precisely how a particular gesture or movement should be executed (once the Princess moved so did the dogs). On stage, performing, the Princess retained the grace and flexibility of a much younger woman, as did Em Theay, another dancer (and former teacher of Princess Buppha Devi), who still dances and teaches although she is sixty-nine.

Em Theay is one of the few dancers left from before 1975. Many died during what Cambodians always refer to as “Pol Pot time”, a period, as every Cambodian whom you meet will tell you, of exactly three years, eight months and twenty days; others have died of old age. Em Theay’s mother, she told me, had been the Queen’s cook; her father “servant to the old King.” At the age of seven, she was chosen to train as a dancer by Queen Kossomak and when Sihanouk became king, she went to live at the Palace. Her role was, and is, that of the Giant or Reap, a part that is traditionally played by a strong woman (Em Theay is, however, characteristically petite by Western standards); she was happy to demonstrate for us some of the gestures and steps, and also to show us several albums of photographs of her in the role and at the Palace where she still often spends her days.

When the Khmer Rouge came, Em Theay was forty-three. She was forced to go to Battambang Province in the northwest of the country. “Everyone knew I was a dancer and they liked to see me dance,” she said, “I also looked after children. I sang songs to send them to sleep and people would gather round to listen.”

Now Em Theay teaches at the National Theatre and at the Faculty of Fine Arts (in the old days, she even taught Princess Buppha Devi). She still performs and, when we met, was preparing for a show in Singapore. Both her daughter and her granddaughter are dancers, but she fears for the future of Cambodian classical dance. She says that the government is not sufficiently careful enough about safeguarding Khmer culture and civilization.

Her fears are echoed by Ouk Phalla who says, “Young people prefer Karaoke to classical dance.” Phalla believes that it is her duty as a dancer to preserve her heritage, to help Cambodia and to be a symbol of Cambodia.

In this, she echoes Princess Buppha Devi’s claims for classical dance. As the latter says, “The dance is sacred; we do it for the glory of God,” adding, “But it’s our lifeblood we are preserving here.”

About the Author:

Lucretia Stewart

Born in Singapore as the daughter of a diplomat, Lucretia Stewart has spent her life traveling in Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas. As a child, she grew up in China, and was later drawn back to the region to experience Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

Stewart first worked extensively as a journalist, before focusing on her career as an author. Her books include  Tiger Balm: Travels in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia (1992), The Weather Prophet: A Caribbean Journey (1995), Making Love: A Romance (1999) and Travelling Hopefully: A Golden Age of Travel Writing (2006). In 2000 she also edited Erogenous Zones: An Anthology of Sex Abroad.

She continues to contribute to a number of magazines, while contributing chapters to numerous publications. She lives in Naxos, Greece…when she is not traveling.

Reviewed by Eileen Blumenthal, Rutgers University

It is a vision of astonishing beauty. Graceful women in glittering costumes form a legato flow of anatomy-defying curves and angles. Tied to royalty and central to religious rituals, Cambodia’s traditional dance has become an emblem of the country’s patrimony. It links modern Cambodians to the ancient Angkor Empire, whose sandstone temples are festooned with bas-relief dancers.

Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama by Paul Cravath. DatAsia, 2008. Pp. xxx +514 +184 illus.

Cambodia’s royal dance has long captured the Western imagination, but until recently there was little opportunity to research it. Before 1941, dancers were in the king’s sequestered harem. Western studies of the dance were based on very few viewings or on second-string companies that played for tourists. Paul Cravath’s 1985 doctoral dissertation, Earth in Flower—-only now belatedly published —blew the field open.

He meticulously gleaned information from the scattered studies of Cambodian dance and related subjects. Most importantly, he did first-hand research in Phnom Penh in 1975, examining royal archives, watching rehearsals, and interviewing dancers, teachers and scholars. His research was heroic. Cravath remained in war-torn Phnom Penh, despite daily shelling, until a forced evacuation days before the Khmer Rouge victory. Most of his sources—both written and human—perished during the ensuing nightmare.

