A story about Cambodian dance in Pictures by Anders Jirås

Stockholm — Cambodian dance is the featured exhibition in Sweden’s Dansmuseet from March 25 until May 8. The powerful images hold special meaning because they are the work of Swedish photographer Anders Jirås, who has spent years in Cambodia devoted to documenting Cambodian performing arts.

Cambodian dance photography by Anders Jiras

As the exhibit describes:

“The Khmer civilization flourished in South-East Asia a thousand years ago and its legacy still shapes the region’s art and culture to this day. Aside from the architecture, Cambodian dance is now what visitors find most captivating, as the disciplines of dance, drama, shadow puppetry, folk dance and music merge into each other.

“The civil war, Pol Pot and other calamities almost eradicated this dance. However, Cambodian culture is strong, with dance and music an expression of a cohesive power. With so little written down, passing on and preserving the dance as part of an oral tradition was problematic. With nine out of ten dancers from the Royal Palace killed during Pol Pot’s reign of terror in the 1970s, parts of the tradition were lost.

“But not everything.

“Some dancers managed to survive and they had carefully concealed their knowledge, allowing the dance to be restored once more. Now, thirty years later, the few survivors are passing their knowledge on to a new generation of dancers. It is this transfer of tradition that Swedish photographer Anders Jirås, who lives in Phnom Penh, has captured in his study of a form of dance that managed to survive against all the odds. It seems that art cannot be killed off after all.”

The exhibit’s visual beauty conveys this message of optimism and hope. The arts thrive in Cambodia and it is a delight to see them recognized so far from home.

Cambodian dance student and teacher by Anders Jiras

About Anders Jirås

For more than three years, Swedish photographer Anders Jirås has spent most of his time in Cambodia devoting himself to capturing dynamic images of the Cambodian performing arts.

The National Museum of Cambodia recently featured his exhibition of photos of the Royal Ballet from November 2010 to February 2011. This was the first exhibit in the museum’s history devoted to this ancient living art.

His international exhibit on Cambodian performing arts at the Museum of Dance in Stockholm, Sweden runs from 25 March – 8 May, 2011.

The artist’s work has appeared in public exhibits for more than 40 years: see Anders Jirås Exhibitions 1966-2008.

About the Dansmuseet – The Dance Museum

Stockholm’s dance museum, located in the heart of Sweden’s capital city near the Royal Opera House, offers far more than the name reveals. Its colorful displays show visitors an historic and creative range of theatrical arts, from the Russian and Swedish ballets in Paris, circa 1910-1930, to the rich cultural dance forms of Asia and Africa.

The museum was founded by Rolf de Maré (1888–1964), a Swedish aristocrat, art collector and leader of the Swedish Ballet in Paris 1920–25. In 1933, he opened the world’s first dance museum and research institute in Paris.

The exhibits and extensive library of Les Archives internationales de la Danse attracted students and visitor from all over the world. Les Archives offered lectures, dance demonstrations, and published its own magazine and books. In the late 1940s de Maré closed his institution in Paris and donated parts of the collections to the French state. He then brought the non-European collections and his huge collection from the Swedish Ballet in Paris to Stockholm to found the dance museum – Dansmuseet – which opened in 1953.

Today, the museum offers a changing array of activities including special performances, special video presentations and even the opportunity to learn popular dance forms in the spring and fall.

Admission to the museum collections is free, with admission fees only charged to meet the expenses of temporary exhibitions in the Gallerie de Maré.

To Cambodia With Love

An Essential Travel Guide in a Digital World

Book Review by Kent Davis

To Cambodia With Love is an attractive and useful guidebook for any traveler headed to Cambodia. Its secret is that this book offers a unique collection of tips and ideas that readers simply won’t find anywhere else.

When I began traveling internationally in the 1970s trips were always too expensive and too short. So some things never change!

Info about exotic destinations was sparse, but even a few ideas about sights, food, transport and lodging could make the difference between a memorable adventure and a stressful fiasco.

On my first trip to Laos in 1992 I just ripped the 20 page supplement out of the Thailand Lonely Planet Guide so I didn’t have to carry the whole book…but even those 20 pages made my Laotian trip easier. Knowledge is power!

With the advent of the Internet, travel research has evolved. So have travelers.

Finding mainstream attractions and accommodations is fairly easy. If anything, there’s too much information available and online sources aren’t always reliable. Beyond that, most modern travelers are seeking insights and experiences much deeper than “been there, done that”. Enter senior editor Kim Fay with a new concept to create “travel guides for the connoisseur”.

Young Cambodian monk by Tewfic EI-Sawy.

To Cambodia With Love is a perfect example of how well her formula works. With Phnom Penh-based British writer Andy Brouwer, they sought out more than 60 expert contributors with one thing in common: a passion for some aspect of Cambodian life. Food, history, sights, temples, Buddhism, wildlife, art, music, nature, charity, adventure, education…you name it…these people all live and love their Cambodian dreams.

And to each they posed one question: If you were giving advice to a friend who was headed to Cambodia, what would you tell them?

And so To Cambodia With Love was born, the newest in a brilliant series of travel guides. In addition to Cambodia, ThingsAsian Press now offers guides for Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Shanghai, Northern India, Nepal and Japan.

I can honestly say that I wouldn’t go to any of those places without one of these clever compact guides in my luggage. Why take a chance of missing the most inspirational experiences that await you in these exotic lands?

To Cambodia With Love BOOK DETAILS

Cambodian dancers by Tewfic EI-Sawy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. MOVEABLE FEASTS – A tasting menu of exotic flavors

2. SEEING THE SIGHTS – Fresh perspectives on exploring must-see attractions

3. SECRET GARDENS – Where to hide away from the touring masses

4. INTO THE WILD – Outdoor experiences for adventurous travelers

5. WHEN IN ROME – Lessons on living local and making yourself at home

6. PAYING IT FORWARD – Suggestions for giving back while you’re on the road

7. RESOURCES FOR THE ROAD – Practical advice to help you prepare for your travels

8. EPILOGUE – One writer takes his sons on a local detour in Siem Reap

The book also features an Introduction, detailed Contributor Biographies (see below), Credits and  an Index .

Andy Brouwer (at right without glasses)

EDITOR BIO

British-born Andy Brouwer made his first trip to Cambodia in 1994. That white-knuckle ride hooked him for life.

When his annual visits didn’t satisfy his craving, so he upped sticks to Phnom Penh in 2007. As well as having a serious interest in temples, books, and pretty much all things Khmer, he is a lifetime supporter of Leeds United and has an insatiable passion for the music of Steel Pulse and Ennio Morricone.

For the adventures of Cambodian life, updated daily, visit Andy’s blog.

Tewfic EI-Sawy

PHOTOGRAPHER BIO

Tewfic EI-Sawy is a New York City-­based freelance photographer who specializes in documenting endan­gered cultures and traditional life in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

He is particularly interested in photograph­ing cultural ceremonies and religious and tribal rituals.

He leads photogra­phy tours to India, Sikkim, Indo­china, Indonesia, and the Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. His images, articles, and photo features have been published in various magazines and other publications.

CONTRIBUTORS

Note: This complete alphabetical list of contributors is quoted from To Cambodia With Love.

Juanita Accardo — Juanita is a regular visitor to Cambo­dia. She adores Ratanakiri and treats it like her second home. When she’s not traveling, she’s back in the United States working at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, California.

Matt Ames — If Matt is not in Cambodia, he is probably in Roanoke, Virginia, studying data visualization, working on art projects, making music, or writing and directing short films. Matt would like to especially thank the monks of Wat Tahm-rai-saw in Battambang for their friendliness and willingness to answer a bunch of stupid questions.

Mariam Arthur — Mariam has traveled the United States extensively and went global in 2006. Her writing career started in California for regional newspa­pers. She transferred her skills to Hollywood in 2000. She has resided in Cambodia since 2007, where she lives within view of the Royal Palace with her cat, Tigger.

Anne Best — A London-based anthropologist, Anne Best is the author of The Monk, the Farmer, the Merchant, the Mother: Survival Stories of Rural Cambodia. This book tells the true stories of the lives of four simple country people. Now elderly, they reflect on the events of their lives and talk about the traditions of Khmer village life.

Andrew Booth — British-barn Andrew has such eclectic talents and absurd determi­nation, most would agree he is the man to have with them on a desert island. When not obsessing over the logistics of bespoke itineraries for his travel company ABOUTAsia, Andrew can be found spending its profits for the education of Cambodian rural poor through the IAMCAMBODIA Foundation, where he is cofounder and director.

Adam Bray — Adam Bray is a writer and photogra­pher based in Mui Ne, Vietnam. He has contributed to more than a dozen guidebooks for countries in South­east Asia, including Insight Guides’ Laos & Cambodia, DK’s Eyewitness travel guide to Cambodia and Laos, and Thomas Cook’s Travellers Cam­bodia – as well as numerous books in the To Asia With Love guidebook series. He is also regularly featured on CNNGO.com and CNN.com.

Elizabeth Briel — Elizabeth Briel is an artist and travel ­writer with an Asian focus. She has recently illustrated her first book, H is for Hong Kong, photographed her second, Lost & Found: Hong Kong, and is writing another about her quest through Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in search of the perfect paper. Cur­rently she is based in Australia and Asia. In Cambodia, she ran a solo charity project teaching photography to kids while working as a radio DJ.

Janet Brown — The author of Tone Deaf in Bangkok, Janet loves Cambodia from the per­spective of a Bangkok resident but harbors dreams of someday being very, very old in Kratie. Look for her forthcoming Clueless in Cambodia sometime in 2030!

Cristiano Calcagno — Italian-born Cristiano Calcagno lives with his wife in Kompong Thom, where he has worked for many years. In his spare time he conducts field research into the ancient sites around his home province … and rides his bike.

Hing Channarith – Hing Channarith is the CEO and founder of the grassroots NGO the Cambodian Children’s Advocacy Foundation (CCAF). He formerly managed the Kien Khleang National Rehabilitation Centre’s Veterans International Cambodia just outside Phnom Penh for a decade.

Karen Coates — Author of Cambodia Now: Life in the Wake of War, Karen Coates splits her time between the American Southwest and Southeast Asia. She’s covered Cambodia for publications around the world since 1998, when she worked at The Cambodia Daily. She now writes the Ramblin’ Spoon blog about cuisine.

