Pchum Ben: A Feast For The Souls

On the 1st day of the 10th month of the Khmer calendar (Sept 15 on the Gregorian calendar this year), Lord Yama, the God of Death, opens the gates of hell that will remain open for the next 15 days. It’s the start of Pchum Ben, better known as the Festival of the Dead to foreigners. When the Lord of Death opens the gates, he allows trapped souls to find their living relatives to receive merit and karma transfer. Trapped souls are suffering souls. Khmers believe in the Hindu concept of reincarnation. We believe that souls are not reborn right away. Some souls are trapped in hell (the spirit realm) and some are still wandering in the human realm. If a deceased person did not receive a proper cremation, his or her soul might linger on earth. We also believe that if a person dies a violent death, a tragic death, or an unjust death, his/her soul becomes a restless soul, and a restless soul cannot move on. Also, there are those who accumulated bad karma (action has consequences) in their previous lives, which resulted in their souls being trapped in hell. Merit and karma transferring rituals are performed in order to release suffering souls.

Merit and karma transferring is a process that is centered on the belief of taking refuge in the dhamma (Buddha’s teaching) and the sangha (ordained monks and nuns). Merit is viewed as a means of transferring karmic power from one relative to another. Merit is morally generated. Therefore, it has the power to morally regenerate in turn. Merit is morally generated because it comes from selfless acts. Charities or aids made by laymen to monks, nuns, and the general public are viewed as aids with no strings attached, meaning aids that are not offered to generate merit for oneself. They are offered for the benefit of others who need the ensuing merit. The ability to give and receive in inherent goodness allows relatives the means to provide care and comfort for their departed, and to help lessen their suffering, so these souls can garner karmic support and finally move on.

Pchum Ben was born out of Khmer animistic beliefs and was co-opted by Hinduism after it reached Cambodia around 500 BC. It went on to be co-opted by Theravada Buddhism after the decline of Hinduism in Cambodia in the 16th century. Until the late 9th century, Pchum Ben was celebrated on an individual or family level. According to an inscription, King Yasovarman I (r. 889-910) was the first ruler to organize a nationwide Pchum Ben service dedicated to the country’s dead soldiers. And it has since become a national service.

The first 14 days of the festival are called Kan Ben. Kan means to hold. Ben is an offering, derived from the Sanskrit pinda, a ball of rice to be offered to the souls of the dead. During these 14 days, Khmers offer food and gifts to monks, nuns, and various elderly people at monasteries. The last day of the festival is called Pchum Ben. Pchum means gathering. On this last and most important day of the festival, at every monastery, massive collections of bens are gathered around the five mounds constructed from rice or sand, representing Mount Meru, home of the Gods. Those bens are then dedicated to the souls of the dead who have no living relatives or whose living relatives, for whatever reason, couldn’t participate in the 15-day event.

Considering the bloodshed in recent Cambodian history, the festival has become the single most important event in Khmer lives. With the killings during the Khmer Rouge era, victims or killers may have had their souls condemned to wander; their souls are doomed to never reincarnate unless the living provide relief in proper rituals, and Pchum Ben is one such ritual.

Source: Caring for the Dead Ritually in Cambodia (2012) by John Clifford Holt

The Many Facets Of Love

I want to talk about love today. I mean the word “love” in the Khmer language as well as all stages of love according to Khmer tradition. I’ve mentioned before on this page that Khmer society is hierarchical. Social relationships are based on rankings. Within the family unit, rankings are based on birth order. Outside of families, social rankings are based on a variety of factors such as religious piety, age, profession, gender and education. As such, the Khmer language (both written and spoken) reflects these hierarchies. Some words one uses to communicate with a friend are totally different from the words one uses to communicate with a monk, a royal, a senior citizen, or a kid. There are nearly ten different words for I. I’m not even sure I know all the Khmer words for eat. There’re just so many of them. Two different words for uncle, two for aunt, a handful for smell. As a result, the Khmer lexicon is very extensive. On top of that, Khmer is heavily influenced by Sanskrit, which arrived on mainland Southeast Asia along with Hinduism around the 5th century BC. The Sanskrit influence is found in the religious, law, military, science, and royal registers. Having said that, the majority of Sanskrit borrowings are more of a style rather than a necessity. This also applies to Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism, which came into contact with the Khmer language in the late 14th century. After the mid-19th century, the French influence on the language emerged as well. So you can imagine how bloated the modern Khmer language has become. 

