Impressions from Phnom Penh
I arrived late in the afternoon, so there wasn’t a lot of time to see too much on my first day in Cambodia. On the drive from the airport into the city, we passed a ca. 10-foot statue of a standing Ganesha in Khmer attire, which I found fascinating. Unfortunately, the taxi was going too fast for the photo to come out, but that statue set a pattern for the kinds of syncretic art I would later see in the city and in Siem Reap. The hotel, Ohana Palace Hotel, was right off the river and was very conveniently located to some of the major attractions including the National Museum and Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace reminded me of a slightly less intricate version of the Thai Royal Palace in Bangkok. The roofs still have flaming spikes, but they aren’t quite as elaborate as those in the Thai capital. There are also a bit more reserved decorative elements on the walls, with the exception of the Khmer version of the Ramayana that graces the surrounding walls with 1056 imagery panels. As this is a 19th C palace, it seems clear that they were done in imitation of those in Bangkok. There is one structure, however, where simplicity is not the order of the day. The Silver Pagoda in the center of the complex is quite striking and houses some of the most ornate Buddhas I have yet to see, including a 17th C sitting Emerald Buddha and a very bright gold standing Maitreya draped in royal attire with over 9500 diamonds including two very large ones on the Buddha’s crown and as his third eye; this one is reputed to be 25 carats. The complex also has a number of elephant statues, as royalty was associated with white elephants, the last of which was given to the U.S. in 1956. The Palace is still home to the King and as such the northern part of the complex is off limits to non-official visitors. The Throne Hall, however, is open to the public and is smaller than I had thought it would be. The side rooms look reminiscent of a 19th C European aristocratic waiting room with side tables, chairs and sofas, while the center space in front of the throne is open for locals to kneel and bow on the floor in front of their regent. The roof of the Hall was inspired by the Bayon in Angkor Thom, near Siem Reap. The complex is landscaped to perfection, with not a leaf out of place.
The Palace overlooks the river and there are parks lining this section of the boardwalk. People use the parks to fly beautifully colored kites, participate in mass exercise sessions led by one person with a boom box, to eat at any of the vending stalls or just to hang out with friends and family. They are open, active, spaces where locals and tourist mix in their enjoyment of the warm dry weather.
Around the corner from the Royal Palace is a large wooden building that houses the National Museum. Photography was not allowed in the museum itself, but was in the central courtyard garden. The museum is nicely laid out by time period with good descriptions of the various Khmer kings and the events/buildings they are most associated with. The museum’s collection is filled with Khmer Hindu and Buddhist figures, the former often being quite different from Indian Hindu imagery, as the aforementioned Ganesha indicates. Here Shiva and Vishnu can sport moustaches, and fish-tailed skirts, Shiva can wear something that looks like a cylindrical top hat, and Vishnu can look like any respectable Khmer but with four arms. The lintels displayed in the garden showcase the various Khmer artistic styles going from heavily vine and plant draped to those that tell scenes from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Jataka Tales or Life of the Buddha. One of the most striking aspects of Khmer statuary is the fact that up until the 12th C and sometimes well into the 13th they relied on stone support for the images, so there will be a post between the Buddha’s or Shiva’s legs as support.
Between the National Museum and the Royal Palace is Wat Ounalom, which is the center of Cambodian Buddhism. We were fortunate to be there right when a special “Dharma Darshan” exhibition was taking place. There were a series of posters explaining Buddhism, the Life of the Buddha, and the Jataka Tales in one hall and Tibetan monks doing a mandala sand painting in another. At 9am and 5pm guest monks performed a series of Cham dances for those in the monastery and it’s visitors. We saw a 9am show and it was wonderful. A series of musicians entered to set the stage with long horns, oboe-like instruments, a drum, cymbals and gongs. Then they chanted in the double-throated manner for a while before going back to the instrumental performance. The cymbals clashed and five masked Buddhas, the Buddhas of the Five Directions, came down the steps for their dance. They were followed by two fierce guardian figures who leapt around a lot, who were then followed by four death masks who took the leaps even higher. It was a delightful show and we were lucky to see it. I did feel a bit sorry for the young monks in the heavy robes, felt boots and masks, however, as it was at least 90 degrees early in the morning and by the 5pm show, they would probably be suffocating under the layers of clothing.
Our tuk-tuk, which is different from those in India, (the ones in Cambodia are carriages attached to the back of a motorcycle) took us to Wat Phnom, which is perhaps the most sacred temple outside of the Wat Ounalom Monastery in Phnom Penh. It is up a small staircase and is a relatively small temple, but does have a number of elaborate Buddhas, some complete with neon radiating halos as they were in Myanmar. We had been told that the temple was a good place to watch the sunset, but that turned out not to be the case as the foliage from the trees entirely blocked the view. It was good to see the trees, even if not the setting sun.