Kent Davis — Kent Davis is a publisher, author, trans­lator, and educator with twenty years of Southeast Asian work and travel ex­perience. In 2005, he founded DatASIA Press and initiated Devata.org, an indepen­dent research project documenting, cataloguing, and analyzing the sacred women whose portraits fill the walls of Angkor Wat and other Khmer temples.

Tiara Delgado — From Los Angeles, California, Tiara Delgado is the founder of Global Vision Video production company. In addition to working on documentaries, she has been a news correspondent for CAM-TV in Long Beach, California, and is currently a contributing journalist for The Khmer Post newspaper, also in Long Beach. She has been traveling to Cambodia since 1999 and has resided for the past two years in Phnom Penh, where she works as an English teacher.

Christine Dimmock — Christine Dimmock is a volunteer tutor for migrants and refugees in Australia, who first traveled to Southeast Asia and Cambodia in the 1990s. Her travel adventures also took her to Afghani­stan in the early part of the last decade.

Kim Fay — Raised in the Pacifie Northwest, Kim Fay first traveled to Southeast Asia in 1991. Since that time, she spent four years living in Vietnam and has traveled back frequently, writing about the region. As an expert on travel literature and Vietnam, she has been a guest speaker on NPR and has written for numerous publications, including Travel + Leisure. She is the author of Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam and creator and series editor of the To Asia With Love guide books. She lives in Los Angeles.

Don Gilliland — Don Gilliland is originally from Orlando, Florida, where he worked as a dishwasher, cook, and record store manager. He moved to Thailand in 1996 to work for Tower Records. He taught English for a few years before getting the retail itch again, opening the Lazy Mango Bookshop in Siem Reap in 2002 and Dasa Books in Bangkok in 2004.

Steve Goodman — Steve Goodman is an American who has lived in Phnom Penh since 2005 working as a professional photogra­pher and part-time guitar player. In 2002, after a twenty-two-year career as a software company executive in San Francisco, he began an exciting adventure traveling extensively and shooting photos throughout South­east Asia.

Antonio Graceffo — Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book The Monk from Brooklyn and the host of the web TV show Martial Arts Odyssey, which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning mar­tial arts in various countries.

Debra Groves — Debra Groves is an Australian photographer working in Cambodia. She left her own wedding photography business on Australia’s Sunshine Coast to move to Cambodia in April 2005, a year after her first visit. She is the founder of the charity Helping Hands.

Anna Hassett — Anna Hassett’s travels to Cambodia have included spending time at the Helping Hands charity outside Siem Reap.

Christina Heyniger — Christina Heyniger is a consultant, writer, and lecturer working with governments, entrepreneurs, and community tourism interests to develop and market eco-nature-adventure tourism products and ser­vices. Her company, Xola Consulting, has supported clients in countries around the world, including Ar­gentina, Brazil, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Peru, India, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, and the United States.

Denise Heywood — Denise Heywood is a lecturer, journalist, author, and photographer. She has lived in Paris, New York, and Cambodia, where she worked as a journalist for three years. Now based in London, she has written books on Luang Prabang and Cambodian dance, including Cambodian Dance: Celebration of the Gods.

Aaron Horwitz – Aaron Horwitz is a Los Angeles­-based filmmaker and writer who has a passion for Asia and spent a good part of 2008 shooting in Thailand. He is also a cofounder of the charity Who Will? We Will! which organizes annual fundraisers for several small, independent NGOs. He is currently working for Causecast and aiming on a return to work in Southeast Asia again soon.

Mark Hotham — In 2001 Mark set off to spend eighteen months traveling India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Laos, and Vietnam before arriving in Cambodia in 2003. Unable to tear himself away, he found work in the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh and settled down for two and a half years. He now lives and works in the travel industry in the UK.

Soumya James — Soumya is writing her doctoral dis­sertation in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University in the United States. She is studying the cultural role of the divine feminine during the Angkor period. Her experiences during fieldwork led to a greater appreciation for the people and places in Cambodia.

Helen Ibbitson Jessup — Helen is an art historian specializing in the architecture and sculpture of Cambodia and Indonesia. She has curated exhibitions that have traveled in the USA, France, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. She is the founding president of Friends of Khmer Culture and a trustee of the United States Indonesia Society. Her publications include Art & Architecture of Cambodia and Masterpieces of the National Museum of Cambodia.

Molly Jester — Molly spent many years working on issues related to homelessness and street-living youth in the United States. She first traveled to Southeast Asia in 2001 and fell in love with the region. She’s the president and founder of Stop Exploitation Now! established in 2005 to fight exploitation and abuse in Southeast Asia.

Phil Lees — Phil is an Australian living in Phnom Penh and an avid foodie. He pens Phnomenon, Cambodia’s first food blog. Lonely Planet’s guide to the greater Mekong called him “the unofficial pimp of Cambodian cuisine.”

Peter Leth — Peter is an American who has explored all corners of Cambodia for both work and play. He currently lives in Phnom Penh with his wife and daughter.

Martin Lum — Martin advises the Victoria government in Australia on health. He loves traveling.

Roy McClean — Roy is currently based in Australia and Asia. He spends his time breathing and making shapes with his body (also known as Chi Gung, Wing Chun, yoga, and meditation). He enjoys riding old bicycles through the back streets of low-rise cities.

Steve McClure — Steve is an award-winning writer/ director and cofounder of Ghost-2-­Eleven Entertainment. His first feature documentary, Rain Falls from Earth: Surviving Cambodia’s Darkest Hour, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Sam Waterston and features personal stories from victims of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1970s Cambodia.

Doug Mendel — A former volunteer firefighter in Colorado, Doug first came to Cam­bodia in 1997 and has since donated equipment to six of Cambodia’s fire stations, including two fire trucks. He also set up the Douglas Mendel Cambodian Relief Fund.

Howie Nielsen — A former dentist in the United States by profession, Howie is a passionate bird-watcher and now trains local guides for the Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation in Cambodia.

Caroline Nixon — Serving as a medical student elec­tive in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1980 started Caroline’s passion for travel­ing throughout Southeast Asia. Her favorite destinations are Myanmar and Cambodia. Her favorite pastimes include floating on rivers, cooking, and eating with friends.

Dougald O’Reilly — Dougald received his PhD in archaeology in 1999 and was hired the same year by UNESCO to teach at the Royal University of Fine Arts and pursue his research interests in Iron Age settlements in Cambodia. He founded Heritage Watch International, an NGO that promotes the preservation of heritage assets in Cambodia, in 2003. The author of Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia, he is currently a lecturer at The University of Sydney in Australia.

Joanna Owen — Following Joanna’s first experi­ence with Siem Reap, she made it her home and runs a successful responsible-tourism business with her partner, Thomas at Angkor Hotels. She has just completed an MA in Responsible Tourism Management and set up HOPE, a UK-based charity supporting young adults in Cambodia.

Daniela Papi — Daniela is the founder of PEPY, a hybrid organization encompassing an education development organization and an edu-venture tour company based in Siem Reap. She has been living in Cambodia since 2005 and is always looking for ways to escape the cities-often by bicycle on one of PEPY’s bicycle adventures.

Robert Philpotts — Robert has been writing about Cambodia since UNAMIC times, “but I consider, as far as my books are concerned, what I produce is a bit like white rice without prahok. This is why I spice the texts with pen and ink drawings.” His books include A Guide to Phnom Penh, The Coast of Cambodia, A Post of Independence, and his latest, South of the Heart.

Socheata Poeuv — Socheata made her filmmaking debut with the award-winning film New Year Baby, which was broadcast nationally in 2008. She was formerly on the staff at NBC’s Dateline and TODAY shows and ABC’s World News Tonight. She’s also the CEO of Khmer Legacies, an organization whose mission is to document the Cambodian genocide through videotaped testimonies by having the younger generation interview the older generation.

Jan Polatschek — Jan is a native New Yorker and now lives in Thailand. Using Bangkok as his hub, he travels in Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. He writes about his travel adventures and posts photos on his website, and several of his essays appear in To Asia With Love guidebooks from ThingsAsian Press.

Geoff Pyle — After living in Cambodia for a while, Geoff finds it hard to keep away from the place-the people, the history, the landscape, the food … though it is the architecture, the old stuff and the 1960s stuff, that really gets him going.

Nick Ray — Nick hails from Watford, UK, and after trying his hand attour leading he hooked up with Lonely Planet in 1998 and has worked on more than twenty titles since, including Lonely Planet Cambodia. He lives in Phnom Penh and leads and lectures on tours for top travel companies and international organizations. He also works as a loca­tion scout and manager for television and film. Projects have included Tomb Raider, Two Brothers, and countless documentaries for the BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic.

Dawn Rooney — Dawn is an independent scholar and an art historian specializing in South­east Asia. She has authored nine books on the art and culture of the region. An American now residing in Bangkok, her Angkor: An Introduction to the Temples was first published in 1994.

Geoff Ryman — Geoff is a Canadian living in London. He has published eight novels and a volume of short fiction and has coedited a collection of Canadian fiction and a volume of stories that are collaborations between writers and scientists. His novels and short stories have won fourteen awards. His book on Cambodia, The King’s Last Song, was inspired by a visit in 2001 to an archaeological dig at Angkor Wat. He has twice run workshops in Cambodia in creative writing.

Anita Sach — Anita works as a freelance travel writer and editor, develops tour programs to Asia for tour operators, and leads group tours to the region. She is the author of guidebooks on Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangkok and regularly writes online guides to Phnom Penh, Saigon, Hanoi, and Bangkok.

Sheila Scoville — Sheila lives in Austin, Texas, playing in her band No Mas Bodas, selling music at Waterloo Records, and thinking about her trip to Asia at least five times a day. She misses the scenery, cheap massages, kindness of complete strangers, and street food (especially sticky rice desserts) the most.

Lundi Seng — Lundi is a doctor practicing rehabilitation, occupational, and physical therapy in Long Beach, California. In January 1979 he fled with his family to Thailand and resettled in Michigan in December 1980.

David Shamash — For the last fifteen years property company director David has been donning his backpack and traveling to the farthest reaches of Cambodia by boat, pickup, or motodop. As a board member of Mekong Blue in Stung Treng, he helped develop the project so that it now supports a large seg· ment of the local community.

Gordon Sharpless — Based in Siem Reap, Gordon has lived and worked in Cambodia for nearly a decade. He is the writer and publisher of the Tales of Asia website and since 2004 has owned and operated Two Dragons Guesthouse in Siem Reap. He is married with two children.