Now let’s get back to love. Surprisingly, there is only one native Khmer word for love, and it’s sralanh.

The word sralanh is generally used more as a verb. 

Khn’om sralanh nak            =          I love you (gender-neutral)

Khn’om sralanh oun/bong sralanh oun           =          I love you (male to female)

Khn’om sralanh bong/oun sralanh bong =          I love you (female to male)

Using it as a noun, sralanh needs a pragmatic particle 

Sechakdei​ sralanh          =       love

Sechakdai sralanh rr’bas khn’om thom cheang chakravar            =      my love is bigger than the universe

Sechakdai sralanh is seldom used in spoken Khmer, instead we use sneah/sneaha to mean love. In both spoken and written form, sneah/sneaha and sechakdai sneah/sneaha can be both used as a noun.

Sneah/sneaha comes from the Sanskrit sneha which means maternal love or affection. In Khmer, sneaha denotes all kinds of love, be it maternal or romantic love.

Sneaha/sechakdai sneah =          love

Roueng sneaha    =       love/romantic affair, love story          

Sneaha yeung          =          our love

Next word is kama, from Kamadeva, the God of Love. Just like the sages of ancient India, in past times, Khmers viewed kama as the first stage of love. Kama means passion or pleasure of the senses, but not necessary of a sexual kind. Overtimes kama has become known as sexual desire. In modern Khmer, kama is mostly used in lyrics, songs and other written literature. 

Kama without true intimacy can leave most of us feeling empty. Emotional connection is needed. To build that connection, sharing of feelings and affections are a must. The result is sanchetna. Sanchetna is what we call romance. It is the next stage of love. From the Sanskrit shringara, sanchetna is the feeling of attraction we get from kama. Modern Khmers use mnosanchetna to denote both romance and sentimental, with mno coming from the Greek by way of French.  

Third is motherly love, maitri, from the Sanskrit maitri. This is compassion for all living beings. A simple kindness toward your neighbor, or charity to a children’s shelter. This is the most selfless form of love. In modern Khmer, maitri means a crush. There is, however, another word derived from maitri that still retains its original meaning. It’s meata. 

The fourth stage is beyond interpersonal love. This is the love of Gods, bhakti. In Khmer, bhakti can be found only in religious liturgy. 

The last stage of love, according to Hindu tradition, is atma prema, self love. In Khmer tradition, the concept of self love is not something we are familiar with. 

Here are a few more native Khmer words and phrases used in association with love

Saamnoup   =          within embrace 

Chet            =          feeling 

Ey = a positive aspirate sound

Saamnoup chet = love 

Saamnoup chet ey/saamnoup chet khn’om ey = my love 

saamnoup chet khn’om = my love 

Prolung     =          soul, essence 

Prolung ey = my love, sweetheart (as an endearment)

There are many more words and phrases dotted all over the contemporary Khmer lexicon. Khmer lyrics and songs are a great way to learn them.

Khmer New Year Games

Khmer New Year is in a few weeks. New Year is a time when families come together to celebrate with food and drinks, as well as singing, dancing and a visit to the monasteries. They also play traditional games and strangers are welcomed to join in.

Khmer traditional games are to be played in the days leading up to and on New Year Days. A few are games to be played only on those days, while several others can be played at any gathering. The game of teanh prot (pulling the rope) is a game you might understand as tug-of-war. This is a ritual game to be played on the evening of the last day of New Year in the village square or on temple grounds. I wrote about teanh prot before. You can read it here.

The second game is my favorite, bos angkunh (throw angkunh). Angkunh is a vine tree grown in the northeastern part of the country. It consists of a large stem and contains large fruits. Each fruit has a few seeds that are circular and flat, the size of a kneecap. (Incidentally, angkunh is also the Khmer word for the kneecap.) As the fruit ripens, the seed becomes hard and smooth and turns a beautiful burgundy color. This seed is used to play bos angkunh.

There are two ways to play the game, the simple and the extended versions. The simple one consists of just throwing the angkunh seeds to hit the target angkunh seeds. The extended one adds five more stages to the throwing stage. Both versions end with the same penalty calls jous.