His study begins by presenting the ancient Cambodian references and surviving myths that involve dancers. He then incorporates a broader context of South and South-East Asian research and religious studies to derive his thesis: Cambodian dance is fundamentally an embodiment of the life-creating tension and communion between the

Khmer dancer circa 1911 by George Groslier

feminine and the masculine principle. Cravath proceeds to offer a history of Cambodian dance from ancient times through the twentieth century. And, finally, he documents the dance, cataloguing gestures, movement patterns, costume elements and repertory ­including many dances no longer performed and gone from living memories. This work is invaluable. And the current presentation, including nearly two hundred black-and-white images, is of art-book quality.

Still, Cravath tends to focus on ideas and oral traditions to support his thesis and to dismiss contravening interpretations and oral traditions. As a result, his argument is overstated and lacks nuance. As the first comprehensive study of the field, his work also inevitably incorporates a few lapses. For example, he does not get quite right the Byzantine relationships between dance and politics in the 1930S and 1940s. But those of us carrying Cambodian dance research forward all are standing on his shoulders. This is an essential volume for anyone interested in South-East Asian performance.

About the reviewer: Eileen Blumenthal

Eileen Blumenthal has a Ph.D. in history of the theater from Yale. She received her M.A. and B.A. degrees in English and American literature from Brown. Her specialties include contemporary experimental theater and traditional Asian theater and theater. She is the author of a book on Joseph Chaikin, numerous theater reviews and articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, American Theater, Asian Theater Journal, Theater, Natural History, and Cultural Survival. She authored a book and many published articles on the performing arts and the contemporary politics of Cambodia, and produced the American tour of theaters from Cambodia in the fall of 1990.

Blumenthal has served as a consultant for public television performing-arts projects, university theater/theater programs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her photographs have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Dance Magazine, Natural History, Cultural Survival, and the Village Voice. Her awards include a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a Kent (Danforth) Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency. At Rutgers University, Mason Gross Theater of the Arts, she has taught history of theater, theater criticism, introduction to graduate study in theater, and modern experimental theater.

Earth in Flower is a slight revision of Paul Cravath’s 1985 PhD dissertation on the court dance of Cambodia, an art form with a historically intimate connection to the land and its spirits. Except for the addition of some photographs, the publisher notes that he chose to “remain true to Dr. Cravath’s . . . doctoral the­sis without modifying, deleting, or rewriting content which reflects attitudes or conventions of use that have changed in the past twenty years” (xxiii).

The book is a treasure trove. It includes more than 180 photographs, drawings, and paintings; listings of early and mid twentieth century Royal Pal­ace performance programs; an extensive bibliography of Chinese, Dutch, Eng­lish, and French sources, as well as English and French language publications by Khmer writers; and chapters that start with Southeast Asian prehistory and conclude with the dance’s ritual function.

Earth in Flower - The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama by Paul Cravath. DatAsia Press, 2008. xxx, 544 pp., 188 illus. Cloth, $128.00

Cravath arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to undertake research for a degree in theater just as the civil war was tightening its grip on the capital city in early 1975. Before being evacuated to Thailand as Cambodia was about to fall to the communist revolutionaries, he gained access to archival documents, photographs, and artists, some of whom would not survive the following years of deprivation and dislocation.

The Khmer Rouge, under the infamous Pol Pot, took control of the capital in April 1975. By the time that regime was ousted in January 1979, an estimated 80–90 percent of the country’s professional artists (including dancers, musi­cians, playwrights, and poets), along with close to two million of their compa­triots, had perished from starvation and disease or had been executed. Aspects of the cultural knowledge of those who died vanished as well. Therefore this volume presents a unique portrait.

Since 1979, Cambodia’s artistic community has been re­creating what it could of the traditional repertoire, with surviving artists painstakingly recall­ing their embodied wisdom and skills. Performers also continue to develop new works. A resource such as Cravath’s is invaluable in filling in the numer­ous lacunae in the historic record.

