With the fervor of a saint,
I have taken it upon myself to tell the world
of the beauties of the kingdom of Cambodia
and the virtues of the Khmer people.

Thus I pay my debt of gratitude for their warm hospitality.

The opening lines of Roland Meyer’s epic tale of Cambodia: Saramani

Article by Kent Davis

Roland Meyer, self portrait, circa 1909

At the end of the 19th century, a young French boy dreamt of finding a tropical paradise. Books about Pacific island adventures and the discovery of lost cities in the dense jungles of Southeast Asia fueled his imagination. Soon, the urge to travel was irresistible but what set this young man apart from thousands of others is that he shared his stories.

Roland Théodore Emile Meyer was born in Moscow on July 10, 1889. His parents moved to Paris where, after his education, he enrolled in the Indochinese colonial service in 1908 at the age of 19.

Meyer first served for three months in Saigon as a cabinet aide to Governor-General Paul Beau in Saigon. Upon moving to Cambodia in 1909 Meyer’s life changed forever as he immersed himself in the history, language and lifestyle of the modern descendants of the ancient Khmers.

Unlike other colonials, Meyer chose to assimilate with the indigenous culture surrounding him, learning the local language, customs, religion and even setting up his home among the natives outside the French quarter of the town. Meyer was a living example of a visitor who “went native”, much to the surprise of some of his fellow colonials. In 1912, Meyer published Cours de cambodgien, the first book to teach the Khmer language to Francophones.

Cambodian Dancers by George Groslier, 2010 edition.

With Phnom Penh still a small town, Meyer soon met others who admired and respected the legacy of the great civilization that surrounded them. His small circle of friends, many of whom were founding members of The Angkor Society, came to shape the way the world sees Cambodia. They included Jean Commaille, the first conservator of the Angkor site; Henri Marchal, the second Angkor conservator who took over Commaille’s duties when he was murdered by robbers; and Charles Gravelle, director of the country’s branch of the Bank of Indochina and an avid writer himself – all men whose influence is still with us today.

Another associate embarking on a stellar career in Cambodia was George Groslier, an artist and writer two years older than Meyer, who arrived in Phnom Penh in 1910 on an educational assignment. As it turned out, both young men were captivated by a living, breathing vestige of the ancient Khmers; the sacred Cambodian dancers who lived, sequestered, in the royal palace as part of the king’s harem.

On returning to France in 1913, Groslier published Danseuses Cambodgiennes, Anciennes et Modernes, the first formal study of the sacred artistic tradition. Meyer’s experience and vision of the dance and dancers, however, went even deeper and was far more intimate.

Meyer told of a seemingly forbidden romance between East and West — between a royal dancer in the king’s harem named Saramani, and a French boy who came to Indochina to seek his destiny. The boy, like Meyer himself, “went native” and adopted the Khmer name Komlah, which means bachelor.  Through Saramani and her family, Meyer (often writing as Komlah) relates a detailed picture of love and life  in colonial Cambodia.

For a decade, Meyer recorded his notes in his personal diaries, shaping a tale in which it’s difficult to tell fact from fiction.

Saramani - Cambodian Dancer by Roland Meyer, 1919.

In 1919 Meyer published Saramani, Danseuse Khmèr in Saigon. His epic account of Cambodia stretched from the primeval formation of the land tens of millions of years ago, to the peak of the Khmer civilization at Angkor Wat, ending in the modern colonial capital of Phnom Penh. He records the lives of all he encounters on Cambodian soil; rice farmers, fishermen, immigrants, colonials, dancing girls, poor peasants, wealthy merchants, royal servants and even kings.

Saramani title page - 1919

Saramani grew to a massive work of more than 180,000 words exploring many controversial events in the guise of “fiction”. Meyer’s views of colonial lust, capitalistic greed and royal decadence were upsetting to some, to say the least. The same year of its release he transferred to Laos, perhaps out of necessity to escape local consequences…or perhaps to escape romantic entanglements that may have inspired some of the scenes throughout the book.

Was Saramani a real person? Were the book’s fantastic events based on reality or imagination?

Meyer never revealed this but his exceptional accuracy, attention to detail and congruity with historical events implies that there is much more than fiction in his account.

Sketch of a Buddhist pagoda in Ken Svai, a community on a large island in the Mekong River near Phnom Penh. By Roland Meyer, circa 1912.

Meyer worked with the French civil service until retirement. Coinciding with the French Colonial Exposition of 1931 in Paris he published two more books, Komlah, visions of Asia and French Indo-China. Laos. While Komlah relates many more personal impressions in Indochina the second title is a rather dry analysis of the Laotian country.

