All Culture & Customs Posts

Jul
09

Cambodia Travel GuideThe National Psyche

Posted by chi.nh

Since the glory days of the Angkor empire of old, the Cambodian people have been on the losing side of many a historical battle, their little country all too often a minnow amid the circling sharks. Popular attitudes have been shaped by this history, the relationship between Cambodia and its powerful neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam, based on fear – sometimes loathing.

The Thais are loathed for their patronizing attitudes towards their smaller neighbor, their unwillingness to acknowledge their cultural debt to Cambodia and the popularly held belief that Angkor belongs to Thailand. Most Khmers think of their Thai neighbors as cultural kidnappers who have aided and abetted Cambodia’s decline.

Cambodian attitudes towards the Vietnamese are awkward and ambivalent. Sure they generally loathe them too, but it is balanced with a begrudging respect for their hard work ethic and liberation’ from the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. When “liberation” became occupation in the 1980s, most Khmers soon remembered why they didn’t like the Vietnamese after all. Many Cambodians feel the Vietnamese are colonizing their country and stealing their land, but better the devil you know. If most Cambodians had to choose who they mistrusted more, it would probably be the Thais – at least the Vietnamese understand the suffering of the Cambodian people, as they have suffered too.

At first glance, Cambodia appears to be a nation full of shiny, happy people, but look a little deeper and it soon becomes e country of contradictions. Light and dark, rich and poor, love and hate, life and death – all are visible on a journey through the kingdom, but most telling of all is the glorious past set against Cambodia’s tragic present.

Angkor is everywhere: it’s on the flag, it’s the national beer, it’s hotels and guesthouses, it’s cigarettes, it’s anything and everything. It’s a symbol of nationhood, of fierce pride, a fingers-up to the world that says no matter how bad things have become, you can’t forget the fact that we, the Cambodians, built Angkor Wat and it doesn’t come bigger than that. Jayavarman VII, Angkor’s greatest king, is nearly as omnipresent as his temples. The man that vanquished the occupying Chams and took the empire to its greatest glories is a national hero.

Contrast this with the abyss into which the nation was sucked during the hellish years of the Khmer Rouge, which left a people profoundly shocked, suffering inside, stoical on the outside. Pol Pot is a dirty word in Cambodia due to the death and suffering he inflicted on the country. Whenever you hear his name, it will be connected with stories of endless personal tragedy, of dead brothers, mothers and babies, from which most Cambodians have never had the chance to recover. Such suffering takes generations to heal and meanwhile the country is crippled by a short-term mentality that encourages people to live for today, not to think about tomorrow – because not so long ago there was no tomorrow. No-one has tasted justice, the whys and hows remain unanswered and the older generation must live with the shadow of this trauma stalking their everv wakina hour.

If Jayavarman VlI and Angkor are loved and Pol Pot despised, the mercurial Sihanouk, the last of the god-kings who was ultimately shown his human side, is somewhere in between. Many Cambodians love him as the father of the nation, and to them his portrait is ubiquitous, but to others he is the man who failed the nation by his association with the Khmer Rouge. In many ways, his contradictions are those of contemporary Cambodia. Understand him and what he has had to survive and you will understand much of Cambodia.

Jul
09

Cambodia Travel GuideLifestyle

Posted by chi.nh

For many older Cambodians, life is centred on family, faith and food, a timeless existence that has stayed the same for centuries. Family is more than the nuclear family we now know in the West – it’s the extended family of third cousins and obscure aunts (as long as there is a bloodline there is a bond). Families stick together, solve problems collectively, listen to the wisdom of the elders and pool resources. The extended family comes together during times of trouble or times of joy, celebrating festivals and successes, mourning deaths or disappointments. Whether the Cambodian house is big or small one thing is certain: there will be a lot of people living inside.

For the majority of the population still living in the countryside, these constants carry on as they have: several generations sharing the same roof, the same rice and the same religion. But during the dark decades of the 1970s and 1980s, this routine was ripped apart by war and ideology, as the peasants were dragged from all they held dear to fight a bloody civil war and later forced into slavery. Angkor, the Khmer Rouge organization, took over as the moral and social beacon in the lives of the people and families were forced apart, children turned against parents, brothers against sister. The bond of trust was broken and is only slowly being rebuilt today.

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Jul
09

Cambodia Travel GuideGreetings and visiting in Cambodia

Posted by chi.nh

Greetings

Cambodians traditionally greet each other with the sompiah, which involves pressing the hands together in prayer and bowing, similar to the wai in Thailand. The higher the hands and the lower the bow the more respect is conveyed- important to remember when meeting officials or the elderly. In recent times this custom has been partially replaced by handshake but; although men tend to shake hands with each other, women usually use the traditional greeting with both men and women. It is considered acceptable (or perhaps excusable for foreigners to shake hands with Cambodians of both sexes.

Getting to grips with face is the key to success in Asia, and Cambodia is no exception. Having “big face” is synonymous with prestige, and prestige is particularly important in Cambodia. All families, even poor ones, are expected to have big wedding parties and throw their money around like it is water in order to gain face. This is often ruinously expensive, but far less detrimental than “losing’ face”.

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Jul
09

Cambodia Travel GuideDress in Cambodia

Posted by chi.nh

Both men and women often wear cotton or silk sarongs, especially at home. Men who can afford it usually prefer to wear silk sarongs. Most urban Khmer men dress in trousers and these days most urban women dress in western-style clothing.

On formal occasions such as religious festivals and family celebrations, women often wear a hoi (a type of shirt) during the day. At night they change into single-color silk dresses called phamuong, which are deco- rated along the hems. If the celebration is a wedding, the colors of such garments are dictated by the day of the week on which the wedding falls. The women of Cambodia are generally modest in their dress, although this is fast changing in the bigger towns and cities.

Travelers crossing the border from liberal Thai islands such as Ko Pha Ngan or Ko Chang should remember they have crossed back in time as far as traditions are concerned, end ‘that wandering around the temples of Angkor bare-chested (men) or scantily clad (women) will not be appreciated by Khmers. Nude bathing is a definite no-no!