Chapter 1 outlines Cravath’s perspective of Cambodia’s classical dance tradition. Cravath sides with historians who posit a Southeast Asian–centric view of Khmer cultural beliefs and practices, wherein the Khmer are given agency for the creation and continuity of their dance as opposed to the art being viewed as derivative of Indian forms.* Cravath concludes that “[f]or Khmer dance drama, India may have provided a literary medium for mytho­logical expression, and in a much later period the Thai influenced it as well. But in form, in structure, in spirit, and in the selective process operative in its evolution, the dance drama—like the culture in which it flowered—is exclu­sively a reflection of the Cambodian people” (7).

Chapter 2 examines archeological, sculptural, and epigraphic evidence up to the reign of King Jayavarman II (802–850) in order to establish the long connection of Khmer dance with both temples and monarchs. Chapter 3 focuses on dance during the time of the Angkor Empire (ninth to fifteenth centuries), when Khmer kings ruled over vast parts of mainland Southeast Asia. Sculpted dancing figures grace the numerous stone temples constructed in that era, and evidence points to dramatic performances by dancers associ­ated with royalty.

Chapter 4 takes us from the mid fifteenth century fall of Angkor up to the early 1980s. Codification of Khmer classical dance gestures occurred during the reign of Ang Duong (1848–1860), according to a 1963 publica­tion of the Cambodian Information Department. Cravath notes that Noro­dom Sihanouk’s first time as king (1941–1955) and then as prince and head of state (1955 until a 1970 coup d’état) saw the dance linked with Cambodia’s nationalist agenda. The dancers, accompanying Sihanouk on travels overseas, came to represent the country to the larger world. Yet, until the 1970s, the special relationship between dance and royalty persisted, as the dancers would perform rituals to connect the people, the land, and the spirits on behalf of the monarchy.

The last part of chapter 4 relies on understandably limited access to information. At the time of the completion of the original dissertation, schol­arly, journalistic, and autobiographical accounts of life and art during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and of the first years under the communist regime that followed in the 1980s were few and often contradictory. We now know, for example, that instead of there being “no dancing taking place—folk, classi­cal or yiké—during the Pol Pot era” (178), newly choreographed folk dances performed in peasant/worker garb were an ubiquitous part of Khmer Rouge revolutionary culture. Further, some principal dancers of the previously royal troupe had survived the genocide to perform central roles again in the 1980s and even into the 1990s, belying the author’s statement that by 1975, “The [classical] troupe retained no dancers possessing both outstanding beauty and lead dancer skill” (170).

Chapter 5 looks at various Khmer origin myths and their relation­ship to the dance. Cravath locates a complementary dualism enacted through Khmer dance—a tension between male and female that is necessary for the well­being of the king’s country and subjects and the fertility of the land, in essence, a flowering of the earth.

The next chapters capture crucial information about aspects of the dramatic repertoire as well as about non-narrative dances, and they address musical accompaniment, choreography, staging, training, and costumes. The final chapter explores Khmer dance’s ritual function, with descriptions of the dance as an offering in royal rites. Cravath discusses the buong suong ritual in which, through performance of sacred pieces, dancers beseech deities at the behest of the royalty for blessings for the populace. The chapter also covers the formal sampeah kru ceremony, a salutation to the spirits and teachers of the dance, and the informal rituals dancers may do individually before a perfor­mance, as they seek protection and guidance through the offering of incense, candles, fruit, and prayers. The sampeah kru remains central to the lives of Cambodia’s classical dancers today. Since the return of the royalty in 1991, dancers perform at royally sanctioned buong suong ceremonies just as they did prior to the war.

