Our investigation into the devata of Angkor Wat includes artistic as well as intellectual information. The connection of dance — especially ancient dance traditions — to culture, society and spirituality is quite clear.

You touch upon this in your articles, such as http://artpreneure.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-goddess-walk.html

We support the NKFC organization described in this article for maintaining those sacred traditions.

I just came across your site while googling something about Khmer women and thought I should make some comments. I am a Khmer woman, born and raised in Cambodia, but American educated. From my understanding, the modern Khmer culture differs very greatly from Khmer Angkorian culture. And my theory in explaining this is the mystery of the collapse of the Khmer Empire. Clearly, something “planned” by someone took place. After the collapse of the empire, things changed dramatically. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the story of Ta Trosok Plaem, in English the Sweet Cucumber man. This man became king after her killed a real Varman king who was a relative of King Jayavarman VII. The story sounds unbelievable and this man had no real name–a complete mystery. Since then our society has become completely different. Look at us today. We follow a different religion (I’m a Buddhist myself, so this is not to say Buddhism is bad or anything). We can’t read any script from the past. And I highly doubt if we would be able to understand the language spoken back then.

What Reasmeiy described is pretty much the modern culture of Cambodia today. But the history of the Khmers goes back to the 1st century if not earlier. Our first head of state was a woman, known as Neang Neak (or as some call her Soma). Thus, Khmer women did hold equal power to (if not more than) men. Also, do keep in mind that the word “Khmer” is driven from the word “mer.” In Khmer language, “mer” means mother or female depending on the context in which it is used.

Recently, I’ve started to noticed the change in the Khmer view of women not only in regard to power but also other aspects. Less than a month ago, I saw some pictures taken in Phnom Penh in late 1800s or early 1900s. What shocked me was the women in the pictures. The least accessorized women ever! Even the wives of the king! Looking back to the women of Angkor Wat, my impression was that they were over accessorized. Then I asked myself, “What changed?” And the only thing I could think of was that Angkorian women were goddesses in the eyes of Khmer men who built Angkor Wat. They appreciated that beauty of these women (inside and outside). In recent history, on the other hand, Khmer women have been undermined. I remember growing up in Cambodia, if someone said to a Khmer girl that she looked Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, White, or anything else other than Khmer, it was a complement. I was generally regarded as a beautiful girl, but I looked Khmer, and nobody wanted to link the two factors together. I remember a friend (who’s also Cambodian but part Vietnamese) asked if I was part Chinese and I said no. Her response was, “Yes, but you must be a mix of something else. No pure blood Khmer can look this beautiful.” Although it was a complement to me individually, I felt so hurt when she made such a comment that degraded my race.

Sorry, I went on and on and probably got off the topic a little bit. The bottom line is I believe that Khmer women had a high role in the Angkorian society. Also, somebody told me a story that I’m not sure myself if it was true or not. But the story goes like this: Once upon a time, Khmers were at war with Thais. Khmer soldiers led by Khmer king were captured by Thai soldiers. Knowing that all Khmer soldiers were captured at the battlefield and not many men left the capital, Thai soldiers came straight to the Angkor City with the intention to take over the city that was pretty much left with only women and children. Alerted about this, Khmer women in the city dressed up as men and fought Thai soldiers and defeated them. They later even went to the battlefield to rescue the men. And that’s how after that many things done in Khmer culture were to honor the bravery of Khmer women whom were believed to have both the feminine beauty and the feminine strength. Again, this is probably just a fairly tale.

Thanks!

With my best regards,
Leakena

Some pics of apsara/devata from 2005:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104198950555273920255/CambodiaB
https://picasaweb.google.com/104198950555273920255/CambodiaA
https://picasaweb.google.com/104198950555273920255/CambodiaBig