Players in this game are divided into two teams with the same number of people. Each team plants five seeds in a pyramid shape, representing Mount Meru, in the ground facing each other, between six to eight meters away. Both teams decide beforehand how many seeds they want to use as throwing seeds. They also decide which team throws first. Every member of each team is given a chance to throw the seeds. In the simple version, the “throwing team” throws the seeds in order to knock down the “planted seeds” of the other team one by one, leaving the middle seed (top of the pyramid) last. When the “throwing team” successfully knocks down all of the “planted seeds” and the other team cannot knock down all the seeds, the winner will get to jous (hit) the kneecaps of the losers. However, if the “throwing team” knocks down the middle seed before the other seeds, they will lose and vice versa. The jous is accomplished by holding one seed against the kneecap, and hitting it with the other seed using one hand; only kids are allowed both hands. If any member of the winning team fails to produce a clicking sound when hitting the loser’s kneecap, the losing team gets to hit back. And getting your kneecap hit by angkunh seeds can be quite painful.

The third game is called chaol chhoung or bos chhoung which means to throw chhoung. Chhoung is a piece of scarf rolled into a ball the size of a bare coconut and tied at the end to form a tail used for holding and throwing. This game is the most popular because it includes spontaneous dancing and singing duets. And since the duets are spontaneous, they can be flirty and playful.

This game is played the first night of New Year by two teams made up of males and females. Ten or 20 people make up each team, standing in two rows opposite each other. One team throws the chhoung to the other team. When the chhoung is caught, it will be rapidly thrown back to the first team. If someone is hit by the chhoung, that person moves to the other team and the whole team must dance to get the chhoung and their teammate back while the other team sings. If a gal has her eye on some guy, she can aim for him and sing a flirty song to get his attention and vice versa.

Khmers don’t really follow certain rituals involved in these games anymore. Teanh prot is played anywhere, anytime, and cutting off the rope at the end of the game is no longer performed. However, people do not play bos angkunh and chaol chhoung after New Year Days. If you ever find yourself in Cambodia around New Year days, join in a game or two.

The Gift of Giving

The usefulness of a gift is dependent on the need of the recipient.

Sri Dharmaraja II of Cambodia (reign 1627-1631)

"High Noon"

 

Hierarchy in Language

Khmer society is hierarchical. Social relationships are based on rankings. Within the family unit, rankings are based on birth orders, outside of families, social rankings are based on a variety of factors such as religious piety, age, profession, gender and education. As such, the Khmer language (both written and spoken) reflects these hierarchies. Some words you’d use to communicate with your friend are totally different from the words you’d use to communicate with a monk, royalty, a senior citizen, or a kid. 

For example: the word for your aunt or uncle is depended on his or her birth order in relation to your father’s or your mother’s

Your father’s or your mother’s younger sister is ming

Your father’s or your mother’s older sister is oum

Your father’s or your mother’s younger brother is pou

Your father’s or your mother’s older brother is oum

“Perdition” and Unusual Emotional Descriptions

In Khmer literature, authors often talk about intestines, liver, lungs or even blood in connection with emotions. In verse-novels, the character would describe his loved one as precious to him as his lungs, even his lungs. The same descriptions occur in poetry and lyrics. In the song below, the woman describes her suffering as having felt pressure and pain in her liver. These terms probably sound odd to westerners, or to anyone who is unfamiliar with Khmer language. 

"Serenade of Noe and Pich" and Khmers' Love of Repetition

Repetition of words or phrases is a lively and essential part of Khmer language, both spoken and literary spheres. The song below made use of that quite liberally.

It's Friday, It Must be Blue

According to Khmer tradition, each day of the week is associated with a certain color. And that color is linked to a certain divinity that is venerated on that day. People are advised to dress each day according to the color of the presiding divinity to bring health, prosperity, and happiness to their lives. In the olden days, most women, especially aristocratic women, would dress accordingly every day. 

There are several poems written about this over the centuries, and the oldest one goes as follows 

Red is for Sunday,

Monday is orange that looks truly like the Moon,

Purple is reserved for Tuesday,

Wednesday is the beautiful green of the liep plant.

Thursday is the yellowish green of the young banana palm,

Happy Friday is blue, and must be neat and tidy,

Saturday is the color of ripe pring,

As passed down by the ancients.

So blue reigns supreme today. Blue is the color of the vicious and wrathful Durga (another form of the Mother Goddess Shakti). The goddess’ fury and rage are aimed only at evil and demonic forces in order to liberate the oppressed and to ensure the power of creation. Durga is also known as the one who destroys all distress. In Khmer culture, her day is referred to as happy Friday (sok sabay). And to honor her, we are advised to dress smartly and to dress well. If you are planning to move into a new home, Friday is the day to do so. 

Quote of the Day

The red krama goes with a black shirt adorned with a whole troop of buttons.

Victims of the Khmer Rouge