Appendices include a short translation from an early twentieth century French document describing a theater in the Royal Palace; listings of repertoire from selected royal performances between 1931 and 1961; a chart outlining the structure of musical accompaniment, storyline, and timing in a 1971 performance of the Reamker (Cambodian Ramayana); and a list of the pin peat orchestra repertoire as recorded in a late 1960s Royal University of Fine Arts paper. There is a note about the author and a message from the editor about getting this work published.

The dissertation has been circulating among scholars of Southeast Asian performing arts since the late 1980s. Some Cambodian dancers in the United States also have their own treasured copies. Publication in book form invites a broader audience to share in the riches of this tradition’s history and practice and also makes available fine reproductions of photographs, a great improvement over dissertation reprints. The inclusion of additional photo­graphs and an index is also of great value, though some listings of well known individuals discussed in the text are missing or incomplete.

If a second edition of this important book comes, I hope it will con­tain references to relevant research in archeology, dance, and other aspects of Cambodian culture and history that has been conducted since 1985, as well as to dance scholarship more generally. The University of Hawai‘i has been coordinating an archeological program in conjunction with Cambodia’s Royal University of Fine Arts for more than a decade (see Bong and Stark 2001). In the field of Khmer dance, writings by Blumenthal (1990), Bru­-Nut (2002), Sam (1987), Phim and Thompson (1999), and Shapiro­-Phim (2002) offer additional perspectives on historical, ethnographic, and ritual aspects of the art and information on artists’ lives and dance technique. Biographies of some individuals whom Cravath mentions appear in recent reference works such as those edited by Brandon (1993), Kennedy (2003), and Leiter (2007). It would also be important to correct copyediting oversights (for example, the name of a prominent twentieth century dancer is spelled three different ways; in the 1980s the country was called the People’s Republic of Kampuchea and this name should be consistently used for that period; photo captions and refer­ences to them in the text need occasional corrections).

Nonetheless, this impressive and invaluable study will be of interest to those researching or teaching about theatre, dance, or Southeast Asian his­tory. Readers will need to supplement information with more recent cultural/anthropological, historical, and dance studies that correct errors and shine new light on the context and practice of Khmer arts. The writing is accessible and engaging, and the wide-ranging collection of sources and splendid photo­graphic documentation make it a gift to the field.

Toni Shapiro-Phim

Khmer Arts Academy, Takhmao, Cambodia

NOTE

* The term “Khmer” officially refers to the majority ethnic group of Cambodia. In common English usage (and throughout Earth in Flower), how­ever, “Khmer” and “Cambodian” are generally interchangeable.

REFERENCES

Blumenthal, Eileen. 1990. “The Court Ballet: Cambodia’s Loveliest Jewel.” Cultural Survival Quar­terly 14 (3): 35–38.

Bong, Sovath, and Miriam Stark. 2001. “Recent Research on the Emergence of Early Historic States in Cam­bodia’s Lower Mekong Delta.” Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Asso­ciation 21 (5): 85–98.

Brandon, James R., ed. 1993. The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bru-Nut, Suppya. 2002. “Phalla, danseuse sacrée d’Angkor.” In Les Danseuses sacrees d’Angkor, edited by Christophe Loviny, 46–51. Paris: Editions du Seuil/Jazz Editions.

Kennedy, Dennis, ed. 2003. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance. Oxford: Oxford Uni­versity Press.

Leiter, Samuel L., ed. 2007. Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Phim, Toni S., and Ashley Thompson. 1999. Dance in Cambodia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sam, Chan Moly. 1987. Khmer Court Dance: A Comprehensive Study of Movements, Gestures, and Pos­tures as Applied Techniques. Newington, CT: Khmer Studies Institute.

Shapiro ­Phim, Toni. 2002. “Dance, Music, and the Nature of Terror in Democratic Kampuchea.” In Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide, edited by Alexan­der Hinton, 179–193. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Paul Cravath has seen “Earth in flower.” He’s thrilled, cover to cover.