Robert Tompkins — Robert is a Canadian writer, editor, and educator. A regular contributor to ThingsAsian.com, he and his wife, Doris, live in Cedar Valley, Ontario, a rural community thirty-five miles north of Toronto. Bob publishes articles internationally through his freelance agency, Travel Ink. He is also the editor of Futurescapes. Currently, he is involved in an online editing and tutorial service called The Wordsdoctor.

Georgiana Treasure-Evans — Georgiana is a mother, writer, yoga teacher, and healing arts practitioner. During her four years in Cambodia she traveled widely in Southeast Asia with her husband and two small children. She now lives in Herefordshire, UK.

Loung Ung — Loung is the author of two mem­airs: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers and Lucky Child. A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind.

Glyn Vaughan — Glyn is director of All Ears Cambodia, a local NGO fighting against ear disease and deafness. It focuses on the weakest and hardest hit, providing free medical treatment for some of the most vulnerable groups in Cambodia.

Dickon Verey — Dickon lived in Cambodia from 2003 until the beginning of 2006. During that time he volunteered for a number of NGOs. His main work was building a youth and community center in the village of Ksach Poy near Battambang for FEDA. He now lives in Vietnam.

Christine Thuy-Anh Vu — Christine writes and edits work about the arts, culture, and science. Serv­ing as art adviser to several interna­tional collections, she has also been an executive director to a Vietnam-based international arts organization. A Fulbright Fellow in Contemporary Vietnamese Art, she has received other honors and fellowships for her research in Europe and the USA in psychology, gastronomy, and contemporary art.

Ray Waddington — Ray is the president of The Peoples of the World Foundation, a secular, apolitical, nonprofit organization based in the USA. He established the foundation to fund educational scholarships for indigenous people after witnessing their lack of educational opportunities and the negative impact this has on political representation. He recently cel­ebrated his one-millionth kilometer of international travel and is prepar­ing a travel/humor book based on his experiences.

Georgie Walsh — Georgie first went to Phnom Penh to work on a memoir set there in the 1980s. This fell through, but she kept herself busy by editing, teaching, exporting textiles, starting a soup kitchen, co-founding an NGO, and selling some paintings, just to name a few activities. More recently she’s been based in Bangkok and Luang Prabang, where she is working as a freelance journalist.

Peter Walter — Peter Walter is the Southeast Asia managing director for L.EX Consult­ing. A native of Lakewood, Ohio, he has lived with his family in Bangkok for nearly ten years. Whenever he gets the chance, he enjoys spending time exploring the region with his wife, Lyle, and their three boys.

Debbie Watkins — With husband Marc, Debbie created Carpe Diem Travel in 2001 after a ca­reer in banking in the UK. Carpe Diem is a social enterprise travel business, reinvesting profits in the communities its customers visit.

Rachel Wildblood — UK-born, Rachel is a freelance consultant specializing in waste and environmental management. She worked for various NGOs in Cambo­dia over a four-year period from 2005 after arriving as a volunteer.

Mick Yates — Mick is an innovative leadership researcher, teacher, and author. In 2001, Mick was elected to Save the Children’s U.S. board of trustees. Reflecting a long-term interest in children’s issues, the Yates family supports a Cambodian school devel­opment program in a remote area of the country.

Ronnie Yimsut — Born and raised in Siem Reap, Ronnie fled Cambodia after witnessing the massacre of nearly his entire family under the Khmer Rouge regime. Ron­nie is currently a senior landscape architect for the U.S. Forest Service, a published author, and a social and environmental justice issues activist with groups such as Project Enlighten and Bakong Technical College in Cambodia.

Ray Zepp — Ray came to Cambodia in 1995 as part of the Georgetown University project to rebuild the National Uni­versity of Management. His travels in the hinterland prompted him to author his Cambodia Less Travelled and Experiencing Cambodia. He now resides in Battambang and has written the tourist guide Around Battambang. He has also started the new Dewey International University in Battambang.

By Darryl Collins - Independent Scholar
Reprinted with the permission of UDAYA – Journal of Khmer Studies

Banteay Chhmar, CAMBODIA — In early March 1924, an automobile entourage had already passed through Battambang, Mongkol Borei and Sisophon before arriving at Banteay Chhmar. Photographs – possibly taken by George Groslier [footnotes at bottom - i] (1887-1945) himself, of governors’ residences, schools, a post office [ii] and court witness their passage en route to Banteay Chhmar.

School, teacher & students at Sisophon in 1924. © National Museum of Cambodia

However, it is most likely the photograph of the arrival of the motorcade on the 9 March 1924 was restaged for posterity (top photo) as a wooden glass-plate camera and tripod would almost certainly have travelled as part of the on-board luggage. Presumably the camera was positioned, and either a mechanical timer used, or someone on hand recorded this event. Parts of a glass-plate camera (possibly equipment used by Groslier), remain in the collection of the National Museum of Cambodia (below).

Incomplete glass-plate camera (equipment possibly used by George Groslier) Collection: National Museum of Cambodia

A hand-written caption under the image states ‘Arrivée à Banteai Chhmar des premières automobiles parvenues au temple’: stamped and dated ‘Mars 1924’, is further registered as ‘H181; Dim (Sunday) 9-3-1924’.

The cars display numbered licence plates: P.P.466 (rear vehicle) and P.P.72 (front vehicle). [iii] A car expert has suggested that

“the PP466 car looks to be very similar to an early 1900-29 Renault (Frenchmade); the identifying feature being the unusual engine bonnet, which had the radiator behind the engine on the firewall, rather than up front behind the grill. However, I have found other French manufacturers La Buire and Clement-Bayard also used this design around this time.”

Further, “on a second look at these cars I noticed that the car nearest to the camera has solid steel wheels which dates this car closer to 1924, the other with wire spokes, probably a little earlier.” [iv]

Illustrated advertisement: Sociéte des Transports et Messageries d’Indochine: Phnom Penh-Saigon: Auto-cars voyageurs. 1928.

Advertisements for auto-cars (1928 & 1930) include maps depicting routes ex Phnom Penh via Sisophon across the Siamese border to the rail-head at Aranyaprathet. The trip in 1924 would have been a hot and arduous one, as the temple lies some 60km from Sisophon, and even today can only be reached by an uneven dirt road.

Illustrated advertisement: Sociéte des Transports et Messageries d’Indochine: Phnom Penh-Saigon: Auto-cars voyageurs, 1930.

Personages in the Banteay Chhmar arrival photograph remain a mystery; of the eight figures in the two cars, five are almost certainly Cambodians (interpreters, guides and drivers); only three appear to be Caucasian – one in the rear car and two seated in the front car, turning to face the camera. Assuming the cars departed from Phnom Penh, together with the photographic evidence and museum interests at heart, one of the foreigners in the picture must be George Groslier.

A fourth foreign figure leaning on a walking stick, stands poised as if to welcome the group (was he resident and already working at the temple)? The sturdy wooden thatched pavilion in front of the vehicles surrounded by a fence with a decorative gate certainly lends an air of permanence to the site. Set in the dry, freshly leveled earth are three sandstone heads (deva) with newly planted native vegetation to provide a suggestion of a garden path approach to the sala (open air structure). The stone heads would have originated from the figures of gods and demons grasping the serpent Vasuki that originally flanked one of the causeways to the temple compound.

The only other witnesses to this event are three shadowy figures of curious local Khmer (to the left of the vehicles) and one solitary figure under a small thatch hut to the right, viewing the arrival of the motorcade. The comparatively short shadows under the cars suggest an early afternoon arrival.

Governor’s residence, Sisophon, 1924. © National Museum of Cambodia

George Groslier prophetically wrote in 1924, “The collection of photographs owned by the Musée Albert Sarraut is of inestimable value. Fortunate acquisitions allowed us to gather documentation over the last 30 years or so. Most of the images are purely documentary. The conditions under which some of them were taken and the difficulties associated with their conservation in Indochina, has resulted in some low contrast prints, however, they are of sufficient quality for study.”[v]

School, teacher & students, Mongkol Borei. © National Museum of Cambodia

Although photographs of the Banteay Chhmar complex were taken as early as 1914, [vi] ten years later in 1924, [vii] and again in 1932, [viii] Groslier was not to write of the temple until some four years after in his 1936 article “Troisième recherche sur les Cambodgiens” [ix], followed the next year by “Banteai Chhmar, ville ancienne du Cambodge.” [x]

Courthouse, Sisophon, 1924. © National Museum of Cambodia

George Groslier’s son, Bernard Philippe Groslier, writing of his father, headed the tribute: ‘George Groslier, French painter, writer and archaeologist: 4 February 1887-18 June 1945 (Phnom Penh, Cambodge).’ [xi]

In addition, could be added the terms ‘museologist’ and ‘photographer,’ for as the founding director of what is now the National Museum of Cambodia, the cataloguing and documenting of his milieu and the growing collection of masterpieces of Khmer art for public display, is arguably his greatest legacy.

References cited

Anon., undated catalogue: Musée A. Sarraut: Service Photographique: Inventaire des Clichés, National Museum of Cambodia.

Groslier, George, Hanoi, 1924. Catalogue Général du Musée du Cambodge (Musée Albert Sarraut).

Groslier, George, ‘Troisième recherche sur les Cambodgiens’, BEFEO XXXV : 159-206.

Groslier, George, Paris, 1937. ‘Bantéai Chhmar, ville ancienne du Cambodge’, L’Illustration, 3 April, no. 4909.

Various contributors, Paris, 1992. Disciplines Croisées : Hommage à Bernard Philippe Groslier, Editions de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Direction générale de la Coopération culturelle, scientifique et technique.

Footnotes

[ii] The post office at Svay Sisophon was originally among a number of telegraphic and postal services handed over by Siam to the French colonial administration at the time of retrocession of the provinces of Battambang, Sisophon and Siem Reap in 1907.

[iii] P.P. presumably standing for Phnom Penh; these vehicles were most likely rented for the occasion; automobile taxi services commence operations slightly later in Phnom Penh on 1 May 1925.

[iv] Quotes courtesy Gordon McPherson, vintage car enthusiast, Adelaide, South Australia.

[v] Groslier 1924.

[vi] ibid., nos. 670-716.

[vii] Anon., undated catalogue, National Museum of Cambodia, L43-55; P57-63; R99-102.

