Apsara Dance. From Apsara Mera, 26 October 2010 , Chaktomuk Conference Hall. © 2010 Anders Jirås.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia — A millennium ago, the Khmer civilization flourished in Southeast Asia and its legacy still shapes the region’s art and culture. The magnificent Khmer architecture is recognized worldwide in the temple of Angkor Wat and the stone faces of the Bayon. But this creative empire left a living legacy that still fascinates audiences today: the art of Cambodian dance.

Boung Soung Dance from the ceremony in preparation for the performance in the Lakhaon Festival 2009 at the Chenla Theatre. © 2010 Anders Jirås

Dazzling images of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia captured by Swedish photographer Anders Jirås form the basis of a special exhibit at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Exhibition runs November 5, 2010 to January 31, 2011.

Sampeah Krou, before the classical dance drama Preah Anurudh, Preah Neang Ossa. Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, 6 June 2008, Chenla Theatre. © 2010 Anders Jirås

An architectural photographer by trade, Anders Jirås first visited Cambodia in 2005 and became interested in documenting the country’s unique performing arts. His first experiences with Cambodian performances were with students of Cambodian Living Arts and with Sovanna Phum, which specializes in the art of shadow puppetry. He was also captivated by a presentation of “les Nuits d’Angkor”, an annual dance presentation of the Ramayana by the Royal Ballet that began in 1995.

”The Swedish winter convinced me to return to Cambodia!” relates Anders. “This time I met Darryl Collins, an independent researcher working at the National Museum. In discussions with him and the museum directors the idea for this exhibit took shape.”

In 2008 Anders photographed the Royal Ballet for the first time. Through the connection and through the Lakhaon Festival at the French Cultural Center began photographing a wider range of Cambodian performing arts. But according to Anders Swedish interest in Cambodian Dance is not new, and actually began 99 years ago, with the visit of the Swedish Prince William in 1911. In the account of his trip, In the Land of the Sun, Prince William wrote:

“The first part of the programme was a prehistoric ballet of the gods…the dance contained a number of characteristic dances, such as flower, staff, fan dances, and so on, in which there was some very expert juggling with the different objects.

“One number, which specially took the fancy of the populace, was entitled ‘An angel, riding on a naga pursues a garuda through the air.’ The leading persons were hung from the roof by wires, which could be moved in elliptical orbits round the stage. Sprawling and gesticulating, they chased each other round the arena, looking exactly like children’s toys dangling on the end of a string.”

Cambodian dance is perhaps less flamboyant today, but no less fascinating as the series of full color photos in this special exhibit shows.

The exhibit was supported by Friends of Khmer Culture, a non-profit educational group with a long history of supporting positive projects in Cambodia.

Apsara Dance. From Apsara Mera, 26 October 2010, Chaktomuk Conference Hall. © 2010 Anders Jirås.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CAMBODIA INFORMATION

National Museum of Cambodia Official Site

Treasures of Khmer Culture-The National Museum of Cambodia

Cambodia’s National Museum Marks 90th Anniversary

CAMBODIAN DANCE – VIRTUAL PHOTO EXHIBIT

The Royal Ballet of Cambodia special exhibition is featured at the National Museum of Cambodia.

See the entire collection on the website of photographer Anders Jirås.

Article by Kent Davis, www.devata.org

NOTE: All photos of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia are copyright protected by Anders Jirås. For reprint permissions please contact the photographer directly.

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.

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

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

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

Royal Cambodian Dance Book Wins Awards

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Lucretia Stewart

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

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

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

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

1962 - Princess Buppha Devi presents an Indonesian dance.

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

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

Princess Buppha Devi - 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About the Author:

Lucretia Stewart

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

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

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

Reviewed by Eileen Blumenthal, Rutgers University

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

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

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

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

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

Khmer dancer circa 1911 by George Groslier

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

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

About the reviewer: Eileen Blumenthal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ST. CHARLES, MN — For Paul Cravath, Cambodia conjures up images of beauty and death.

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

Cravath, a native of Chatfield, arrived in Cambodia in 1975 to conduct research on traditional Cambodian dance theater. What he and no one else knew at the time was that within weeks the war would begin that was later the subject of the film, “The Killing Fields,”

Despite the war and death raging around him, he was able to spend months documenting and preserving the history of this artform, and has now published his research about Cambodian dance drama in the book, “Earth in Flower.”

“I arrived 11 days after the siege of the city (Phnom Penh) started,” Cravath recalled. He was one of the few westerners in the city, and managed to escape, with his research materials, before the Khmer Rouge genocide began on April 17, 1975.

Cravath graduated from Chosen Valley High School in 1962 and from Luther College in 1966. He went to India as a Fulbright tutor, spent some time in Tokyo, and along the way became interested in Asian theater traditions.

“I had never taken a theater or drama class,” he said. But after earning a master of fine arts degree from Tulane University, Cravath went to the University of Hawaii to study Asian theater. While he was a graduate student in Hawaii, he had the opportunity to go to Cambodia and observe, first-hand, not only the royal dance company and training school, but also the violence of a country torn by a vicious war.