Cambodian dance is based on ancient traditions that can be traced back to the Khmer civilization that ruled most of Southeast Asia 1,000 years ago. Cravath's book, Earth in Flower is the most extensive documentation of this cultural legacy ever published in any language. Photo copyright Jaro Poncar.

Chatfield, MN - ”Some parts of the book are extremely interesting and some parts of it are simply for the preservation of documentation of the ballet for the Cambodian people,” said the 1962 Chatfield High School alum who is now professor of drama at Leeward College in Honolulu, Hawaii, and author of “Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama,” being presented as a St. Charles Author’s Night event.

“I wrote it as my doctoral dissertation at the University of Hawaii…when the Khmer Rouge took over the city of Phnom Penh in 1975, they did so at gunpoint and killed everyone connected with the royal family and royal court, of which the Royal Cambodian Ballet was a part. There was only one dance company, and any dancers, musicians or support personnel in the capital were killed – people estimate about 90 percent of the company died. I suspect the government knew it was going to happen, so that’s why they arranged for me to research this secretive royal legacy.”

The Fulbright scholar attended Luther College after graduating from Chatfield High School, then redeemed his scholarship in Indore, India, where “at the age of 21, my life changed completely … India was the best place to be in the world.”

Dr. Paul Cravath - Author of Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama

He taught for a year in Tokyo,  earned his master’s degree in drama at Tulane University in New Orleans, then went on to continue his studies in Asian drama at the University of Hawaii. “The University of Hawaii has the best program in Asian theater, so I went there to pursue my Ph.D. in Asian drama. My professor actually was asked to do the Cambodian research,” Cravath explained, “but he couldn’t go. He told them that he had a graduate student who could go, so I did.

“When I got to Phnom Penh in January 1975, the city was surrounded. The Khmer Rouge were attacking the city with rockets. I wasn’t quite ready … I was shocked because there were rockets being fired into the city the day I arrived. It was a very strange place to be when the city was under attack … I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this is war,’ but I watched ballet rehearsals because I was there to research this ancient dance tradition.”

Cravath explained that the Royal Cambodian Ballet is “not like any other ballet,” in that it is comprised solely of female dancers who, in previous eras, had been members of king’s harem. In the past, dancers entered the troupe as children and lived out their entire lives sequestered in the royal palace.

“There was a school for little girls – who started training at age 8 – the most beautiful little girls were chosen from each province. The very best ones were selected to perform in the national troupe. Their performances were sacred, and were mostly seen by the royal family, except for invited royal guests and public ceremonies.

One of Cravath's danse position photos from a rehearsal at the University de Beaux Arts in 1975. The Khmer Rouge genocide began weeks later. The fate of this dancer is unknown.

“The Cambodian ballet is much more than just a dance in the Western sense – the people believe that their dances, the most sacred of the dances, have power over the spirit world and secure the prosperity of their kingdom. Traditionally, dance was frequently performed for a specific purpose — to appeal to the gods for rain, for example — the dance and dancers were the kingdom’s connection to the spirit world, and represented the power of the king. This sacred rite held that the girls were the embodiment of creation, fertility and the earth itself …everything feminine was associated with the power of the earth. The female dancers represent the blossoming of the earth, which is the meaning of the book’s title ‘Earth in Flower.’”

Mandatory weekly check-ins at the American Embassy punctuated Cravath’s studies of this unique ballet, an art form that he preserved through photographs and meticulously detailed descriptions of each dance’s characters, their histories, and how the various choreographed motions were expressed.

Though Cravath was warned not to remain in Cambodia, he persisted in his research, even as the American government denied him assured protection and, according to mainstream media, ”everything in Phnom Penh was just fine”.

“The official US State Department policy was also ‘everything’s just fine,’ when in fact, the Communist Khmer Rouge were tightening their grip on the capital.”

In Minnisota, area newspapers actually reported Cravath as having disappeared, though it would be several years until he found the articles his mother had saved. One read, “The parents of Paul Cravath, 30, a Chatfield native now in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on a study program, have been informed that their son is alive and safe. Russell Cravath of Chatfield, Paul’s father, said the family had learned Tuesday that Paul is safe. They had been concerned since letters from Cambodia quit coming after Feb. 17.