In 1952 his friend M. Gerard published his final work, a collection of short essays titled Le propos du vieux colonial.

Sadly, like many great men of the French colonial era, Meyer’s trail vanishes late in life. I don’t know where he died, where he is buried, if he has any descendants or what became of his archives. A sad loss to Cambodian, French and literary history.

If any readers have additional information please contact me kentdavis at gmail dot com.

Lost Goddesses by Trudy Jacobsen

By Kent Davis

This article is based on research presented by Trudy Jacobsen in her book “Lost Goddesses: The Denial of Female Power in the History of Cambodia“.

“Lost Goddesses” traces the trajectory of female influence in Cambodia from ancient to modern times. Immediately following her Preface, Dr. Jacobsen opened the book with a Glossary. The vocabulary that a society uses is an important indicator of values, priorities and beliefs. It therefore struck me as a practical, original and brilliant idea to first introduce the female-related terms that her investigation would include.

The list below includes Khmer, Pali, French and Sanskrit terms with English meanings. With the author’s kind permission, I extracted this list from the complete glossary that appears in “Lost Goddesses“. I have also augmented her list with a sampling of additional terms from the online Khmer-English dictionary at the Southeast Asian Language Library. I regret any mistakes or errors in my attempts to transliterate some of the additional terms. Note that this list is by no means exhaustive, nor is it a complete list of female related words in Khmer…but the words below are certainly explore some fascinating social, political and spiritual concepts.

Khmer Words About Women

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.

Publisher and Angkor Wat researcher Kent Davis and his wife, Sophaphan, lost everything when their home in Holmes Beach burned down last year. But after finding new housing Davis quickly rediscovered his passion for Cambodia. STAFF PHOTO / E. SKYLAR LITHERLAND

RECOVERY: As life after a fire is rebuilt, passion for Khmer culture is reborn

By VINCENT F. SAFUTO Correspondent – Reprinted with permission Sarasota Herald Tribune – Full credits at bottom.

Book publisher Kent Davis and his wife, Sophaphan, escaped from their burning Holmes Beach house with only the clothes on their backs and a cell phone.

Sophaphan & Kent Davis in front of their home on the morning of April 17th, 2008. The fire began 33 years after the day that Khmer Rouge troops entered Phnom Penh to initiate one of worst genocides in human history.

Lost in the blaze were all their personal possessions, among them a prized library collection of rare Asian books and 20,000 research photos of Angkor Wat, a giant Cambodian religious temple built in the 12th century and rediscovered by French archaeologists in the 19th century.

But Davis and his wife are rebounding from the April 2008 fire, and his passion for Cambodia, its culture and the Angkor Wat temple has found new beginnings as well.

Davis’ first love affair with Southeast Asia and its culture began nearly two decades ago when he worked in Bangkok, Thailand from 1990-95. It was then that he met his wife, Sophaphan, who is Thai.

The fire consumed hundreds of rare first edition books about Southeast Asian history.

His “second love affair” began in 2005 when he and his wife took a side trip to Cambodia during a visit to see her family in Northeastern Thailand. Seeing the ancient Khmer capital of Angkor inspired the Davises to build a school in Cambodia, begin a research project about the role of women in ancient Cambodia, and to begin publishing books about the region. The venture went well, until the fire interrupted all of their plans.

In early 2009, as he and his wife continued their struggle to regain their footing and establish a new home after their fire, Davis experienced interest in his work from an unexpected place and his Cambodian works soon became official state gifts given on behalf of the United States to the King of Cambodia.

King Sihamoni of Cambodia receives official US gifts from Ambassador Rodley.

-

This was possible because Davis’ fire-devastated publishing company, DatAsia Press, has resumed producing books about Southeast Asia.

So, when U.S. ambassador to Cambodia Carol Rodley was looking for a gift to present to King Norodom Sihamoni at her formal presentation of diplomatic credentials and gifts in January, she contacted Davis.

“I was looking for a gift that would symbolize the connections between the United States and Cambodia, and ideally for something related to Cambodian culture,” Rodley said in an e-mail.

These two books published by Kent Davis were given to the Cambodian king. STAFF PHOTO / E. SKYLAR LITHERLAND

Davis offered Rodley three gifts from DatAsia: Angkor the Magnificent, an English-language book first published in 1924 that opened up Cambodian tourism to the English speaking world; Earth in Flower, the most complete history of Cambodian dance ever written; and a DVD copy of a rare American documentary about Cambodian dance made in the early 1960s.