[viii] ibid., L86-133.

[ix] Groslier 1936.

[x] Groslier 1937: 352-357

[xi] Various contributors 1992: 59.

Banteay Chhmar government building, 1924. © National Museum of Cambodia

About UDAYA – Journal of Khmer Studies

Udaya is the leading scholarly journal of Khmer culture and art. Since 2005, Friends of Khmer Culture has sponsored production of the journal, edited by .

The Sanskrit word udaya means “rising sun”. The UDAYA Journal also represents a dawn and rebirth for the reemergence of Khmer scholarship after decades of civil unrest in Cambodia. The journal includes articles from leading experts on both the cultural past of Cambodia as well as modern ideas about the evolution of Khmer society.

Udaya is an annual publication with articles in Khmer, English and French. For PDF information and a Table of Contents from each issue,  click the following links:  Issue I, 2000; Issue II, 2001; Issue III, 2002; Issue IV, 2003; Issue V, 2004; Issue VI, 2005; Issue VII, 2006; Issue VIII, 2007; Issue IX, 2008

For info on subscriptions or single issue purchases please email udaya@khmerculture.net.

One of eight Lokesvara images originally carved on the temple walls of Banteay Chhmar. Four of these were looted in 1992 (see missing wall on right). The Global Heritage Fund and other agencies (see links below) are now actively preserving and restoring the historic temple.

Banteay Chhmar Information Resources

Global Heritage Fund

Heritage Watch International

Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network

Banteay Chhmar Heritage Conference Website

Archaeological Institute of America – Banteay Chhmar Site Preservation Grant

Article – Banteay Chhmar: healing the scars of looting

Article – Banteay Chhmar – Ancient Khmer City in Cambodia (1933 article)

3D Architectural reconstruction of Banteay Chhmar by Dr. Pheakday Nguonphan.

Article by Kent Davis – Devata.org

PARIS, FRANCE – The majestic temple of Angkor Wat is an icon of the medieval Khmer civilization that once flourished in Southeast Asia. But situated 110 kilometers northwest of the well-known Angkor group, experts believe another fabulous monument also holds vital clues to the mysteries of the Khmer Empire. At the behest of the Global Heritage Fund, experts recently gathered at the Guimet Museum to insure the future of the temple of Banteay Chhmar.

One of eight Lokesvara images originally carved on the temple walls of Banteay Chhmar. Four of these were looted in 1992 (see missing wall on right).

Banteay Chhmar, also called the Citadel of the Cats, lies hidden in a remote corner of Cambodia, shielded by the Dangrek Mountains to the north. Its isolated location is exactly why archaeologists and conservators are so enthusiastic about the site. In the 800 years since it was built, Banteay Chhmar has slowly collapsed, falling victim to ancient trees, invasive jungle foliage and modern looters.

But archaeologists know that the structural collapse has preserved many artistic elements, much like a time capsule. Banteay Chhmar temple remains the least-damaged repository of art commissioned by the Khmer Empire’s last great king, Jayavarman VII, who converted Cambodia to Buddhism, which remains the national religion today.

GHF conservation of the face towers at Banteay Chhmar.

Conserving Cambodian History at Banteay Chhmar

In 2007, the Global Heritage Fund (GHF) recognized the critical need for conservation, planning and protection at Banteay Chhmar. Working with Cambodian officials, GHF initiated a conservation project at the temple. British architect John Sanday, GHF’s Director for Asia and Pacific Programs, moved to the site to personally direct the work, and to oversee training for professional team of Khmer conservators to restore their nation’s priceless heritage.

GHF’s Banteay Chhmar project is the first temple restoration project led by a Khmer team.

The Cambodian government and conservation groups actively support GHF’s conservation efforts. Governor Oung Oeung of Banteay Meanchey Province and Director General Ok Sophon, Department of Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MoCFA) recently hosted the second international Banteay Chhmar conference at the site, attracting nearly 200 participants.

In addition to GHF’s work stabilizing and preserving the temple structure, two other groups are working with local residents to promote social programs; Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network promotes eco-tourism, while Heritage Watch International implements heritage education programs for visitors, guides and local residents.

In addition to the main temple, the vast Banteay Chhmar site includes a large baray (ceremonial reservoir), canals and many smaller temples.

GHF Conference at Musée Guimet Rallies Support for Heritage Conservation

A Royal Cambodian Ballet dancer.

On November 30th, 2010 the Global Heritage Fund organized a special meeting at the Guimet Museum, which preserves one of the most extraordinary collections of Khmer art in the world.

Following a traditional dance blessing by member of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, a group of distinguished speakers discussed the importance of saving global heritage for future generations. Presenters included Cambodian Ambassador to France, H.E. Mr. Uch Kiman; the U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion, and Jacques Gies, President of the Musée Guimet, who just had returned from Cambodia.

John Sanday presented his ongoing work restoring Banteay Chhmar with professional team of Khmer conservators. Banteay Chhnar is the first temple conservation project in Cambodia to be led by a Khmer team of professionals training their fellow Khmers. Mr. Sanday also described how local communities are essential to the site’s protection and development to ensure long-term success for the project.

Dr. Peter Sharrock from University of London SOAS presented intriguing research on the unique Khmer art and iconography of Banteay Chhmar that the GHF project is now revealing to the world. (more info below)

Banteay Chhmar is enclosed by a one kilometer carved bas-relief wall depicting the entire history of the Khmer kingdom.

UNESCO Recognition – The Next Key Step for Banteay Chhmar

In 1992, UNESCO has recognized the 400 sq. km. Angkor area as one of the world’s most important archaeological sites.

The vast site of Banteay Chhmar is now among Cambodia’s top-listed sites for nomination to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This little-know and rarely visited area contains one of the great architectural masterpieces of Southeast Asia, and its main temple is one of the culminating monuments of the Khmer Kingdom’s epic Angkorian Period.

Suffering from 800 years of neglect, the towers, chambers and intricate bas relief carvings of the temple have slowly collapsed to the encroaching jungle, as well as suffering from aggressive looters. Banteay Chhmar is in critical need of a master plan, pro-active conservation and increased protection, which is the exact mission government and non-profit agencies now pursue.

Early Banteay Chhmar temple plan by George Groslier.

Exploring the History and Mystery of Banteay Chhmar

Always remote, Banteay Chhmar has attracted explorers for more than a century. Etienne Aymonier first visited the site around 1883 followed by Lunet de Lajonquière around 1903. According to French archaeologist George Groslier,

“both noted that of all the Khmer monuments that they had explored Banteay Chhmar was the most ruined, the largest, the most chaotic…and the most indecipherable.”

On January 9, 1914, Groslier returned to the site to make a detailed survey, where he wrote:

“It took me ten days of uninterrupted work, from dawn to dusk, to survey Banteay Chhmar. No other temple in Cambodia is so vast or lies in such ruin…nowhere else have I felt such deep emotion studying the stones on site and re-erecting them one by one on paper.”

Groslier continued documenting the site, with the first major article for the public appearing in French in 1937 (click for George Groslier’s Banteay Chhmar article in English).

Professor Sharrock of SOAS now notes that the consecration of Banteay Chhmar dates to 1216 CE. Sharrock, a specialist in the religious transformation under the reign of the last great Khmer King Jayavarman VII, sees this unrestored temple as perhaps the greatest and least-damaged repository of Buddhist iconography from that era. His hope is that it will tell scholars even more about the Khmer than the state temple of the Bayon, which is in the Angkor group.

According Sharrock, images at Banteay Chhmar contain strong evidence for a cult of the supreme tantric Buddhist deity Hevajra, with significant participation by female practitioners, women known as Yoginis. According to Sharrock’s research, Hevajra cults were widespread at the time, reaching their peak in what is now China in 1260 CE with the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan’s consecration to Hevajra. Jayavarman VII’s devotion to Hevajra was therefore not unusual, but it does reveal the extent that this new religion influenced Southeast Asian beliefs.

Meanwhile, the iconography in the central sanctuary of Banteay Chhmar suggests that Vajrasattva and Herukas may have been at the core of this royal tantric cult. A frieze on one of the temple’s characteristic face towers may portraying the whole body of the crowned 4-faced deity sitting in the face-towers themselves.

Architectural reconstruction of Banteay Chhmar by architect Olivier Cunin, funded by the Robert Kiln Charitable Trust (UK) via GHF.

Restoring an Architectural Wonder

GHF has also employed the talents of French architect Dr. Olivier Cunin in creating 3-D archaeological reconstructions of the Banteay Chhmar complex. Cunin collaborated with Japanese photographer Baku Saito in 2005 to issue “The Face Towers of Banteay Chmar”, documenting this extraordinary temple.

The Banteay Chhmar site is now open to visitors. Interested travelers can also support the non-profit Global Heritage Fund, Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network, and Heritage Watch International with tax deductible contributions.

GHF team doing a temporary reassembly of a vault at Banteay Chhmar.

Banteay Chhmar Information Resources

Global Heritage Fund

Heritage Watch International

Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network

Banteay Chhmar Heritage Conference Website

Archaeological Institute of America – Banteay Chhmar Site Preservation Grant

Article – Banteay Chhmar: healing the scars of looting

Article – Banteay Chhmar – Ancient Khmer City in Cambodia (1933 article)

Le Ballet Royal du Cambodge Paris performance.

By Kent Davis – Devata.org

PARIS — At the beginning of time, an extraordinary Hindu legend relates how the forces of good and evil worked together to create Amrita, the nectar of immortality. Today, humankind still seeks this magical elixir and Khmer dancers continue to recreate the tale.

The Royal Ballet of Cambodia will perform in Paris on October 10, 2010 with the support and collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. Their performance is directly connected to their country’s thousand-year-old royal tradition of dance through the choreography, which was arranged by Cambodian Princess Buppha Devi.

Cambodian dancers in full costume.

The Princess, a former prima ballerina in this sacred art, is the daughter of former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, and the sister of the present King Sihamoni. At its origin, this dance form was only performed as an offering for gods and royalty. It has only been presented as a performance art in modern times.

“The Legend of the Apsara Mera” presents two Brahmanic tales that became integral to Khmer culture. Act I is the “Churning of the Sea of Milk” (“Le mythe du barattage de la mer de lait”). While the myth originated in India, Khmer interpretation and portrayal are unique, focusing on the naga, or cosmic serpent, and Vishnu at the center of the image balancing the forces of good (devas on the right below) and evil (asuras on the left).

