In response to the hip-grinding, booty-shaking tunes of the West, one Cambodian teacher of music and poetry endeavours to keep tradition alive.

Photo by: Ou MomRetired arts lecturer Yan Borin is teaching a group of teenage students who want to learn the traditional form of Khmer poetry and set it to the sounds of the flute.

While many of Phnom Penh’s teens listen to hip-hop and R&B, a group of around 30 teenagers at Baktouk High School are listening to a retired teacher of traditional drama. 

The youngsters have formed a group to learn to compose and recite traditional Khmer poems and accompany them on flute, under the tutelage of 61-year-old Yan Borin. 

The former Royal University of Fine Arts lecturer said he had given up his Sunday mornings to nurture the teenagers’ keen interest in studying this traditional artform.

“The students created this study programme and just invited me to teach them,” Yan Borin said. “I didn’t demand a fee from them, but they gave based on their capacity.”

Yan Borin said that while music is part of the curriculum in many countries, the Cambodian education system lacked resources to teach students to play musical instruments. So he endeavours to give his students two hours per week, saying he is proud of them and that they are gifted in poetry.

“They can even get it quicker than some of those who I used to teach at RUFA,” he said. 

Seiha Oudom, 15, is one of the original Baktouk High School students who instigated the poetry club.

“We created this poetry club because Khmer poetry is not widely recognised in Cambodian society,” he said.

Seiha Oudom and three friends entered a poetry competition in Phnom Penh last June, with a “fighting drugs” theme.

Seiha Oudom received first prize while his friend, 15-year-old Chheiv Rachana, came fourth. 

One of the club’s leaders, Seiha Oudom said the group was also promoting Khmer poetry to other students. 

“We also welcome students from other schools as members of our club,” he said.

“We also want to suggest that even if we copy music from other countries, we should then develop it into the Khmer style.”

He said he felt it was important to preserve the Khmer national identity.

“We have asked permission from our school’s principal to recite poems we composed to persuade kids to study hard while showing respect to the national anthem,” Seiha Oudom said. 

Yan Borin said he believed Cambodia has one of the world’s widest ranges of poetry styles. 

“My co-worker and I have found about 60 kinds of Khmer poems and we believe there are still more,” he said.

Chheiv Rachana, who wants to become a doctor but also takes the poetry classes, suggested other students should try to learn about their 

traditional identity rather than simply adopting foreign culture.

“If you are interested in poetry, please do not worry about your voice or talent,” she urged. “At least we can understand the prosperity of the plentiful Khmer poems, which have more value than modern music.”

Yan Borin said traditional music such as Yeke, Basak, and Mohaory had a place alongside modern music. 

“If we, as Cambodian people, don’t try to preserve our culture, who will preserve it for us?” he asked.

Source: www.phnompenhpost.com

VietNamNet Bridge – Once touring Bac Lieu and visiting cultural and historical indigenous attractions such as Vung Hung ancient tower, Bac Lieu ancient house, Nha Mat sea tourists should take a step to Xiem Can Pagoda to discover old Khmer décor and experience the stillness and peace of the sanctuary.

A view of Xiem Can Pagoda in Ca Mau Township

The pagoda, built in the nineteenth century, is in Bien Tay Hamlet, Hiep Thanh Commune, about six kilometers from Bac Lieu Township. The pagoda is renowned with imposing architecture filled with Angkor décor with clusters of towers, tombs striking with colorful and meticulous patterns and bas-relief clearly presenting Buddhist culture in harmony with Indian civilization.

The pagoda captures romance and tranquility by poetic surroundings of seasoned trees and many kinds of flowers. Interior designs are frescoes telling the life of Sakyamuni.

The pagoda is not only a place for locals to worship and pray for good luck and health but also the cultural and education center of the Khmer people. There are training courses for Khmer and Bali languages as well as Buddhist teachings.

The pagoda is also a venue to celebrate traditional cultural festivals such as Ok Om bok, Chol Chnam Thmay and Don Ta. Visiting the pagoda on these occasions, tourists can join the animated festive atmosphere and learn more cultural features of the Khmer people.

VietNamNet/SGT

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn

LONDON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The first ever arts and cultural festival drawing on Buddhist cultural traditions has been unveiled in Britain.     The festival, known as The Many Faces of Buddhism, is held in London at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum and the Barbican Center in collaboration with the Hong Kong-based philanthropic organization -- Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.

    Highlights of the festival include an International Forum on Buddhism and the Arts Today held last Saturday, the opening of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery at the V&A, performances of Buddhist sacred dance, and the first International Buddhist Film Festival in London.

    The new Buddhist sculpture gallery which is to open to the public on Wednesday is the first such gallery in Britain. It features treasures from the V&A's world class collections ranging from monumental Chinese temple sculptures to tiny portable gilded Buddhas.

    The 50 or so sculptures created between AD 200 and 1850 are arranged in geographic groupings demonstrating the diversity of artistic expression throughout Asia, and reflect the differing Buddhist practices of India, Sri Lanka, the Himalayas, Myanmar, Java, Thailand, China and Japan.

    The new gallery includes an 18th-century monumental gilt bronze seated Buddha from China's Tibet, a powerful 7th-century marble torso of the Buddha from Tang Dynasty of China and the head of Buddha, once carved directly into the rock face of a 6th-century cave temple complex at Xiangtangshan, northern China.

    The International Buddhist Film Festival will showcase over 40 films from 18 countries, including 27 UK premieres from May 7 to 17.

