Laos	Vietnam		Myanmar
Destinations	Vietnam Facts	Vietnam Packages	Destinations
Tour Packages	Vietnam Destinations	Vietnam Tourist Information	Amazing Tours & Services
Hotels in Laos	Vietnam Transportation	Vietnam Map	Itineraries
General Information	Vietnam Attractions	Vietnam Travel Tips	Hotels in Myanmar
Events in Laos	Vietnam Culture	Plan Your Vietnam Trip	Useful Information

General Information

Culture (click here)
Khumer Wedding (click here)
Food and Drinks (click here)
Communication (click here)
Time, Currency and Entertainment (click here)

Culture
"I want younger generations to love Khmer artifacts, to keep them in Cambodia" Liv Saa Em said.

Khmer Traditional Clothing
The lines of culture distinguishing one country from another are blurring. The globalization of technology, information and finance has allowed wealthy countries to export not only their political and economic ideologies to developing countries but their traditions and values as well.

The Cambodian government has made aggressive rhetorical efforts to preserve the integrity of traditional Khmer culture, but younger generations are hungry for a change. In a seemingly uphill battle to maintain cultural identity in an increasingly homogeneous global community, one man has made it his mission to preserve the past for future generations. From household items and clothes to jewelry and sculpture, Liv Saa Em's private collection is one of the largest in Cambodia.

"It is my favorite thing to do since I was young. I like to keep antiques in my house because my parents bought a lot of antiques from villagers to keep at their house.

Upon first glance, Liv Saa Em could be mistaken for an ancient Khmer man in his traditional dress. Ancient relics adorn his house as well, stretching from the front door into the darkest corners. The building is his sanctuary; a place Liv Saa Em says keeps him smiling. Visitors to the house, which doubles as a museum, often have offered the collector money for his goods. But Liv Saa Em's mission is to maintain Khmer culture for Cambodia. His message: History is not for sale.

The robbery of Khmer artifacts, for sale to foreign countries, is a rising concern. In efforts to preserve the integrity of Cambodia's tangible history, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts recently prohibited the exportation of artifacts from Cambodia to Vietnam and Thailand. Liv Saa Em agrees with the act's passage, as he too works to preserve artifacts so that all of Cambodia may enjoy them in years to come.

A sample of his Khmer silk collection
Since the tender age of 13, Liv Saa Em has taken the cue of his parents, who were avid collectors. Now preserving artifacts is not only a hobby--it's a mission. "I'm very upset when I see our artifacts exported to neighboring countries," he said. "We know that they are really Khmer artifacts, but I have no ability to take them back to the country."

Even when it is not in transit, safeguarding art is not always easy. Liv Saa Em said artifacts kept in the National Museum cannot be promised security, and his house in Tang Yab, Prey Kabas district of Takeo province is no better. Pieces of history were shattered in 1976 when young Khmer Rouge soldiers destroyed his parents' house and the artifacts in it.

Unable to forget the loss, Liv Saa Em has made a conscious effort to buy pieces for his private collection at home. Trading medicine or rice for art, the collector has purchased relics from Takeo, Kampong Speu and Phnom Penh. Now Liv Saa Em's reputation for collecting precedes him, and tourists that visit his home hoping to make a purchase are always denied.

"I love Khmer artifacts and I love to keep them forever," Liv Saa Em said.

Liv Saa Em's love affair with the past started when he was just a boy. "I wore simple cloth like other people when I was young," he said. But after completing his studies, Liv Saa Em developed a style of his own. Entering adulthood, he wore the ancient Khmer cloth donned by people of the Funan period and shaved his head so that only a tuft of hair sat atop the middle of his crown.

Businessmen raised Liv Saa Em, the youngest son of a nine-member family that often dressed in traditional Khmer clothing. He was the most beloved of the lot then. Today he is alone. Liv Saa Em's brothers, sisters and parents perished during the war.

Struggling to overcome the loss of his family, Liv Saa Em filled his time honing his skills as a silk maker. He mixes together a rainbow of colors to produce the vibrant fabric that is exported to Japan today and earned him the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts' Award for Best Quality Producing in 1993. His Excellency Nut Narang, the former Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, personally recognized Liv Saa Em as the first successful producer of best quality silk following Pol Pot's regime. His creativity is unceasing. Liv Saa Em rearranges the relics in his house to assume a new look every week. In the afternoon visitors can find the collector sitting amidst his artifacts, which he says are a comfort to him. The house, an increasingly popular tourist destination, has drawn curious visitors from around the country and the world. Movie production companies have made the trip as well, using his traditional house for the backdrop to particular scenes.

