Happy Independence Day!

November 11, 2013 - 70th Anniversary

Our Trip to Vannak's

For last year’s Pchum Ben Festival, I and the other Svay Rieng Peace Corps Volunteers ventured by bike to our friend Vannak’s house where we spent the day playing with puppies and piglets and riding water buffalo. (You can read my previous post about this trip here: http://mylifewithrice.blogspot.com/2013/05/this-is-my-friend-vannak-man-not-water.html)

For this year’s Pchum Ben Festival, I and 12 others again visited Vannak and his family, but this time we hit up his in-laws in Pursat Province. In Cambodian culture, once married, the newlyweds will often move in with the bride’s family, so Vannak’s house isn’t with his own family in Svay Rieng where he grew up but in Pursat Province with his wife’s extended family.



Vannak’s wife and her family cooking up a feast for all the guests.



Vannak and his son.

Since Vannak’s house is in an extremely remote village outside of the provincial town, the plan was for him to come in with his District’s ra’mourk (a motorbike pulling a flat trailer) that runs in the morning to allow villagers to get to the major market in the town. Alas, we were foiled by rainy season with pouring, incessant rain from early morning until almost 11. Since the ra’mourk wouldn’t be able to get through in those conditions, we had to find our own transportation. Vannak got us in touch with a neighbor who had taken his motorbike into town, and he helped us find a van to fit all of us. The van-finding, though, was done with protest, since he assured us that nothing larger than a tuk tuk (essentially a motorbike-drawn carriage) would be able to pass on the roads. Frugality prevailed and we ignored his advice, renting a van to take us to Vannak’s house.

The neighbor acted as our driver’s guide, leading us down increasingly poor dirt roads, until we reached a canal running between two narrow paths. We ventured down the first path, stopping short where the road narrowed too much. The second path yielded no more success. So we piled out of the van, thanking our driver for his effort and commitment to the cause, and we walked the remaining two kilometers. Vannak’s village is so entirely remote, that we walked over a kilometer without seeing a single dwelling. His village is what I always envisioned I would live in during my time with Peace Corps, the no electricity, no paved roads, no school buildings type village.



Making the trek on foot after our van could not pass.



Vannak’s back yard.

Upon arriving at the home, we greeted everyone in the formal Cambodian manner of placing our palms together, fingers up, and bowing slightly. We chatted with Vannak, and he showed us around the area a bit, taking special note of river where we immediately went swimming while lunch was being cooked. I’m fairly sure we were the first foreigners most of the children had ever interacted with, so we were quite the wary fascination for them, and we had a large crowd examining us during (and after) our swim.



Enjoying the peaceful calm on the river bank before jumping right in.



Tysor’s flock of children.



Me, trying to bond with Vannak’s kid.

Lunch blended seemlessly into hours of socialization. We all chatted together, goofed off, and made new friends. Eventually, the music came out and the dance party started. Thankfully, we got the older ladies of the house to bust a move with us, which is atypical for Cambodian parties, and everyone seemed to get a kick out of it.



Willia and Oum gettin’ down.

Long before we were ready to say goodbye, it came time to leave. The only form of transportation available in the village was a plow modified to run on the road and trailing a large board. We all squeezed on, saying our goodbyes and accepting invitations to return at the next holiday. Two of the guys followed us on a motorbike to ensure our safe return, which ended up being a lifesaver as one of the plow’s tires blew and the motorbike was able to go borrow a tire from a neighboring village (they also proved extremely helpful as retrievers of our shoes and sunglasses that the rough bumps took flying).



Our ‘car’ for the trip back to town.

The strength of Peace Corps comes in the relationships you form. Because of our friendship with Vannak, we were able to meet people and have an experience that otherwise never could have happened. We we able to gain perspective and connections and empathy for a community we otherwise never would have known existed. We didn’t make any difference in anyone’s lives (except maybe provide some amusing tales), but we changed our own lives. It’s hard to live the same way after you’ve been in a village where you had to go to the neighbor’s house because your friend’s house didn’t have a bathroom, where your seemingly easy request for dancing music resulted in a concerted effort to find a music player and car batteries with which to play it, where an obviously poor family found enough meat to add to the vegetables you brought because you didn’t consider that they would feel rude not to provide you with meat for lunch. We’ll never forget our trip to Vannak’s.

Cambodia in Holidays: Pchum Ben

Pchum Ben, or Ancestors’ Day, is an annual 15-day celebration that follows the Khmer lunar calendar, usually taking place late September to mid October. This year, 2013, Pchum Ben falls from September 20th to October 4th. While festivities occur throughout this 15-day period, only the last three days are a public holiday, and the final day is the major celebration. Pchum Ben is unique to Cambodia, and is one of Cambodia’s most important Buddhist festivals. Many businesses will close as people migrate back to their home provinces to spend the holiday with their relatives.