Angkor Wat features the largest artistic representation of the Hindu legend of "the churning of the ocean of milk" on Earth. Visnu appears at the center with the naga Vasuki wrapped around Mt. Mandara. Vishnu also incarnates as his avatar, the turtle Kurma below, to provide a base. The demons, or asuras, pull on Visuki to the left as gods, or devas, pull on the right. This churns the ocean to manifest magical objects, including the apsaras that fly over the scene.

Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia is home to the largest artistic rendering of the “churning the sea of milk” on Earth; a bas-relief panel 49 yards wide. In considering the legend, the Cambodian dance history book Earth in Flower by Paul Cravath quotes French archaeologist Bernard-Philippe Groslier’s observation that the naga is the “god of the waters” that “haunts the whole of Khmer art, from the endlessly repeated theme of the churning of the Sea of Milk down to the most insignificant architectural element which will accommodate it.”

In addition to the elixir of immortality, the art of Angkor Wat reveals that something else associated with Khmer culture manifested from the ocean: the apsaras or celestial women who fly above the scene. Khmer art routinely features women and goddesses, with temples like Angkor Wat honoring women, even to the exclusion of men. The female dance tradition of Cambodia is closely associated with these ancient beliefs.

Performance by the Royal Cambodian Ballet. Copyright 2010 Anders Jiras.

Act II presents “The Legend of Kambu and Mera” (“La légende de Kambu et de Méra”). Quoting historian Thierry Solange, Earth in Flower describes how this legend establishes that “the origin of the kings of Cambodia goes back to the union of the hermit Kambu Svāyambhuva, eponymic ancestor of the Kambujas, with the celestial nymph Merā….” As Cravath explains, Svayambhuva means “self-creating,” and Merā was an apsaras or heavenly dancer given to him by Shiva.

The royal troupe features elaborate costumes, including beautiful new crowns replicating the ancient styles worn by women in the stone portraits at Angkor Wat.

A modern crown created for this special performance of the Royal Cambodian Ballet and a crowned devata seen on the West Gopura of Angkor Wat. Photo left - Copyright 2010 Anders Jiras. Right - Kent Davis

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Act I: The myth of the Churning of the Sea of Milk

Act II: The Legend of Kambu and Mera

Exécution musicale - Ngornly Seang, Pruong Proeung, Kong Chum, Kol Nol, Sok Chhem, Kimsour san

Chant – Borin Yann, Marey Doung, Sarath Hun

Danse – Phirum Meas, Chamroeumina Chap, Chansoda Chen, Sokhoeum Sok, Pech Heung, Viphearun Yann, Mary Prom, Savin Sam, Sathya Sam, Danida Muong, Borena Chhin, Thida Kao, Samphors Chamroeum, Phirum Keo, Limsothea Sam, Dalis Ou, Lin Seng, Vichivi Praseth, Vichheka Praseth, Chamroeuntola Chap, Chanmoly Vuth, Sovanney Samart, Khankanha Ram, Leakhena Im, Linda Hem, Sophy Yan, Chumnit Penh, Thavrak Seur, Yeng Yang

Chorégraphie – S.A.R. Norodom Buppha Devi, Proeung Chieng

Chorégraphie-Costumes – Soth Somaly

Interprète - Kor Borin

Costumes – Sim Mantha, Pen Sokhuon, Ros Yaran,

Décor -Sek Savuth

Soutien - Ministère de la Culture et des Beaux-Arts du Royaume du Cambodge, Ministère de la Culture et des Beaux-Arts du Royaume du Cambodge

PARIS

Sunday, 10/10 2010 16:00
Sunday, 10/10 2010 20:00

PARIS TICKET INFORMATION – FRENCH

PARIS TICKET INFORMATION – ENGLISH

BRUSSELS

BRUSSELS TICKET INFORMATION – FRENCH

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

At the ancient Khmer temple of Angkor Wat, an American artist discovered a special peace that she carried throughout her life…and beyond.

Angkor Wat sunrise. © Copyright Gary Ng.

By STEPHEN GOLDFARB, Alabama Heritage Magazine

IN 1926 LUCILLE SINCLAIR DOUGLASS (1878-1935) visited the ancient Cambodian ruins at Angkor for the first time. That December the forty-eight-year-old artist wrote to her friend Leona Caldwell of her first impressions of this far-off and exotic place:

“Angkor is one of the really great experiences of my life-a more intellectual than emotional experience — not that it left me cold, quite the contrary — but it was more of an uplift — an inspiration.

“Our stay — longer than most tourists — was all too short — Angkor Wat alone requires years of study — living with understanding — a few days seems but a mockery.

“I have never had a place affect me so peculiarly. . . . I shall go back for a time as long as I can stand it and do further study on the spot.

“You see the ruins are set in the midst of the jungle — which held them in its clutches for so many centuries that it still seems jealous of them.”

Douglass described the Angkor climate as “the most trying [that] I have ever encountered … [with its] great humidity and high temperatures — an oppressive heaviness which brought all the moisture to the surface [of one's skin] and left you exhausted with the slightest effort.” And this complaint comes from a woman who grew up in central Alabama.

Douglass rendered Angkor Wat's western entrance in 1927 in this 10 7/8" x 14 1/2" etching. Courtesy US Library of Congress.

But Douglass did return the very next year.

She spent five months there with the purpose of rendering the temples and other ruins in etchings, which could capture their grandeur and intricacy in a way that photography could not. These etchings were first exhibited in April 1928 in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the French ambassador, and then at the French Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931. The story of just how Douglass made her way from the Black Belt of Alabama to the jungles of Cambodia is one of equal parts natural talent, hard work, and fortuitous circumstances.

LUCILLE DOUGLASS WAS BORN ON NOVEMBER 4, 1878, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the daughter of Walton Eugene Douglass (a Civil War veteran) and Mary Sinclair (Mollie) Douglass. She grew up in a large house but in the genteel poverty that characterized so much of the nineteenth-century, postbellum South.

Little is known about Douglass’s early years, except that she was a sickly child who spent a great deal of time reading, favoring books about travels to distant and exotic lands. In interviews she gave after gaining a measure of fame, Douglass singled out the all-but-forgotten travel stories of Hezekiah Butterworth — whose seventeen volumes of Zig-Zag Journeys enjoyed considerable popularity among young readers near the end of the nineteenth century — as having stimulated her yearning for adventure.

Lucille Douglass - 1896. Courtesy Birmingham Public Library, Leona Caldwell Collection.

Douglass received her A.B. (baccalaureate degree) in 1895 at the age of seventeen at Alabama Conference Female College, a forerunner of Huntingdon College, where her mother taught. Unfortunately, records do not survive to describe Douglass’s course of study, though it seems safe to assume that she continued to receive art training from her mother, a practice begun when Douglass was a child.

In 1899 Douglass moved to Birmingham, where she made a living as both an artist and an art teacher. She occupied a studio in the old Watts Building between 1901 and 1908. The 1907 city directory listed her as a “china painter.”

Years later Douglass made reference to the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of roses that she painted on teacups and other crockery. The sale of this china, as well as hand-painted place cards, financed her future art training. In 1908 she banded with fellow artists Delia Dryer, Hannah Elliot, Carrie Hill, and four other female artists as founding members of the Birmingham Art Club.

Lucille Douglass in her studio with Hannah Elliot, 1907. Courtesy Birmingham Public Library, Hill Ferguson Collection.

Even before Douglass left for Europe in 1909, she sought art training beyond what was available in Birmingham. For several summers she attended the Art Students League in New York City, though there is no record with whom she studied. Between the years 1909 and 1912, she received art training in Europe.

In Paris she studied with Lucien Simon and René Menard. Of greater importance was the time she spent with Alexander Robinson. With his classes she traveled all over Europe-Holland, Spain, and Italy-and North Africa and became his assistant and an art teacher. After her first year with Robinson, she asked him for a frank evaluation of her work; his reply was indeed frank: “You have less talent than many, but you will go farther than the rest because once you undertake a thing you see it through.”

Lucille Douglass in Paris, 1911. Courtesy Birmingham Public Library, Hill Ferguson Collection.

A collection of her drawings and pastel sketches held in the Birmingham Museum of Art reflect her traditional art training, which emphasized the anatomically correct rendering of the human figure, and depict the local folkways of the places she visited. With two exhibits of her paintings displayed in Paris in 1911, she was on her way to establishing herself as an artist.

By 1913 Douglass had returned from Europe. She spent that summer with artist Isabelle Percy (who married George P. West in 1916), painting in the northern part of Percy’s home state of California.

World War I ended any further hopes of European travel and training and proved a trying time. City directories show that she kept a residence and studio in Birmingham from 1915 to 1917. Some sources claim that she took training as a nurse and worked with soldiers who were “shell shocked,” and that she herself had some kind of mental breakdown, for which she spent time recovering in Texas and California.

Her life took a fresh turn in 1920, when the forty-two-year-old Douglass accepted a position with the Methodist Missionary Society. She was employed to oversee a workshop in Shanghai in which Chinese women hand-colored an early form of photographic slide used by speakers to publicize the missionary work of the society. The job did not absorb all of her time and energy apparently, for she became first a writer and then associate editor of the weekly English-language publication, Shanghai Times, a position she held until 1924. During these years she traveled extensively in China as a member of the press. These trips were often dangerous, as China was in the midst of revolution and civil war.

While in China, Douglass became close friends with two female writers whose books she would eventually illustrate. Florence Wheelock Ayscough was born in Shanghai to missionary parents and educated in New England. She became a scholar of China and its literature, writing books about China and translating the works of early Chinese poets. Four of her books were illustrated by Douglass, the first three with ink drawings and the last with etchings.

Helen Churchill Candee

The second friend Douglass made in China was Helen Churchill Candee, who had, among other things, the distinction of surviving the 1912 sinking of the HMS Titanic. Roughly two decades apart in age, the two traveled together from November 1926 until January 1927.

This journey led them through the Far East-first to Indochina, then to Siam, and on to Java and BaIi. This adventure resulted in the 1927 publication of Candee’s book, New Journeys In Old Asia, for which Douglass executed twenty-one etchings. It was also on this journey that Douglass first visited Angkor. Candee had been there before and had published the book Angkor the Magnificent in 1924.

