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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sacred female image from Chao Say Tevoda

From the 8th-14th centuries, the Khmer civilization unified most of Southeast Asia, implementing systems of government, religion, education, agriculture and architecture that still color the region today.

Khmer nobility and peasants alike chose to live in homes of wood, bamboo and thatch as they reserved the more permanent materials of stone and brick only for temples to their gods. Today, thousands of their religious structures still dot the landscape of Cambodia and Thailand, offering us clues to understanding the amazing people who built them.

The best photo index of Khmer temples in Cambodia and Thailand is available free thanks to the efforts of “Khmersearch,” a skilled (and generous) German photographer. Panoramio hosts his high resolution photo collection of  ancient Khmer temples, hospitals, dharmasalas, ruins and water features. Each photo is geographically located using Google Earth.

I found this extensive collection while researching the obscure temples of Prasat Mebon and Prasat Toap near Banteay Chhmar. In fact, many of the structures featured are virtually unvisited sites that are difficult to find, making this online resource especially unique.

Note that his photo collection offers only visual verification of the sites and does not include historical details.

We at Devata.org express our gratitude to Khmersearch for the time and effort devoted to creating this important record of Khmer history. The temple list below is organized by country (Cambodia and Thailand).

Temples featuring devata (sacred women) appear in green (note that devata are not necessarily included in Khmersearch images). Links to Devata.org photo sets and related devata articles appear in red.

Cambodia

“All Cambodia Sites”

Thailand

A Banteay Srey dance school started by Lady Coxen is transforming rough-edged girls from poor Siem Reap villages into disciplined performers of traditional sacred Khmer ceremonies.

Nginn-Karet dancers performing at Banteay Srey temple in Cambodia.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA - A unique dance school founded by Lady Ravynn Karet Coxen to train village children from Banteay Srey has been officially named following a sacred ritual earlier this month in honour of King Sihamoni’s birthday.

The village dance school has now been named NKFC Conservatoire Preah Ream Bopha Devi, Chhouk Sar – Banteay Srey, and operates under the High Patronage of Samdech Reach Botrei Preah Ream Norodom Bopha Devi.

Many factors make the school unique: Pupils must display “good manners” and adhere to a strict set of criteria, including the stipulation that “they will never perform in hotels or restaurants where people are eating or drinking” because “it is sad to see this sacred art form damaged and devalued to only generate money as entertainment for tourists”.

The school is just one component of the Siem Reap-based NGO, the Nginn Karet Foundation for Cambodia (NKFC), of which Coxen is chairman.

The NGO has a wide-ranging programs encompassing health, education and agricultural improvements in 14 “adopted” villages in the Banteay Srey district benefiting over 2,500 families. Some funds are now being raised by children selling 3,000 trees that were grown from seeds and saplings to teach the kids the importance of maintaining a healthy environment.

This tree-planting program began last year when the children grew 2,000 trees and raised US$3,012.

The genesis of the dance school dates back three years ago when King Sihamoni sent Coxen a DVD of a movie he’d made.

She organised an evening of entertainment for the villagers, and blind musician Kong Nai, a master of the chapei, or Cambodian lute, sang relevant songs about drinking safe water and other hygiene tips.

Coxen also trained three children to perform a welcome dance before the movie screening. When the King saw a video of the performance he was, according to Coxen, “completely flabbergasted and absolutely in love with the dancers. I was then asked to start a dance school”.

“I started the school in our centre near Banteay Srey temple. We selected children and they were like little monkeys, undisciplined and loud.

“But I had promised to start a dance school and I was determined to give it a go. If in three months time it didn’t work, I would skip it.

“I put a dance teacher on three months probation and then, three months later, I came to see them perform. I had tears in my eyes. They had turned into little swans,” she said.

“The discipline they showed was magnificent.”

This year, the number of dancers has grown to 147, and the school carries on its mission of “transforming little muddy children into elegant, gracious creatures dancing with their soul”.

In February, Coxen took 38 of her best dancers to Phnom Penh to perform for the King in the dance hall in front of the Royal Palace.

Everyone now believes that the gods of Angkor were present during the ceremony.

Nginn-Karet dance students make an historic performance for King Sihamoni in the Royal Palace Dance Hall

“This was the first time in recent history that our sacred dance was performed for a Cambodian King. King Sihamoni watched, not just as a king, but also as a teacher. He was very pleasantly surprised and very complimentary. He was so moved by their precision of rhythm and movement.”

King Sihamoni welcoming dance students from Banteay Srey in the Royal Hall of Dance.

Inspired, Coxen then decided to organise another special performance in honour of King Sihamoni to coincide with his birthday. She opted for a sacred ritual in the Banteay Srey temple using 57 dancers, signifying the age of the monarch.

“This sacred ritual probably hasn’t been performed in a temple in at least a thousand years,” she claimed. “In the morning, we planted 57 trees in honour of the King in the pagoda at Rohall village.

“As part of a traditional Boung Soung ritual, the 57 children then danced to choreography of mine, inspired by a sacred dance from the Reamker, or the Ramayana.”

Coxen did away with traditional heavy costumes and make-up, and instead designed ethereal white gowns made partly from mosquito netting.

“I was inspired by the carvings at Angkor and kept the clothing very light, very divine, to appear as dew from the celestial gardens in the rays of the moonlight.”

She fashioned hair extensions and braids to recreate sketches made by Sappho Marchal, the daughter of renowned Angkor conservator, Henri Marchal. Sappho grew up among the ruins of Angkor Wat and spent years drawing the devata whose images dominate the entire temple . In 1927, when she was 23 years old, Sappho published her book “Khmer Costumes & Ornaments: After the Devata of Angkor Wat,” which was reissued in English in 2005 .

After the dance, 57 komes – large lit kites – were released into the sky and then, as participants prepared to go home, the skies opened up.

“I prayed for a week beforehand that no rain would ruin the ceremony. But when the ceremony concluded, guess what? The rain fell like crazy!

“Everyone now believes that the gods of Angkor were present during the ceremony,” a smiling Coxen recounted.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE BUONG SUONG RITUAL: According to the book Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cambodian Dance Drama by Dr. Paul Cravath:

“the royal ceremony to bring rain was known as buong suong tevada; loosely translated it means ‘paying respect to the heavenly (feminine) spirits.’ The dances performed as the offering in buong suong must be among those considered sacred.”

To learn more about the Nginn-Karet Foundation and their program to support traditional dance training please visit http://www.nkfc.org/