khmer herritate

Our mission is to preserve, promote, and celebrate Cambodian arts and culture in an effort to advance the Cambodian community and to create an environment for artistic innovations.

We have produced cultural events in Khmer language and sponsored exhibitions of traditional Cambodian visual and performing arts forms in various venues with other organizations in Long Beach and the surrounding communities, including:

• The Lotus Festival in Los Angeles
• The Anaheim Street International Festival
• Cambodian New Year Festival and
• The 5K Spiral Walkathon sponsored by Friends Without A Border.

We also has supported and provided services to the number of local Cambodian and Southeast Asian artists.

khmer herritate

Khmer Cultural Center is a non-profit community based arts organization rooted in the arts and cultural tradition, and experience of Cambodia.

Khmer Cultural Center was founded by Mon Duch, Chum Sambath, Chetra Keo, Narin Antoniades, and Sean Theng Ban in 1998.

It was founded on the conviction that our cultural legacy can play a major role in developing a positive identity, preserving traditional arts, encouraging a vision of entrepreneurial possibility within the Cambodian neighborhood of Long Beach, and in turn, the Cambodian communities throughout America. Our aim is to position Khmer Cultural Center as a national center for Cambodian arts and culture in an effort to advance the Cambodian community and to create an environment for artistic innovations.

Chamroeun Yin

Chamroeun Yin

Chamroeun Yin was born in the province of Battambang, Cambodia, in 1957. He received his initial training in Khmer folk arts from his father, a carpenter and cabinetmaker who crafted the ritual furniture and objects needed for weddings and in Buddhist temples, as well as everyday artifacts. His father was a musician, and Mr. Yin developed a knowledge and appreciation of music and dance in these early years.

Through an apprenticeship with a cousin, he became a tailor and dressmaker crafting Khmer traditional clothes. His talents were further developed in the Khao I Dang refugee camp in Thailand, to which he escaped in 1979. There, he encountered classically trained court musicians and dancers who recruited young people for classes in Cambodian art and culture. Soon he became, in his words, "crazy for dancing." While other people in the camps worked to earn extra money for food, Mr. Yin spent his days practicing the disciplined art of court dance. What money he earned as a tailor in the camp he spent not on food, but on fabric and materials to make the elaborately beaded dance costumes for the group's performances.

Mr. Yin came to America as an artistic refugee as part of the Khmer Classical Dance Troupe, which toured the nation to great acclaim in 1981-1982. The troupe settled in the Washington, D.C., area but eventually disbanded as artists had to find ways of making a living. Mr. Yin moved to Philadelphia in 1989. Here he works in several mediums. He is a teang ka, or "ritual beautician," someone who creates wedding costumes and makes the bride and groom "beautiful like the king and queen." He teaches Khmer court dance and mask-making to Khmer youth, and performs regularly. He continues to develop his artistry, devising new ways to make items such as dance crowns out of laminated cardboard and papier mâché, and adding to the community's growing collection of dance costumes.

Through dance, sculpture, choreography, teaching, performances, and weddings, Mr. Yin tries to explore and communicate Cambodian values, creating "movements that show you what is polite or rude, beautiful or ugly." He dances with passion and delicacy, and with a sense of the importance of keeping alive the fragile threads of Khmer dance tradition: "I dance because I want to keep my culture. I want this dance to stay alive forever in the future."

Since coming to Philadelphia, Mr. Yin has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Dance Advance program as a master dancer. He has received grants to teach classical Khmer dance to apprentices in the local community and to pursue his own work in both dance and crafts. He has also organized, choreographed, and presented the annual dance performances for the Khmer New Year before audiences of about 500 people. He has performed at LaSalle University, Penn State, Community College of Philadelphia, the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial, International House, and at various community sites. His craftsmanship has been exhibited in exhibitions curated by the Philadelphia Folklore Project. In the Folklore Project's folk arts residency program, he teaches crafts and dance, linked arts of central importance to the Khmer community today.