Angkor was the seat of the ancient Khmer empire from the ninth to the fifteenth century and was abandoned, only to be rediscovered in the 186Os by French explorers after Cambodia became part of the French overseas empire. Angkor — best known for the two complexes, Angkor Wat and the larger Angkor Thom — was the center of what is considered the most prosperous and sophisticated civilization in the history of Southeast Asia.

Angkor was not only a religious center but also the administrative center of the Khmer empire, with a vast system of reservoirs, canals, and moats-the basis of an extensive irrigation system for agriculture. Eventually the Khmers were overthrown, and the jungle reclaimed Angkor, though the ruins remained a pilgrimage site for Buddhists.

Etching of the Bayon rendered by Lucille Douglas in 1927, measuring 15 9/16" X 11 13/16". Courtesy Library of Congress.

Douglass saw more in Angkor than simply an exotic artistic subject. She gave detailed lectures on Angkor in both the United States and Europe. She also spoke on Angkor at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the School of Oriental Studies at the University of London, the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London), and at Oxford University, as well as many less august bodies. On January 10, 1930, she gave a talk at the National Geographic Society entitled “Angkor — A Royal Passion.” The brochure announcing the lecture gave the following description:

Knowledge of present conditions at the site of the ancient Cambodian metropolis will come to the Society through this interesting speaker, writer and artist, who will illustrate her talk with lantern slides, colored by herself, and motion pictures.

…In company with French archeologists Miss Douglass carefully examined the new excavations…. Her account will be authoritative, as well as entertaining.

For the last years of her life, Douglass made New York her home base, though she traveled frequently to Europe and occasionally visited Birmingham. From November 1928 until late spring of 1929, she was a faculty member of a “floating university.” On the ship President Wilson, Douglass taught art history, sketching, and painting to a hundred “boys and girls” of unspecified age as the ship sailed around the world.

An article in the November 6, 1928, New York Evening Post referred to Douglass as “one of America’s best known painters and etchers” and stated that the ship’s itinerary would include such exotic places as Siam, BaIi, Java, and Singapore, as well as “all the cities … on the more usual type of tour.”

In a letter to her friend, Leona Galdwell, Douglass wrote of her “floating university” experience: “I am glad … to have had the experience, though I should not care to repeat it.”

Lucille Douglas poses for a portrait in North Africa, date unknown. Courtesy Birminham Public Library Archives.

In a 1933 interview she gave to the New York World Telegram, a fifty-five-year-old Douglass reflected over her life of art and adventure:

I have made my life as I wanted it. I have given up marriage and home ties, because I know they would not be possible with my career. I am sorry not to have a home, but one must not be greedy. I have planned my life just as it is, and I am content with it.

After an illness that lasted several months Douglass died on September 26, 1935, in the home of a friend in Andover, Massachusetts.

Her remains were cremated and, in the following year, flown to Angkor where they were spread around what was described as “a magnificent mango tree.”

Under a spreading mango tree
(Encircling continuity)
There lies for all eternity
What particles survive the flame
Of one who now is but a name.

Civilizations long forgot
Left beauty in old Angkor Vat
An artist loved it well and true:
In paint and print she saved the view.
When she was called, she had one thought:
That was to lie in Angkor Vat.

What doth her Spirit — Who shall say
Where beauty reigns both night and day?
Free as air she is to roam.
With spreading mango tree for home.

Angkor Wat lotus pond sunrise. © Copyright Gary Ng.

Lucille’s Artistic Legacy

In the five years following her death there were three exhibits of Douglass’s works in New York galleries and a fourth after World War II in her adopted hometown of Birmingham.

Lucille Douglass pastel created between 1909 and 1913. Courtesy Birmingham Museum of Art. Gift of the estate of Leona Templeton Caldwell.

In January 1951 the Birmingham Historical Society and the Birmingham Art Club sponsored a retrospective of her works at the Birmingham Public Library, which brought pieces owned by museums together with those held by local collectors.

However, very little was written on Douglass over the next half-century, nor was her art exhibited. This was due no doubt to the triumph of abstraction and other modernist movements in art that made the works of Lucille Douglass seem old-fashioned.

Fortunately, there has been a renewed appreciation for her art in recent years, fueled by the current interest in female artists. The publication of Art of the New South: Women Artists of Birmingham, 1890-1950 (Birmingham Historical Society, 2004) by Vicki Leigh Ingham, which devotes an entire chapter to Lucille Douglass, is likely to be the beginning of a revival of interest in this accomplished artist and world traveler.”

About the Author

Stephen J. Goldfarb holds a Ph.D. in the history of science and technology from Case Western Reserve University. In 2007-2008, he curated the exhibit entitled “Howard Cook: Drawings of Alabama” for the Mobile Museum of Art and at the Huntsville Museum of Art.

Goldfarb has written articles previously for Alabama Heritage on artists Marian Acker Macpherson and Lucille Douglass. He now serves Alabama Heritage Quarterly History Magazine as a contributing editor for the “Reading the Southern Past” column. No stranger to Southern reading tastes, Goldfarb retired from the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library in 2003. He has reviewed books for both newspapers and scholarly journals.

© Copyright 2006 University of Alabama – This article previously appeared in Alabama Heritage magazine (Summer 2006, Issue 81) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author and the University of Alabama.

An apsara or celestial dancer in classic Southeast Asian art

Between the covers of countless books lurks a mystical creature with multiple masks…

Submissive and beautiful.

Cunning and domineering.

Shy virgin. Adventurous lover.

She is the Asian woman…

Or rather what passes for her in fiction.

Author and Jakarta Post reporter Sara Veal lifts the veil on the inscrutable images.

* * *

For thousands of years, ever since the West encountered the East, an exotic vision of the Asian woman has inhabited Western literature, symbolizing the allure, danger and mystery of the unknown.

“In the Western mind, the fictional image of the ‘Asian woman’ is the most imagined, misunderstood and ‘fetishized’,” says Sheridan Prasso, author of The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient (2006), adding this ultra-feminine exoticism has been juxtaposed onto the Asian male, “effectively wiping out his masculinity in Western culture”.

Academic Elaine Kim writes in a similar vein, observing “the inscription in American popular culture of Asian men as sexless automatons is complemented by the popular view of Asian women as only sexual beings, which helps explain … the enormous demand for X-rated films featuring Asian women in bondage, the demand for ‘Oriental’ bathhouse workers in US cities, and the booming business in mail-order marriages”.

The Dragon Lady from Terry and the Pirates

Such sexual overtones are evident in the dichotomy of the Asian woman in literature. Whether Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Filipina, Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Khmer, Laotian, Korean or Burmese, the East and Southeast Asian woman is either Dragon Lady – seductive, dominant – or Geisha Girl – subservient, ornamental. Between these two extremes lie permutations like China Doll, Lotus Flower, Prostitute and Mail-order Bride, all with sexual connotations.

The term Dragon Lady is thought to have originated in American cartoonist Milton Caniff’s 1930s comic strip Terry and the Pirates, and since then applied repeatedly to powerful Asian woman such as Soong May-ling, wife of former Taiwanese president Chiang Kai-Shek, and the no-nonsense dominatrix Ling Woo (played by Lucy Liu) in television’s Ally McBeal.

Madame Butterfly

The Geisha Girl of Western popular imagination has its roots in the eponymous heroine of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, a delicate creature who kills herself when abandoned by her American lover. Puccini’s play was likely based on novelist Pierre Loti’s Madame Chrysanthème, in which the “hero” fails to understand or master the geisha of the title. Both versions demonstrate the heroine’s otherness, but the opera strongly implies Western superiority over a submissive Asia.

Representing Asia is a common function of the Asian woman in colonial literature. Between 1900 and 1940, French novels on Southeast Asia were often named for their native female character, as in Roland Meyer’s Saramani, Danseuse Cambodgienne (Saramani, Cambodian Dancer).

Saramani, Cambodian Dancer by Roland Meyer - 1919.

In such novels, French scholar Patrick Laude observes, “the Frenchman’s contact with natives … often leads to his adoption of Asian culture and repudiating of Western culture” – the Asian women were at once “Asia herself” and “Asian Eves” tempting Western men to the other side.

An Asian Eve appears in W. Somerset Maugham’s 1924 short story The Letter, based on a true scandal in Kuala Lumpur, in which the wife of a headmaster shot a male friend. The victim, Geoff Hammond, had married a Chinese woman, which lost him favor with the expatriate community. Despite her importance to the plot, his wife lacks a direct voice and is simply referred to as “Mrs. Hammond”. She is described as neither beautiful nor young – evidently not a Geisha Girl, her cunning actions and desire for revenge situate her as a Dragon Lady.

However, the beauty and ultra-femininity of Asian woman is often at the fore of their exoticism, so much so that white female literary heroines sometimes had to resort to yellow-face to redress the balance. In Owen Hall’s 1896 play The Geisha, a Story of a Tea House, an Englishwoman, spurned by her soldier fiancé for a Japanese geisha, wins him back by donning a kimono and makeup to match.

The King and I

Men weren’t the only ones contributing to the Asian mystique. Anna Leonowens, a British governess who spent time in King Mongkut’s court in the 19th century, wrote two memoirs, The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870) and The Romance of Harem (1873), which condemned her former employer’s harem, ostensibly in support of feminism.

Yet in pointing out the harem’s evils, she imbued it with exoticism, alluding to “heavy curtains of silk and gold”, and infantilized and insulted the Thai women she meant to stand up for, describing them as having “childish minds” and the potential to be attractive “but for their ingeniously ugly mode of clipping the hair and blackening the teeth”. Her observations inspired the Hollywood hit The King and I, which remains officially banned in Thailand due to the offensive portrayal of the revered King Mongkut.

“Leonowens sets up an Orientalizing framework of the Thai woman as oppressed and overly sexualized – one that then plays out in post-Vietnam War fantasies of Thailand to be found in, for example, Michel Houellebecq’s 2001 book Platform,” says Rachel Harrison, head of the Southeast Asian department at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and co-author of the upcoming The Ambiguous Allure of the West and the Making of Thai Identities.

Do Thi Hai Yen in The Quiet American

Indeed, even as – and perhaps especially as – colonialism lost its grip on Asia in the mid-20th century, stereotypes of Asian women persisted and were eagerly lapped up by Western readers, with the Prostitute (with a heart of gold) in Richard Mason’s 1957 novel The World of Suzie Wong, and the Geisha Girl in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955).