    At a press preview of the new gallery held at V&A on Monday, Robert Yau Chung Ho, director of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation, said: "The objective of the Foundation is to support broadly Chinese arts and culture. We sincerely hope that our audience for the Many Faces of Buddhism Festival will begin to appreciate Buddhism's rich enduring history and message and through it will find new ways of experiencing and approaching the world."

    The festival will run through May 17.

Editor: Xiong Tong

Read Related News

Philosophy lecturer Jay Feldman reads a Buddhism text, "Being Upright:

Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts," in his office Friday.

Feldman will be teaching a Buddhism class over the summer at

Universityof Idaho. Jake Barber/Argonau

Written by Anne-Marije Rook - Argonaut ,   Monday, 27 April 2009

From Asia to America, Buddhism has crossed oceans and is starting toflourish in Moscow.  There are two traditional Buddhist groups inMoscow – the Palouse Zen Community and the Golden Blue Lotus TaraTibetan Buddhist Meditation Center – at which University of IdahoProfessor Jay Feldman is offering three ways to learn about Buddhism.

“Moscow has quite a thriving Buddhist community,” Feldman said.

Feldman has been teaching Buddhism at UI for six years, and as of lastweek, he’s leading a Buddhism group at the Unitarian Church which willcontinue until May 17.

This summer, Feldman offers a six-week online Buddhism class that he said can be followed up with his fall on-campus class.

“What I try to do in my courses is to help students get to knowthemselves and become a global citizen,” Feldman said. “My job as ateacher is to teach about Buddhism — to teach it as a philosophy,ethics, religion and psychology.”

Raised Jewish, Feldman said Judaism in the 1950s and ‘60s was goingthrough a difficult period—post-holocaust—and felt it wasn’tspiritually fulfilling.

When he married nine years ago, he inherited a 4-year-old son and hesaid he felt the need to “develop a personal spiritual path such as onecan offer the child and be the best person possible.”

He studied Buddhism at University of Hawai’i and UI.

“I had an affinity to the Buddhism teaching and found it to be mypath,” Feldman said. “Buddhism is not a going-to-church,memorizing-doctrine type of religion.”

Feldman said Buddhism is more than 2,500 years old, and it’s been inthe U.S. since the 1800s when Asian workers immigrated for the GoldRush. The 1940s through ‘50s beat generation was the main drive behindBuddhism in America.

The Buddhism practiced in America today is considered American Buddhismbecause the lack of a formal doctrine allows for Buddhism to assimilateto a country’s culture.

Although one may find Buddhist temples in larger cities, Feldman said Buddhism in America is not a temple practice.

“What makes Buddhism appealing, is because (of) its non-doctrinebeliefs, it’s not orthodox,” Feldman said. “In fact, Buddhism tells us‘don’t take things on authority.’ This is appealing to Americansbecause many Americans like individuality and distrust authority. It’sa personal path­—we’re all trying to figure out what this life isabout.”

Feldman said American Buddhism is now faced with some interestingchallenges as it adapts to people with disabilities, female priests,people of color and gay people.

Feldman said they welcome all with open arms.

“The basic tenants of Buddhism are love and compassion and to end suffering for all beings,” he said.

This extends to environmental issues as well.

Marie Haley, an exchange student from New Zealand, is currently takingdirected studies in Engaged Buddhism with Feldman. She said she wasattracted to Buddhism because of her travels through Asia.

Haley said her environmental club in New Zealand has been incorporatingBuddhist teachings by taking a holistic approach to change.

“In the beginning I wanted to save the world,” Haley said. “Now I realize the world doesn’t need saving.”

Instead, Haley said we need to change environmental habits.

“We’re individualistic,” she said. “We think it’s our body, our landand we get to do with it what we want. In Buddhism you learn it’s allintegrated.”

Feldman said he encourages people of all faiths and backgrounds toattend his courses or drop in on a session at the Unitarian Church.

“If you come to my class with previous spiritual commitment, there’s agood chance you’ll leave with a deeper spiritual commitment,” Feldmansaid.

Haley said Buddhist teachings are part of her life now.

“Buddhism is about experience,” Haley said. “If you’re open, you might get a more intimate experience with life.”

Written by May Titthara
Phnom Penh Post, Monday, 27 April 2009

Ceremony kicks off a 10-day course in which prospective monks
and nuns study Buddhist history and Cambodian cultur

Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN

A monk shaves the head of a young novice on Saturday.

Kandal Province_HUNDREDS of young men and women travelledto Wat Soriya Puomeas in Kandal's Muk Kampul district Saturday to beordained as monks and nuns at a 10-day course on Buddhist teachings,organisers said, adding, however, that the numbers were far fewer thanexpected.

"We will teach them how to be grateful to their parents, about thehistory of the Buddha, the value of Cambodian culture and about socialmorals," said Chhunn Noem, chief of the Cambodian Student Associationbased in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Chhunn Noem said the total number who made the trip, around 270, was far lower than the 500 he had anticipated.  

"We only had a short time to promote this ceremony," he said. He said only about 40 women came to participate in the ceremony.

"Some of our mothers do not allow their daughters to become ordainedbecause they think that nobody would be able to take care of the house,or they think their daughters are too busy with their studies," hesaid.

Chab Ny, 19, from Kampong Cham province, said he participated in the ceremony "to study about the Buddhist rules".

"I will be a monk forever because I think that 10 days is not enoughfor me to study," he said.  Suom Heng, 46, said, "Today my son come tobe ordained as a monk because he wanted to be thankful for me and hismother."