According to legend,


“Phchum Ben came about because relatives of King Bath Pempeksa defied religious customs and ate rice before the monks did during a religious ritual. After their death, they became evil spirits. When a monk known as Kokak Sonthor gained enlightenment and became a Buddha on earth, all those evil spirits went to ask him, “When can we eat?” The Buddha said, “You have to wait for the next Buddha in the Kathakot Buddhist realm. In this realm, evil spirits cannot eat.” When the next monk, Kamanou, achieved enlightenment and became a Buddha, all the evil spirits came again to ask the same question, and he gave the same answer as the previous Buddha. Later, another monk, Kasakbour, achieved enlightenment and became a Buddha, and the hungry evil spirits again asked him the same question. The Buddha told them the same thing - to wait for the next Buddha. The final Buddha, Preah Samphot - also known also as Samanakkodom - said to the evil spirits, “Wait for your relative, King Bath Pempeksa, to offer merits and dedication. When the dedication is made, the food will be yours to eat.”

King Pempeksa finally made an offering, but he did not dedicate the offering to the spirits of his relatives. All the spirits that were related to him cried that night. And when King Bath Pempeksa went to the Valovan pagoda to visit the Buddha, he was told by the Buddha that, “All the spirits of your relatives are crying, demanding food. The spirits should get food in the realm of Kathakot. Although you offered food and did good deeds, you did not dedicate the food and good deeds to them.” So King Bath Pempeksa made another dedication and offering, and this time he dedicated the food and merits to his relatives. The evil spirits received the dedication and were finally reborn into paradise.”







Cambodians take great care to prepare sticky rice and other offerings, arranged in the most elaborate fashions (picture from khmerlovekhmerculture.blogspot.com)

And the legend has never died, Pchum Ben having been celebrated as long as collective memory can recall, every year dedicating offerings to bless the spirits of the dead. The dead relatives with bad karma can be trapped in the spirit world (hell), unable to be reincarnated. During Pchum Ben, though, the guardians of hell release these hungry ghosts to receive gifts of food and blessings from their living relatives. Cambodians can bring blessing to their deceased, trapped relatives in two ways: by transferring merit to the hungry ghosts through offering to the monks and by directly offering food by throwing sticky rice into the fields in the pagoda grounds.

Om Sam Ol, a monk at Steung Meanchey pagoda, explains more about the beliefs behind the festival: “During Pchum Ben, souls and spirits come to receive offerings from their living relatives. It is believed that some of the dead receive punishment for their sins and burn in hell - they suffer a lot and are tortured there,” he added. “Hell is far from people; those souls and spirits cannot see the sun; they have no clothes to wear, no food to eat. Pchum Ben is the period when those spirits receive offerings from their living relatives and perhaps gain some relief. Relatives consecrate and dedicate food and other offerings to them.”







People gather at the pagoda starting around 4am in order to have their offerings to their ancestors blessed. (picture from snappcambodia.com)

Traditionally, then, Pchum Ben is a holiday centered about religious rites at the pagodas. Every Buddhist will visit at least three pagodas during the 15-day period (the ideal number, however, is seven different pagodas) to pray for the souls of their dead relatives. Some people will have to travel very far to visit the pagoda where their dead relatives are most likely to visit, so the pagodas open their doors to allow travelers to sleep at the temples. If the living relatives do not make the appropriate offerings, some believe that the hungry ghosts will curse them in the following year; conversely, if the hungry ghosts are appeased, the living relatives will be blessed with happiness and success. On the final day of the holiday, the hungry ghosts are ordered to return to their prison to wait until the next Pchum Ben.









After the elaborate dishes are blessed, Cambodians parade around the main temple, stopping at each spirit house to drop a portion of the rice and other offerings and to say a quick prayer. Between spirit houses, they will throw some of the sticky rice over the temple railing and out into the field as a direct transfer to the hungry ghosts. (picture from cam111.com)

*quoted text from www.tourismcambodia.com

Cambodia in Holidays: Constitution Day

On September 24th, the Kingdom of Cambodia celebrated their 10thConstitution Day, marking the late King Norodom Sihanouk’s signing of the Cambodian Constitution as well as his re-coronation as king of Cambodia’s newly formed Constitutional Monarchy on September 24th, 1993.

As part of the Paris Peace Accords of 1991, the United Nations stepped in to civil-war torn Cambodia to administer and monitor their first elections in decades. The May 1993 election ushered in a voter turnout of 89.6% of the eligible population, and Cambodia formed their first Parliament to draft and approve a new constitution.

The Preamble of this Constitution reads,

"We, the people of Cambodia, accustomed to having been an outstanding civilization, a prosperous, large, flourishing and glorious nation, with high prestige radiating like a diamond, having declined grievously during the past two decades, having gone through suffering and destruction, and having been weakened terribly,

Having awakened and resolutely rallied and determined to unite for the consolidation of national unity, the preservation and defense of Cambodia’s territory and precious sovereignty and the fine Angkor civilization, and the restoration of Cambodia into an “Island of Peace” based on multi-party liberal democratic responsibility for the nation’s future destiny of moving toward perpetual progress, development, prosperity, and glory.”