In Greene’s novel, middle-aged British journalist Thomas Fowler and young American idealist Alden Pyle quietly tussle over the most beautiful girl in Saigon. The lovely and inscrutable Phuong is Saigon herself, caught between two colonial powers – the older, entrenched Europe and the radical America – waiting to see which will benefit her the most.

Around the same time, Asian women began to speak for themselves in Western literature, mainly through autobiography and history, suggesting that the best weapon against Orientalist fiction was well-articulated fact.

One of the earliest of such texts was Jade Snow Wong’s Fifth Chinese Daughter (1950), which proved so popular that the US State Department sent the author to 45 Asian locales between Tokyo and Karachi.

“I was sent,” Wong writes, “because those Asian audiences who had read translations of Fifth Chinese Daughter did not believe a female born to poor Chinese immigrants could gain a toehold among prejudiced Americans.”

Maxine Hong Kingston

Maxine Hong Kingston’s 1975 memoir, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, sought to present a nuanced account of 20th-century Chinese-Americans living in the US in the shadow of the Chinese revolution. However, reflecting ingrained, sweeping assumptions about Asian women, at least one reviewer found this ambiguity too perplexing.

“It’s hard to tell where her fantasies end and reality begins,” Michael Malloy wrote for the National Observer in 1976, confused by Kingston describing some Chinese women as aggressive and talkative and others as docile and silent.

Still, even these Asian women speaking for themselves may be responsible for perpetuating the Asian mystique, as their critics argue.

Kim suggests that Wong’s autobiography was “valued primarily as evidence that American racial minorities have only themselves to blame for their failure in American life”, an important view “during the Cold War period, when charges of race discrimination in the United States were circulating in developing countries that, having recently been freed from direct colonial rule, were questioning the value of American world leadership”.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Playwright Frank Chin, in his 1991 essay “Come all ye Asian American writers of the real and the fake”, claims Kingston and Amy Tan, who wrote The Joy Luck Club (1989), faked Chinese literature and history to further Western misconceptions about Asia.

Chin criticizes Tan for opening her novel with a fake Chinese fairytale about “a duck that wants to be a swan and a mother who dreams of her daughter being born in America, where she’ll grow up speaking perfect English and no one will laugh at her” and where a “woman’s worth is [not] measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch”, and Kingston’s rewriting of Chinese folk heroine Fa Mulan “to the specs of the stereotype of the Chinese woman as a pathological white supremacist victimized and trapped in a hideous Chinese civilization”.

He goes on to suggest that Kingston and Tan were only published because they were Christians: “… the only form of literature written by Chinese Americans that major publishers will publish (other than the cookbook) is autobiography”, and “… they all write to the specifications of the Christian stereotype of Asia being as opposite morally from the West as it is geographically”.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

“Self-Orientalization complies with existing stereotypes,” Harrison explains, “the Orientalized subject absorbs this dominant sense of self-identity and uses it as a way of marketing to the outside world, remaining within understandable and understood frames of reference.”

Perhaps due to a relative lack of self-Orientalizing/culture-counterfeiting, fellow Asian women writer Jung Chang has provoked less ire from her peers with Wild Swans (1991).

British citizen Jung Chang’s phenomenally well-received autobiographical novel spanned three generations of Chinese women in the 20th century, painting a vivid portrait of the period’s political and military turmoil, and was deemed by Tasmanian academic Kaz Ross to be a forerunner to the “faction” genre – “history told by fictional narrative means”.

Becoming Madame Mao

Continuing the factual crusade against stereotyping, Chinese-American Anchee Min’s novels focus on strong female figures. Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife, is given a rounded portrayal in Becoming Madame Mao (1991), while Empress Orchid (2004) offers a sympathetic account of Empress Dowager Cixi, de facto ruler of the Mancu Qing Dynasty for 48 years between 1861 to her death in 1908, who has often been portrayed as a Dragon Lady in Western cinema.

Male Asian writers have also risen to challenge the Asian mystique. David Henry Hwang’s Tony-winning play M. Butterfly (1988), loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Bouriscot and male Peking opera singer Shi Pei Pu, subverts Puccini’s opera to tragicomic effect.

Speaking for Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women's Writings

Gallimard, based on Bouriscot, becomes taken with opera diva Song Liling, whom he idealizes as the perfect woman. “She”, however, is a man, and a Chinese spy to boot, and ruins the diplomat’s name and breaks his heart. “Only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act,” Song informs his deluded lover, who shortly commits suicide, in a mirror of the original Butterfly.

Beyond Chinese dominance when it comes to East and Southeast Asians in Western literature, a wider range of female voices across Asia are beginning to be heard (or read) in Western press, such as in the recent, and aptly titled, Speaking for Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writings, which offers nuanced tales of the epic in the everyday, moving away from simple history and autobiography.

Such stories are needed to counter stereotypes that continue to crop up in popular Western literature, from the unseen Dragon Lady that is Mark Darcy’s Japanese ex-wife in Bridget Jones’ Diary (1996) to the Geisha Girl/Prostitute Chinese mistress in Tony Parson’s My Favorite Wife (2008), as well as the more overt Orientalization in Arthur Golden’s best-selling Memoirs of a Geisha (1997).

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

In a sign of the Asian woman being able to directly challenge her misrepresentation, Mineko Iwasaki, who reportedly inspired the memorable geisha, revealed in an interview with Prasso her distaste for the novel’s “misinterpretation” of her “flower and willow world”.

As Iwasaki and Prasso show, the Asian woman of Western popular imagination remains curiously mistaken and outdated in a world where Asian countries are increasingly powerful and Asian women are leading the way.

Presidents, lawyers, doctors, human rights defenders, teachers, writers, mothers, daughters. These are the true women of Asia. It’s time to turn the page on the Asian mystique.

-

Author Sara Veal (archive photo)

About the Author

Sara Veal is a freelance journalist based in Jakarta.

As a child, she grew up in Nigeria and Cambodia before moving to UK to complete her BA and MA.

Her travels apparently inspired a taste for exotic adventure and Sara now reviews films and books, writes about entertainment and culture, and profiles personalities from her Indonesian home with a focus on Southeast Asia.

Visit her website at SaraVeal.com

Artist, architect and historian George Groslier designed the distinctive National Museum of Cambodia building as a tribute to traditional Khmer architecture. © National Museum of Cambodia

By Darryl Collins
(First published in 2005, this article reprint appears here with the author’s kind permission)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Visitors to Phnom Penh from the 1920s, as they still do to this day, identified the capital of Cambodia by the graceful silhouettes of the Royal Palace buildings and the imposing façade of the then Musée Albert Sarraut that is known today by its more familiar title, the National Museum of Cambodia.

George Groslier - Feb 4, 1887- Jun 18, 1945 - Seen in his museum office. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

George Groslier (1887-1945), historian, curator and author was the motivating force behind much of the revival of interest in traditional Cambodian arts and crafts, and it was he who designed this quintessential building that is today synonymous with ‘traditional Khmer’ architecture.  It is perhaps better described as a building enlarged from Cambodian temple prototypes seen on ancient bas-reliefs and reinterpreted through colonial eyes to meet museum-size requirements.

Groslier, the first baby born in Phnom Penh of French parentage, returned to Phnom Penh in 1909 after being sent to France in 1891 for schooling.  The original concept behind the museum was that it be paired with a school teaching arts and crafts to Cambodian students so they could preserve the pure, untainted forms of traditional decorative and applied arts rather than ‘modern’ debased work.  This reasoned Groslier, could best be accomplished by copying designs from original works of art on exhibition.

The museum building itself featured the work of many of these same young Khmer artisans who contributed their talents to the carving of the massive entrance doors and window shutters and decorated the interior panels with paintings featuring mythological subjects.  These treasures are fortunately still in place.

Early beginnings

Albert Pierre Sarraut - Jul 28, 1872-Nov 26, 1962

The earliest known collections that pre-date this spectacular crimson building are the Musée Khmèr that displayed only samples of Khmer archaeology in the confines of the Royal Palace (1905) and the Musée de Phnom-Penh of the same year that displayed examples of Khmer sculpture within the compound of the former Lycée Sisowath.

Conservateurs of these early collections between 1905 and 1919 were: L-A. Rousseau, L. Pétillot, Henri Marchal, Roland Meyer and J. de Villeneuve.

Groslier’s intended museum was soon associated with the Ecole des Arts cambodgiens (1917) and became known as the Musée du Cambodge in 1919.  In 1920, this museum was soon to be officially renamed Musée Albert Sarraut after the then Governor-General of Indochina. The official portrait of M. Sarraut (above) was included in the 1920 publication, Cérémonie d’Inauguration du Musée Albert Sarraut et de L’Ecole des Arts cambodgiens.

Construction of the Musée Albert Sarraut

The Musée Albert Sarraut near completion in 1920. © National Museum of Cambodia

The foundation stone for the new museum was laid on 15 August 1917.  Some two-and-a-half years later, the completed Musée Albert Sarraut was inaugurated during Khmer New Year on 13 April 1920 in the presence of H.M. King Sisowath, François-Marius Baudoin, Résident-supérieur, and M. George Groslier, directeur des Arts cambodgiens, and conservateur du Musée.

Title page Cérémonie d’Inauguration du Musée Albert Sarraut et de L’Ecole des Arts cambodgiens, 1920. © National Museum of Cambodia

The original design of the building was slightly altered in 1924 with extensions that added wings at either end of the eastern façade that made the building even more imposing.

As can be seen from period photographs, the museum currently displays many items – in particular the bronze collection, in showcases that are part of the original furnishings.

The Collection

The collection is housed in high-ceilinged galleries open on one side to a square courtyard set with four pools and a manicured garden planted with palms.  It is a haven amidst bustling Phnom Penh.  The galleries are arranged systematically from the front of the building in a clockwise direction.  As Khun Samen, the present Director has whimsically noted, the majestic statue of Garuda ‘king of the birds’ that faces visitors as they enter the building, shows you the direction to take by pointing to his right.

Exhibition display in the Musée Albert Sarraut 1926. © National Museum of Cambodia

The four museum galleries are best understood by their orientation – in the east, the Bronze Galleries containing superb examples of Khmer bronze casting techniques from the 6th to 13th centuries.  Further to the south of these galleries is a new display dedicated to prehistory finds of early ceramics, metal and stone.  To the north of the Bronze Galleries, is a special exhibition space currently displaying fine and rarely- seen examples of Post-Angkorian Buddha images.