Davis worked in Thailand from 1990 to 1995. He wanted to learn the language and joked that he met Sophaphan while looking for people to talk to. He had heard about Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but only as a cool place to visit. In the early 90′s Cambodia was still recovering from the Khmer Rouge era and remained too dangerous to visit in Davis’ view.

Davis and his wife moved back to the US in 1995 and in 2001 moved to his family home in Florida to develop and run a Thai-themed resort on Anna Maria Island. In 2005 they sold the resort and took their first vacation in four years, going  to visit Sophaphan’s family in Thailand. They were looking to go somewhere they had never been before and decided to visit Angkor Wat.

It was a momentous decision.

“From the minute I walked into Angkor Wat, I saw something that just made me ask a question: ‘Why is Angkor Wat, the largest religious structure in the world, filled with the images of women?’” Kent Davis said.

One of 1,780 female portraits at Angkor Wat.

Not men, not warriors, not children. Women.

“I found that to be a question I need to answer in this life.”

There are 1,780 women carved in the temple, and no two are alike, he said.

“Some of them are very elaborate and have royal crowns; some of them are simpler and have simpler hairstyles; they wear strange jewelries; they’re all in specific poses; they’re all in very specific locations.”

“My theory is that these women represent a hierarchy that embodies the complex Khmer culture that created Angkor Wat. Women who, in fact, played a very important role in Cambodia’s history,” said Davis.

Sophaphan Davis was born and grew up in a village near Kalasin, a city in northeastern Thailand about 120 miles directly north of Angkor Wat. Northeastern Thailand was part of the Khmer Empire in the 12th century when the temple was built.

In November, Davis returned to Cambodia, to retake 7,000 pictures at Angkor Wat, beginning anew his research photo collection of the sacred temple.

“I fell in love with Cambodia, too,” Sophaphan said. “The nature, people and lifestyle there remind me of my home when I was a child.”

Cambodia

CAMBODIA FACTS

CAPITAL: Phnom Penh

POPULATION: 14,241,640 (July 2008 estimate)

SIZE: 69,898 square miles, slightly smaller than Oklahoma

ETHNIC GROUPS: Khmer, 90 percent; Vietnamese, 5 percent; Chinese, 1 percent; other, 4 percent

Languages: Khmer (official), 95 percent; French and English

RELIGIONS: Theravada Buddhist, 95 percent; other, 5 percent

GOVERNMENT: Multiparty democracy under constitutional monarch

CHIEF OF STATE: King Norodom Sihamoni (since Oct. 29, 2004)

HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister Hun Sen (since Jan. 14, 1985)

Source: CIA World Factbook

© 2009 Sarasota Herald Tribune - This article and photos appear with the kind permission of the copyright holder. No further reproduction is permitted.

King Sihamoni of Cambodia receiving official gifts from newly appointed US Ambassador Carol Rodley, accompanied by Embassy Spokesman and Cultural Attache, John Johnson, and Executive Assistant, LaVonya Hayward.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (PR WIRE) – Surrounded by crenulated walls and elaborate tropical gardens, Cambodia’s Royal Palace is an exotic world onto itself. Since 1866, this has been the royal abode of this proud nation’s monarchs, whose lineage stretches back to the great Khmer Empire that once ruled most of Southeast Asia.

For nearly 150 years, all important state ceremonies have taken place in the Throne Hall, called Preah Thineang Dheva Vinnichay in Khmer, which means the "Sacred Seat of Judgment."

For nearly 150 years, all important state ceremonies have taken place in the Throne Hall, called Preah Thineang Dheva Vinnichay in Khmer, which means the “Sacred Seat of Judgment.” It was here that King Sihamoni received US Ambassador Carol Rodley, accepting her diplomatic papers and, as protocol dictates, conducting an official exchange of gifts between the two nations. Ambassador Rodley chose her American gifts quite carefully.

Years of foreign service and a true appreciation for Cambodian culture prepared Rodley for her important post. Already a Khmer speaker from an earlier Cambodian assignment in 1997-2000, Rodley began preparing for her royal ceremony weeks in advance. Her research led her to US publisher, Kent Davis, a Khmer history specialist and researcher with Devata.org.

“My books are primarily for Cambodians and academics, so I was curious when a Virginia woman sought out these specialized titles. That woman was Ambassador Rodley,” said Davis.