Liv Saa Em preserves the past to protect the future. Concerned that irresponsible development could damage ancient artifacts, the collector suggested that Cambodia develop a tourism industry based on the riches of Khmer artifacts and temples.


Art & Culture

Khmer Dance
Classical Dance of Cambodia The epic poem of Rama (Ramayana) is believed to have been revealed to a Hindu holy man named Valmiki by Brahma, the god of creation. This religious literary work, dating from about ad 4, is known in various versions throughout India and Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, the story has been set to music and dance and performed by the Royal Ballet since the 18th century. Although the epic is also known in the villages, where it is translated orally or dramatized in the popular shadow puppet theater, the ballet was traditionally a courtly art performed in the palace or for princely festivals. The music of the ballet is performed by the Pinpeat orchestra, which is made up of traditional xylophones, metallophones, horizontal gongs, drums, and cymbals.

History
Khmer classical dance derived from Indian court dance, which traces its origins to the apsarases of Hindu mythology, heavenly female nymphs who were born to dance for the gods. The traditions of Thailand and Java (in Indonesia) also influenced the music and dance of Cambodia. In classical Cambodian dance, women, dressed in brightly colored costumes with elaborate headdresses, perform slow, graceful movements accompanied by a percussive ensemble known as the pinpeat. Pinpeat orchestras include drums, gongs, and bamboo xylophones.

In Cambodia's villages, plays performed by actors wearing masks are popular. Shadow plays, performed using black leather puppets that enact scenes from the Reamkern, are also enjoyed. Folk dancing is popular in rural Cambodia and is performed spontaneously to a drumbeat.

Aspara Dance
At the heart of classical form is the Apsara, the joyful, almost wanton dancer whose images are everywhere. Princess Buppha Devi, who currently serves as the Minister of Culture, is a master of Apsar dancing, which dates to the 1st century. The graceful movements of the Apsara dancers, adorned with gold headdresses and silken tunics and skirts, are carved on the walls of many of the temples at Angkor. Estimates are that there were 3,000 Apsara dancers in the 12th century court of King Jayavarman VII.

Over the centuries Khmer dancing lent its influence to the classical ballet of neighboring countries, and some of its postures and movements are similar to other Southeast Asian dance forms. But according to Princess Buppha Devi, "The Khmer kingdom started its traditions in the 8th century, 500 years before Thailand." In 1400, with the sacking of the Angkor Empire, the Apsara dancers were seized and taken to Thailand. Apsara dancing is one of two elements of classical ballet, the other being "today" dancing, the depiction of early myths. Many of the dances involve performing a fragment of the Ramayana, the ancient Indian epic that is one and a half times as long as the Odyssey. Others are based on the legendary battles and mythical sagas carved in bas relief on the walls of the temples of Angkor-including the Churning of the Sea of Milk, the great battle between gods and demons for the holy liquid that gives immortality. There are 100 dances and dramas.

Khmer Music

There are two kinds of traditional music: one is the Pin Peath with stringed and percussion instruments and the other the Mohory with only stringed instruments. The different instruments are: Pin Peath is a group of instruments which have Roneath (xylophone in metal or bamboo), Kong (percussion instrument surrounding the player), a pear of Skor Thom (a very big drum, which has two faces, for making the rhythm), Sampho (a big drum,which has two faces, for making the rhythm), Sro Lai (a big recorder),Chhoeng (percussion instrument hitting each other for making rhythm).

This kind of music is used to accompany dances, praying to God or spirit and other ceremonies. Mohory is a group of instruments, which have Khoem (with 35 horizontal strings instrument), Ta Khe (with 3 horizontal strings instrument), Tro (with vertical strings instrument), Skor Dai (a small drum for making rhythm), Khloy (recorder) and Chhoeng.

This kind of music is used to accompany dance, theatre, wedding and other ceremonies. There are 4 to 6 % of children attend these courses and they start learning all the traditional Khmer instruments, and choose one they prefer to form the group.

Source: TourismCambodia.com