In 1975, Cambodia was in the center of a warzone, surrounded by Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

“The student’s father declined to say how word of his son’s safety was conveyed to him as he is afraid it would jeopardize his son’s future safety. He said his son had been advised to leave Cambodia because of the fighting but he does not know his son’s intentions. Paul Cravath arrived in Cambodia on Jan. 11 to study classical dance drama in order to earn a doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Hawaii.”

In early April 1975 he visited the embassy to check in as usual. The American ambassador informed him that Phnom Penh would be evacuated of foreigners the next morning and that Cravath was to be on the plane for Bangkok, Thailand.

“It wasn’t like the fall of Saigon where everyone tried to rush to get on the planes,” he related.

“We took a bus from the city. When we got to the airport, there were rockets being fired at the runways, so we had to run to a bunker and wait for our airplane. It was a military transport with no seats, only webbing to sit in. I could take only one bag, so I gave away my personal items and brought all my notes, interview tapes and photos.” In Thailand, Cravath was able to continue his dance research because Thai dance is drawn from older Cambodian traditions. By the end of the year he returned to Hawaii and “worked on my dissertation periodically,” but had other commitments that filled his time.

“Finally, in 1984, I finished the paper and got my degree. The world had forgotten about Cambodia, which was then under Communist control. I put the papers under my bed, and they lived there for the next 20 years. I tried to publish a couple times, but the university wanted to shorten it to just more than 200 pages, and I didn’t want to do that.

Twenty years later, a Khmer history researcher named Kent Davis read two sentences of my paper in a column someone wrote about it. He called me and I helped him obtain a copy of the thesis. Upon reading it Davis knew  it should be published because it documented Cambodian history and lives that have now been destroyed.  He describes  it as a cultural treasure.”

Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama

The resulting volume “is marketed primarily to libraries,” but is also available to collectors on Amazon and from a dedicated website: EarthInFlower.com. Cravath is pleased to see it bound and illustrated using many rare photographs he had taken 34 years ago.

“Only 886 copies were printed, and many are now in research libraries around the world. Strangely, on April 17th, 2008…the same day the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Pehn…Kent’s house burned down and some of the remaining copies burned. I’m just happy to see my research in libraries now, because that’s where it belongs. The Cambodian ballet is a beautiful, beautiful dance form. This book helps to preserve its legacy.”

After Paul Cravath’s research on the Royal Cambodian Ballet was cut short, following intensive bombing in Cambodia in 1975, his dissertation languished until completion in 1984. After years of releasing portions of the dissertation for scholarly articles, publisher Kent Davis read two sentences quoted in one journal and contacted Cravath immediately, realizing the historical significance of his unique study.

Earth in Flower - The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama

Davis published the dissertation as a book in 2008 under the title Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama, and it is now available for sale on Amazon. You might ask, how did a Chatfield native end up in Cambodia studying dance?

Cravath graduated from Chosen Valley High School in 1962. He immediately enrolled at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and graduated with a B.A. in 1966. A history professor at Luther helped Cravath earn a Fulbright Scholarship, which took him to Indore, India, for one year. Cravath says he thought he’d “died and fallen into a National Geographic magazine.”

He also taught for one year in Tokyo. Until earning a master’s degree in drama at Tulane University in New Orleans, Cravath never took a theater course. As his education progressed, however, Cravath’s interest in the world of drama grew and he decided to attend the University of Hawaii because it had the best Asian theater program in the world. Located on the shores of Pearl Harbor, Cravath studied there for about 3-1/2 years, honing his language skills and narrowing his focus to the Royal Cambodian Ballet.