As a detour from the temple tour, we went to S-21 Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and former Pol Pot era jail. It was heart wrenching. The extent to which we are capable of hurting one another is truly terrifying. After leaving the introductory film, I wrote the following:
Screaming silence
In now abandoned
Torture chambers
Cries unheard
False testimonies coerced
Bones crushed, nails pulled
Alcohol on open wounds
Shattered legs
Squished flesh
Bound by iron rods
Glued by blood
Humanity deserted
Compassion punished
Sorrow beyond tears
Suffering beyond comprehension
Perpetual anguish
Will to die
Not to live
Hope lost amid the pain
No end in sight
No sun in view
With blood
Of innocents
Rural, urban, educated, poor
The toll on all
The future of the country
Terror begets terror
Fear begets fear
Trust an alien conception
Minds’ voice silenced
To think is death
Yet death relieves the pain
The Reaper as a savior
Cresting hope on waves of loss
Few survive for broken lives
Tourists now surround the grounds
Amid falling grey shutters
Unhinged doors, barb-wired gates
Testament of the past
Reminder for the future.
Pol Pot’s four-year regime massacred between 2-4 million Cambodians. Brother against brother, husband against wife, children against parents; no one could trust anyone. I was told that over 90% of the artists were killed as well as the majority of the country’s educated citizenry. The massive devastation is mind-boggling. Today Cambodia is coming out from this dark period and amid the broken bodies and minds, the people demonstrate an admirable resilience and fortitude of spirit. Perhaps their former glory helps them to overcome this recent wretched past.
One sign of this fortitude is the rebuilding of traditional arts, including that of Cambodian opera. This opera, like that in Vietnam and China, is not like Western opera in that there is not one composer, nor a full orchestra. There are a few instruments on stage including a lute, drum and cymbals, as well as two singers who sing the chorus sections and the songs the main characters are thinking. The characters act their roles with highly stylized movements and speak their dialogue parts, but those are minimalist in nature. The story lines follow traditional tales that most people know; so extensive dialogue explanation is not needed. The performance we saw at the National Museum, which hosts evening performances as a means to reinvigorate the arts, was about a farmer who married a beautiful young woman. They loved each other deeply, but when she had a dream that a serpent was threatening her, the farmer knew something bad was going to happen. It did, in the form of the Prince who tried to abduct her. She didn’t want to go with him, so the Prince threatened to kill her if she didn’t. When the farmer found out what had happened he was extremely distraught and at first didn’t know what to do. Against the advice of the other townsfolk, he decided to go to the palace and ask the King for justice. At first he wasn’t admitted, but after the intercession of a minister/advisor he was able to explain that someone had stolen his wife and wanted to know if was the King going to allow this. The King and his retinue were clearly upset with the idea of someone stealing someone else’s wife as that could lead to total chaos. When the King asked for the name of the culprit and was told it was his own son, he was in a bit of a bind. He then called for his son, who denied the charges, or ever having met the man. The King then called for the young woman to come, but when she wanted to run to her husband, the Prince stealthily unshielded his sword indicating that if she did or said anything contrary to the wishes of the Prince, she would be killed, so she denied being married to her husband. The farmer railed to the heavens about her betrayal upon which the King’s advisor said that there might be more to the story than met the eye. He asked the King to allow for a trail by sacred drum. At first the farmer and the Prince were sent off for them to discuss the situation alone, with only the truth drum in their presence. Then the farmer and his wife were sent off. She explained that she had not betrayed him and that she loved him, but her life had been threatened. When they were picking up the sacred drum, which was hung from a pole that both had to carry on their shoulders, the farmer slid the drum more to his side, making her side easier to carry. The entire opera had little elements like this that spoke volumes about the feelings of the characters on stage. When they returned to the palace, the oracle for the drum then relayed that the farmer had spoken the truth, and the Prince had not. The Prince flew in to a fury and tried to attack the farmer but was held back. The young woman confessed that she really was married and started across the stage to her husband when the Prince stabbed her. The King was left with no choice but to have his son arrested, and subsequently executed, for betraying the people’s trust in the throne. The farmer did get justice, but at the cost of his wife.
The themes of lost love, lack of trust, questioning the feasibility of justice in this world, oppression of the poor, and crippling and crippled lives are all found in this one-hour show. This opera touches on some of the main issues Cambodia as a whole is still struggling with.
From Phnom Penh we drove via the former capital at Udong to Siem Reap and the Angkor temples.