"Earth in Flower" and "Angkor the Magnificent"

Rodley chose two books and a DVD as official gifts to include in her ceremony: “Earth in Flower” by Dr. Paul Cravath, the most complete history of Cambodian dance ever published; “Angkor the Magnificent” by Helen Churchill Candee, an evocative account of the Khmer Empire; and a rare digital copy of a 1962 film about Cambodian dance featuring the King’s sister, Princess Buppha Devi, from the US National Archives.

Weeks later in the gilded Throne Hall, the newest United States Ambassador presented her credentials to King Sihamoni in his native language and wearing a Khmer silk business suit. Presentation of her diplomatic credentials was soon followed by the uniquely American gifts of Cambodian scholarship, which delighted her royal host.

The Ambassador’s actions and her gifts embody American appreciation and respect for Cambodian culture. With diplomatic empathy like this, I believe the United States can regain its reputation as a world leader known for sharing knowledge, culture and freedom. I’m honored my books were part of this event,” said Davis.

Website: www.DatAsia.us

Contact: Kent Davis kdavis@DatAsia.us Direct line 941-778-3086 (FL, USA)

Publisher: DatASIA, Inc. is a US publisher affiliated with the Independent Book Publishers Association, and Small Publishers Association of North America. The company has offices in Florida, USA and Bangkok, Thailand. www.DatAsia.us

###

Part I – Antique video of Angkor Wat and Cambodia (6 minutes)

This opens with Dr. Ang Choulean from the Royal University of Fine Arts talking about traditional Cambodian homes. Next, Prof. Alain Forest of the Universite Paris VII discusses the transition of Cambodians from ancient to modern traditions during the French Colonial era.

While lacking the same natural resources as its neighbor Vietnam, Cambodia had something even more extraordinary and prestigious to share with the modern world; the fabulous cultural legacy of Angkor.

“You were dealing with a set of ruins that could compared with the Temple of Solomon. There was nothing comparable in the world.”

Dr. Choulean and other experts discuss the significance of Angkor Wat and Bayon. By 1921, France had begun temple restoration and Christophe Pottier of EFEO elaborates on this work.

Part II – Antique footage of Cambodian dance (6 minutes)

This segment opens with Dr. Choulean commenting that a pilgrimage to Angkor Wat is the lifetime ambition of every Cambodian.

Next, we see rare film of a troupe of Cambodian dancers performing at Angkor Wat. Cambodian dance is far more than entertainment. According to one Cambodian legend, the race descended from the union of a holy man and a celestial dancer, or apsara.

Prof Eileen Blumenthal of Rutgers University expands on this concept by explaining how Cambodian dancers act as a link between humans and the divine.

In what may be the rarest Cambodian dance footage in the world, the film then takes us to Phnom Penh to witness the King’s troupe practicing at the Royal Palace. As Prof Blumenthal explains, this is extraordinary because literally no one but the dancers and the King would have normally been priviledged enough to see this rehearsal.

The tradition was nearly destroyed by the Khmer Rouge genocide when 90% of the dancers and teachers were killed. The film then takes us to the studio of one brave teacher who survived, Em Theay, as she describes the techniques she uses to teach dancce in traditional forms.

Next we again travel to the Royal Palace to meet Princess Buppha Devi, King Sihamoni’s sister, who was one of the most famous royal dancers in the 1960′s. The Princess explains life for dancers in the Royal Palace long ago.

Em Theay explains the unique nature and the style of the dance costumes, which were actually sewn onto the dancers.

Next we see footage of the Cambodian dancers performing in Marseilles France in 1906. The dancers were a sensation and returned to France again, including in 1931 when France built a replica of Angkor Wat for an International Exhibition.

Holmes Beach, FL – April 10, 2008 — “The tale of it is incredible; the wonder which is Angkor is unmatched in Asia.” So begins Helen Churchill Candee’s 1924 tale of Asian adventure. Today, visitors can again experience the mystery of Cambodia’s vast jungle temples through her eyes in a modern expanded edition of Angkor the Magnificent (ISBN: 978-1-934431-00-9) now on sale as Amazon.com.

April 15th, 2008 marked the 96th anniversary of history’s most infamous maritime disaster, the sinking of the RMS Titanic. But for Helen Candee, surviving the Titanic was a minor event compared to her other life credentials, which include authoring one of the most popular early accounts of travel to exotic Cambodia, Angkor Wat, and the temples of the ancient Khmers.