The remaining three main galleries surrounding the courtyard progress in an orderly fashion – the Southern Gallery displays sandstone sculptures from the 6th to 11th centuries (Phnom Da to Baphuon styles).  The West Gallery exhibits works of art from the classic Angkor Wat and Bayon styles from the 12th to 13th centuries – it is here the statue of King Jayavarman VII is displayed; while the North Gallery is primarily dedicated to decorative and applied arts – woodcarving, lacquer, ceramics and metalwork.

Many original museum display cases are still in use. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

The porticos surrounding the garden house a wonderful collection of sacred, secular and architectural stone works that include yoni and linga, decorative doorway lintels, carved bas-reliefs on wall sections (from Banteay Chhmar temple) and important stele with Sanskrit and old Khmer inscriptions (dating mostly from 6th to 11th centuries).

Two other masterworks in the collection are the sandstone statue of Yama (the so-called ‘Leper King’, 12th century) housed under the pavilion in the centre of the inner courtyard and the monumental fragment of the bronze Reclining Vishnu (11th century) recovered from the Western Mebon temple in 1936 to be found in the north-eastern corner of the museum adjacent to the temporary exhibitions display.

Research, scholars and staff

Early directors of the museum from the 1920s-1940s contributed greatly to knowledge of the rapidly expanding collection – Groslier himself catalogued the collection, followed by Jean Boisselier and Solange Thierry (interim Director) who added their individual talents to cataloguing and management.

Madeleine Giteau - 1918-2005. Photo courtesy Andy Brouwer.

Control of the National Museum and Arts Administration was ceded by the French to the Cambodians on 9 August, 1951 and following Independence in 1953, the then Musée National de Phnom-Penh was the subject of Bilateral accords (7 November 1956).  From 1956 to 1966, the museum continued to flourish under the direction of Madeleine Giteau, Conservatrice du Musée National.

1966 marked the appointment of Chea Thay Seng, the first Cambodian Director of the National Museum and Dean of the newly created Department of Archaeology at the Royal University of Fine Arts.  This university that from its foundation as the Ecole des Arts cambodgiens in 1920 was intimately linked with students, artisans and teachers who worked to preserve Cambodian cultural traditions, can still be found to the rear of the museum.

The National Museum Today: Tourism and Culture

By the 1960s, the National Museum had become the centrepiece of a number of provincial museum collections scattered throughout Cambodia.  Today, it is regaining that status – after years of neglect, closure and uncertainty, provincial museums are re-opening across the country.

Following the highly successful ASEAN Summit, this year has been designated ‘Visit Cambodia Year 2003’.  As an integral part of appreciation of Khmer culture, visitors to Siem Reap should ensure their journey encompasses Phnom Penh for it is here the museum treasures of Cambodia are displayed.  This world-class collection of Khmer art spans the gamut of history – from prehistory finds, through pre-Angkorian masterpieces to the art of the classic Angkor periods, and the post-Angkorian Middle Period.  As Khun Samen, the current Museum Director has perceptively stated, “In order to better understand the evolution of Khmer art, it is preferable to study statuary and architecture together.”

The National Museum of Cambodia today.

Entrance to the collection is gained by purchasing a ticket at the north gate and guide services in foreign languages are available.  Visitors can also purchase souvenirs and publications (including ‘The New Guide to the National Museum’) from the bookshop just inside the main door.

How should the importance of this collection be defined?  Khun Samen dedicates this guidebook, “to young Cambodians, … that they may come to appreciate and preserve their cultural heritage”; and to all Cambodian and international visitors, “may the five blessings of the Buddha be upon them.”

National Museum of Cambodia Timeline

Inaugurated: 13 April 1920, Khmer New Year

Renovated: by architect, Vann Molyvann late 1960s (central section, main building)

Closed: 12 April 1975 to 7 January 1979 (civil war)

Re-opened: 13 April 1979, Khmer New Year

Renovated: 1994-1995, roof and sections of building renovated with Australian government funding through AIDAB (now AusAID) and OPG.  Ceremony to mark completion of work attended by HRH King Norodom Sihanouk and The Hon. Bill Hayden, AC, Governor-General of Australia, 28 April 1995.

Visitor Tips for the National Museum of Cambodia

Filination added this excellent article about visiting the National Museum of Cambodia in November 2010.  It features recent photos inside and outside the museum and helpful tips for visitors. Also see this article about the National Museum of Cambodia’s 90th anniversary on devata.org.

About the author:

Darryl Collins

Darryl Collins first came to Cambodia in early 1994, to work with staff at the National Museum of Cambodia as one of a group of specialised museum staff and architects, who came to assist with a project funded by the Australian Government between 1993 and 1995.  Darryl has remained in Cambodia ever since, lecturing at the Royal University of Fine Arts (Department of Archaeology) and as a co-member of a team of three in ARK Research (researching and publishing Building Cambodia: ‘New Khmer Architecture’: 1953-1970).

For five years he lectured at the Department of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh.  In mid-2004 he completed a 1-year consultancy with the Department of Culture and Research, the APSARA Authority, Siem Reap and he spends his spare time writing and researching art, architectural and cultural topics.

In late 2004, Darryl returned once more to part-time work at the National Museum, Phnom Penh as manager for the Collection Inventory Project that will, over a period of some 5 years register works of art and transfer early French records of the museum onto a purpose-designed database.

In 2010, Darryl accepted a position on the Board of Directors of Heritage Watch International, an international organization based in Cambodia that is devoted to protecting and preserving Cambodian heritage and antiquities.

Darryl resides in Siem Reap in an antique home he restored while studying traditional Cambodian houses.  To visit Darryl’s home and read more about his work please visit http://www.darryl-siemreap.com/

George Groslier designed the iconic National Museum of Cambodia. Its style remains synonymous with ‘traditional Khmer’ architecture. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - On April 13, 1920 Cambodians celebrated the New Year of the Monkey with the grand opening of the National Museum of Cambodia, housing the world’s most extensive collection of Khmer art.

Nicole Groslier

Although she wasn’t even two years old at the time, one petite French girl named Nicole has held the National Museum of Cambodia in her heart since that day…and with good reason. Her father George Groslier designed the museum, became its first Conservator, and devoted his life to preserving and perpetuating the art and culture of Cambodia.

Born in Phnom Penh in 1887, George Groslier was educated in France, and then returned to Cambodia in 1909. Service in WWI called him back to Europe but when the war ended he returned to his birth country with his wife Suzanne,  spending the rest of his life devoted to the arts, culture and people of Cambodia.

Nicole Groslier was born in Phnom Penh in 1918 and, like her father, has held a lifelong love for Cambodia and her people.

On April 13, 1920 an H.M. King Sisowath presided over the inauguration of the National Museum of Cambodia. Museum architect George Groslier is seated far left. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

In 1920, H.M. King Sisowath attended the auspicious New Year’s Day inauguration of Cambodia’s first national museum, along with a host of international dignitaries. The facility was initially named for Albert Sarraut, former Governor General of Indochina. Sarraut’s political efforts gave George Groslier the opportunity to design and organize this monument to Khmer art that still today is synonymous with traditional Khmer architecture.

From childhood to maturity, Nicole Groslier would visit her father at his museum office marveling at the magical world of Khmer imagination. Nicole’s first true memory of visiting the museum is in January 1922, when she attended a special ceremony welcoming Marshall Joseph Joffre to Cambodia.

Nicole Groslier attends her first formal museum event with proud parents Suzanne and George. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

Marshall Joffre was honored by this ceremony at the National Museum of Cambodia. Nicole is standing directly in the center of the action. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

Marshall Joffre became one of France’s most senior officers in World War I after replacing the popular Philippe Pétain during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. H.M. Sisowath himself then took Le Maréchal to tour the temples of Angkor.

H.M. King Sisowath took Marshall Joffre on a tour of Angkor after the museum event.

Throughout his career, George Groslier continued his efforts as museum director to catalog the vast collection and to share his appreciation for Khmer creativity with the world. These dramatic photos from Nicole’s personal archive show the museum nearly inundated by the seasonal floods of the Mekong River in the 1930s.

Mekong floodwaters mirror the national museum's Khmer architecture. Circa 1934. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

Two men in a pirogue paddle by the museum entrance. Circa 1934. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

George and his wife Suzanne had two more children in Cambodia. First, Gilbert in 1922 and then their youngest child, Bernard-Philippe Groslier (below), in 1926. Inspired by his father, Bernard-Philippe also pursued a lifetime career focused on Cambodian history and Khmer culture.

George Groslier and his son, Bernard-Philippe, who also grew up to become a noted archeologist in the field of Khmer studies. Photo courtesy Nicole Groslier.

The museum's central courtyard remains a peaceful focal point, surrounded by Khmer art.

From its opening, the museum has attracted enlightened scholars whose work illuminates the mysteries and beauty of the ancient Khmer race. Jean Boisselier and Solange Thierry both added their talents to improving the museum. From 1956 to 1966, the museum flourished under the direction of Mme Madeleine Giteau, who occupied the same official residence as the Groslier family, just behind the museum.

In 1966, Chea Thay Seng became the first Cambodian Director of the museum, as well as Dean of the newly created Department of Archaeology at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA). At the origins of this university we find the Ecole des Arts Cambodgiens that George Groslier organized in 1920. It’s goals remain the same, to intimately link students, artisans and teachers working to preserve and perpetuate Cambodian cultural traditions.

Since Cambodia’s  liberation and the restoration of a government by the people the museum has grown under the guidance of two Directors, Khun Samen and Hab Touch. In 2010, the museum’s second female Director, Mrs. Oun Phalline, assumed this vital administrative role.

Today the National Museum of Cambodia houses one of the world’s greatest collections of Khmer cultural material including sculpture, ceramics and ethnographic objects from the prehistoric, pre-Angkorian, Angkorian and post-Angkorian periods. Its facility includes more than 5,000 sq. meters of space devoted to exhibits, restoration, offices and meeting rooms.

Masterpieces of Khmer Culture

In 2007, the museum catalog, Masterpieces of the National Museum of Cambodia by Helen Jessup was published by Friends of Khmer Culture, offering art lovers and historians worldwide the opportunity to appreciate this extraordinary collection.

Article by Kent Davis, www.Devata.org

Special thanks to Nicole Groslier for sharing her photographs and memories.

Sua Sdei Chnam Thmei ๒๕๕๔

Happy New Year 2010