Cravath originally was unaware of Cambodia’s unique dance form. He initially wanted to study Tibetan theater, but there was no one available with whom he could study the Tibetan language. He then switched focus to the Beijing opera and learned Mandarin Chinese. But by his third year of study, he was introduced to the military struggles in Cambodia and became passionate about the country’s unique ballet and the need to preserve it, at least on paper.

The Royal Cambodian Ballet – now called the National Troupe – used to belong to the king and included his harem and ritual dancers. As many as 1,000 dancers were involved in the ballet troupe. Young girls from all over the country were given to the king and the most beautiful girls were trained to dance. Those who were extraordinarily gifted joined the performing company. Cravath says, “It’s the embodiment of the country’s energy in a sense.”

The fighting in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh ranged from 1974 – 1979. The capital was taken in April of 1975. Because holding a performing part in the ballet troupe was considered a government position, dancers knew that they would be killed for their association with the king. The government of Cambodia wanted the art form documented before it was destroyed; a professor at the University of Hawaii was given the chance to do this, and passed the opportunity on to Cravath.

Two students rehearsing Cambodian dance in 1975, weeks before the Khmer Rouge genocide. Their fate is unknown.

Cravath arrived on January 11, 1975. In a letter written just two days earlier, while traveling through Bangkok, Cravath wrote: “On Monday, the rebels shelled the airport with 43 mortars and are said to have massed 2,000 troops north of the city. Probably the situation as a whole is not so ominous, and the Cambodians are famous for just carrying on regardless of the flak.”

Another letter, dated January 17, says that rehearsals and training in the dancing classes had been suspended because of the bombing. In all, Cravath was able to spend only three of the six months he had planned in Cambodia. He was evacuated on April 5, 1975, to Bangkok. In order to complete as much research as possible, Cravath then studied the Thai form of ballet, because it was derived from the Cambodian dance style.

Cravath says that the Cambodian style of dance is “slow, hypnotic and beautiful.” The temple at Angkor in Cambodia, says Cravath, was considered to hold the flowers of the earth and the original “heavenly dancers.” While not compelling for the fast-paced American lifestyle, it is taught in small troupes in Washington, D.C. and also Seattle. Only one major troupe – in Cambodia – remains.

After the rebels took the capital in April of 1975, some dancers escaped and fled to France; others were killed. Vietnam took over in 1979 and set up a military dictator who is still in power. Although a king is still enthroned in Cambodia, he does not have any real power but is rather a figurehead. Cravath was able to return to Cambodia in 1995, where he met Princess Buppha Devi, by then the Minister of Culture – Princess Buppha Devi was the daughter of King Sihanouk who had reigned in the 1970s. Cravath was also able to meet with a well-known teacher and singer who was his best source of information on the continuation of traditional Cambodian dance.

Cambodia in the 1970s was “a dramatic time, a dramatic subject,” says Cravath. He’s appreciative that there is interest in the book. Such an interest is an example of internationalism – recognizing that there is more to the world than the American performing arts.

Printed on 70 pound acid-free matt-coated stock, case bound and Smyth sewn, Earth in Flower was designed to last 100 years or longer. Of the 840 copies printed, 760 are in existence. The book costs $128 and includes significant documents and information that were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. The book also contains 188 black and white photos, plus 7 color pictures.

Earth in Flower is dedicated to Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Buppha Devi of Cambodia.

Earth in Flower is dedicated to Princess Buppha Devi, who was a prima ballerina in the royal troupe. The book is primarily being marketed to research libraries, partly due to the cost, but in large part because there is no record in any language so definitive on the history of the Royal Cambodian Ballet. Written to preserve the Cambodian people’s history, Cravath says that portions of the book are very interesting; other parts are less so, containing simple documentary lists.

While Cravath continues to reside in Hawaii – specifically Honolulu – he is usually able to spend the months of June and July in Chatfield with his family.

Cravath will be speaking in St. Charles at 7 p.m. on June 29 for the inaugural Author’s Night held at the Community Center. You can find more information about Cravath’s book at www.EarthInFlower.com.