Helen Candee walked with kings, presidents, the wealthy and the powerful… entertaining, educating and influencing them. This independent woman supported herself and her family in an era when women were expected to depend on men. She championed feminine equality and fought tirelessly for woman’s rights. And, as a single woman, she traveled the Far East with a keen eye for detail, an inquisitive mind, and a sensitivity for local culture.

Angkor the Magnificent is far more than a tale of early 20th century Asian travel. Candee’s insights are enlightening, elegant and frequently witty as she relates the history, culture and context of Angkor’s ancient monuments. By her hand, we have one of the first significant works on Cambodia in the English language.

Historian Randy Bryan Bigham prefaces this edition with Life’s Décor, the first original biography of Candee ever to appear in print. Bigham relates “Surviving the RMS Titanic was just a random event in Helen Churchill Candee’s extraordinary life. She was a most unconventional Victorian woman.” Bigham’s detailed biography recounts her accomplishments as an author, Orientalist, designer, trendsetter, political insider and lifelong advocate for women’s rights.

The 2008 hardcover edition of Angkor the Magnificent (ISBN: 978-1-934431-00-9) includes Helen Candee’s biography; her complete 1924 account of Southeast Asian travel; more than 120 illustrations of Cambodia, RMS Titanic and the author; Candee’s first person account of the Titanic disaster; a bibliography and index.

As Helen Candee herself described this tale, “…the news is leaking out to the great world that loves a new sensation that there are secrets to be pried open in Cambodia, and special marvels to be seen….” Nearly 90 years later, this amazing woman’s Oriental insights are as stimulating and relevant as the day she wrote them.

Biographer: Randy Bryan Bigham is a journalist, author and historian specializing in Edwardian era cultural history. He has worked with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of London; the Titanic Museum; and the National Geographic Channel. Bigham is now editor for a Metroplex newspaper in Dallas, Texas.

Publisher: DatASIA, Inc. is an independent publisher affiliated with PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association and SPAN, Small Publishers of North America. The company has offices in Florida, USA and Bangkok, Thailand.

A wartime twist of fate resulted in a rare eyewitness account of Southeast Asia’s most esoteric female performers: the dancers of the ancient Cambodian ballet. More than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge genocide their intriguing story will be published as “Earth in Flower.”

Honolulu, HI – In 1975, Cambodia plunged into one of the worst genocides in human history, killing more than 1.5 million people. Experts estimate that 90 percent of the country’s artists died, including royal dancers and teachers who perpetuated the country’s sacred dance rituals. Now, three decades later, the most comprehensive analysis of Cambodian dance will be published as Earth in Flower (ISBN: 978-1-934431-28-3).

Since the dawn of recorded history, Khmer royalty nurtured a dance style unique to their Asian kingdom, yet instantly recognizable throughout the world. Publisher Kent Davis states, “These Cambodian women have profoundly influenced Asian history as living goddesses, priestesses, queens, concubines, hostages and diplomats. Spiritually, the graceful dancers embody the essence and strength of the Khmer race.”

After a military coup deposed King Sihanouk a new government seized control of Cambodia … and the royal dancers. Surrounded by violence, scholars desperately sought to document this cultural treasure by engaging American researcher Paul Cravath. He arrived as a circle of war gripped the capital city, becoming one of the only Westerners in history to gain firsthand access to the formerly sequestered troupe of royal dancers, teachers and archives.

On April 17, 1975, Phnom Penh fell; the Khmer Rouge began their reign of terror. Cravath escaped the city on a military transport only 10 days earlier with his research intact. The archives he accessed were destroyed. Most of the royal dancers perished in the Killing Fields.

Three decades later, Cravath’s painstaking documentation of the choreography, musicology, costuming, stagecraft, theatre and origins of Cambodia’s ancient dance tradition will finally be published. His book offers new insights about this beautiful art, its long-hidden history and, according to the author, “Earth in Flower reveals how Cambodian dancers have, for more than a millennium, balanced the Khmer relationship between heaven and earth.”

AUTHOR:
Dr. Paul Cravath is a scholar, teacher, actor and theatre director with extensive Asian research experience. He based Earth in Flower on primary research he conducted in Cambodia and Thailand, followed by ten years of archival research in the US. Cravath is now Professor of Theatre at the University of Hawaii-LCC.

PUBLISHER:
DatASIA, Inc is an independent publisher affiliated with PMA (The Independent Book Publishers Association) and SPAN (Small Publishers Association of North America). DatASIA is also active in research and education projects in Southeast Asia. The company has offices in Florida and Bangkok, Thailand.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Kent Davis – Direct line: 941-778-3086 (Florida, USA)

###