These days, Cambodia has been out of the news almost as long as Cravath’s dissertation languished before being published.

“I’m really glad the book is published, because it was a doctoral dissertation that lived under my bed for 20 years,” said Cravath, who will give a presentation about Cambodian dance drama tonight in St. Charles.

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

The book, which is intended primarily as a scholarly reference, is regarded as the major English-language source on Cambodian dance.

“In my talk, I’ll talk about the book and how it was written, being in Cambodia in 1975, and I’ll talk about the artform itself, what it looks like,” he said.

Cravath has been a professor of drama at Leeward Community College in Honolulu for 20 years. He returns each year to southeastern Minnesota to visit family and enjoy the summer weather.

“Minnesota in the summer is very, very beautiful,” he said. “I can’t come in the winter because I’m teaching — and it’s so cold here.”

For more information please visit EarthInFlower.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Sara Friedl-Putnam - © 2009 Luther College
This article appears with permission of the copyright holder. No further reproduction is permitted. Download a PDF of this article.

Paul Cravath, Class of ’66, who first discovered an interest in Asia on a Fulbright tutor grant to India, is author of Earth in Flower, a history of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia.

Some 34 years later, Paul Cravath ’66 still remembers nearly every detail of his harrowing escape from the wartorn city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia-including the military flight that carried him to safety.

Passengers hid in this bunker on the Pochentong airfield between rocket attached. Photo courtesy Air-America.net

“Because the airport was under attack from the Khmer Rouge when we arrived, we had to hide in a bunker on the tarmac,” he recalls. “When the rockets finally stopped, we rushed to board a waiting C-130, sinking into the hanging mesh webbing that served as seats as it climbed quickly to avoid ground fire and the wreckage of other planes.”

Cravath would escape with more than his life that day. With him, in the one bag he was permitted to carry, was the research on the all-female Royal Ballet of Cambodia he had spent the previous three months collecting at the request of the Cambodian Ministry of Culture.

Cambodian dancers from the Royal Cambodian Ballet troupe, circa 1969.

Nurtured by Khmer royalty for more than 1,000 years-its dancers unseen beyond the royal household for most of that time-the ballet, with its graceful move­ments and elaborate costumes, a symbol of the Cambodian people and culture, was considered by many one of the great performing art forms in Asia.

Yet anticipating (correctly) that the Khmer Rouge would try to wipe out the royal dance tradition, the Ministry of Culture had granted Cravath, then a doctoral student in Asian theatre at the University of Hawaii-Mãnoa, unprecedented access to the former royal palace (where the dancers had performed for centuries) as well as the dancers and teachers then with the troupe.

“The official U.S. policy when I arrived in Phnom Penh in January 1975 was that everything was fine even though the city was under siege,” says Cravath, whose research would form the basis of his doctoral dissertation. “It was not a good situation in which to study dance, but I was intrigued by the mystery of these women-what they did and why their reputation was so praiseworthy.”

It would ultimately take Cravath 10 years to complete, but in 1985-after stints teach­ing theatre at Tulane University, serving as an actor and director with the Hawaii Theatre Festival, and assisting the Tibetan Bud­dhist lama in Honolulu-he submitted his dissertation and received his doctorate.

Other than a single copy archived at the University of Michigan, however, the work appeared destined, as Cravath puts it, to “live under my bed” until it was discovered in 2005 by Kent Davis, a publisher and Khmer history specialist who happened upon a refer­ence to it in a journal article.

“I immediately recognized the sad historical significance of the information he had gathered,” says Davis, who soon called Cravath to inquire about the thesis and discuss the possibility of publishing it. “More than 90 percent of the royal dancers and teachers had died in the genocide that occurred after Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge.”

Initially shocked by the phone call, Cravath-a professor of drama at Leeward Community College in Honolulu-was soon spending his off-hours working with Davis to transform his 20-year-old dissertation into a piece polished enough for publication.

“We spent long hours on the phone meticulously talking through every sentence, every punctuation mark until both of us were happy,” he says.

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

Published in May 2008, Earth in Flower: The Divine Mystery of the Cam­bodian Dance Drama has received two literary awards, and in January, it was one of three official gifts presented to the King of Cambodia by U.S. Am­bassador Carol Rodley. Described by Cravath as “a work of preservation, a descriptive and historical study,” its 680 pages cover the royal Khmer dance tradition from its origins in mythology to modern times.

“I hope Earth in Flower creates a sense for the current and future genera­tions of dancers that this is one of the great art forms of the world,” he says. “I also hope it enhances the prestige of the art form in the eyes of Cambodia and the broader world.”

Though it’s been decades since he fled Phnom Penh, Cravath says his experiences in both Cambodia and Thailand (where he conducted research for several months after leaving Cambodia) continue to inform his work at Leeward Community College, where he teaches acting and directs two plays a year.

He also says that were it not for Luther-and, more specifically, the late Earl Leland, the history professor who successfully recommended him for a Fulbright tutor grant to India-he may never have made it to Asia in the first place.

“I was reborn in New Delhi at the age of 21, and my life for the next couple of decades focused on Asia,” he says. “I’m sure I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for Luther.”

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/