Khmer Society

Khmer Society
History of Cambodia

To glimpse into the Khmer Society, we can understand that the top of the hierarchy should have been the god-king or deva-raja, surrounded by his tutors who were brahmins, and also by the members of his royal family. The priests residing in the temples were also powerful as they seem to own many lands and the paddy fields.
The stone inscription found in many temples gave some glimpses to the donors whose names were written with the titles. These donors could have been the noblemen or the dignitaries of the Khmer's ruling class responsible for the administrative and judiciary tasks, however, their titles were unfamiliar to the historians and the hierarchical ranks were not known, thus it is difficult to draw a complete table of hierarchy for the Angkor Empire.
Since the economy of the Khmer civilization was based mainly on agriculture, the majority of the people should have been the peasants or the farmers living in the villages. It was not clearly certain that there were any small landowners in the kingdom since most inscriptions often referred to large landowners of the elite class or of the temples.
The lowest hierarchy of the Khmer civilization should have been the slaves. Interestingly, there were two types of slaves in the kingdom which are worth mentioning and distinguished. As previously discussed in the chapter of "inscription", some of the Khmer stone inscriptions were found to list the names of slaves who belonged to the temples. Since their names were carefully crafted and enshrined in the holy place, they could not have been the low class slaves as its word "slave" implied. The historians believed that they were actually the temple servants and the priests who were "the slaves only to the gods", and not to any human being. In reality then, the "actual slaves" were mostly the captives from the neighboring countries, however, it was found that the Khmer people themselves could fall into the lowest status of being a "slave" if they failed to pay their rents or loans to the upper ruling class.

Great Wall of China

History

Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty

Great Wall of the Han Dynasty

Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty

Map of the whole wall constructions

The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building by the time of the Spring and Autumn Period, which began around the 8th century BC. During the Warring States Period from the 5th century BC to 221 BC, the states of Qi, Yan and Zhao all constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. Built to withstand the attack of small arms such as swords and spears, these walls were made mostly by stamping earth and gravel between board frames. Qin Shi Huang conquered all opposing states and unified China in 221 BC, establishing the Qin Dynasty. Intending to impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, he ordered the destruction of the wall sections that divided his empire along the former state borders. To protect the empire against intrusions by the Xiongnu people from the north, he ordered the building of a new wall to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire's new northern frontier. Transporting the large quantity of materials required for construction was difficult, so builders always tried to use local resources. Stones from the mountains were used over mountain ranges, while rammed earth was used for construction in the plains. There are no surviving historical records indicating the exact length and course of the Qin Dynasty walls. Most of the ancient walls have eroded away over the centuries, and very few sections remain today. Later, the Han, Sui, Northern and Jin dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern invaders.

The Great Wall concept was revived again during the Ming Dynasty following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu in 1449. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper-hand over the Manchurian and Mongolian tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Huang He.

Photograph of the Great Wall in 1907

Unlike the earlier Qin fortifications, the Ming construction was stronger and more elaborate due to the use of bricks and stone instead of rammed earth. As Mongol raids continued periodically over the years, the Ming devoted considerable resources to repair and reinforce the walls. Sections near the Ming capital of Beijing were especially strong.^[10]

During the 1440s–1460s, the Ming also built a so-called "Liaodong Wall". Similar in function to the Great Wall (whose extension it, in a sense, was), but more basic in construction, the Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north. While stones and tiles were used in some parts of the Liaodong Wall, most of it was in fact simply an earth dike with moats on both sides.^[11]

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Under the military command of Yuan Chonghuan, the Ming army held off the Manchus at the heavily fortified Shanhaiguan pass, preventing the Manchus from entering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, when the gates at Shanhaiguan were opened by Wu Sangui, a Ming border general who disliked the activities of rulers of the Shun Dynasty. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and defeated the newly founded Shun Dynasty and remaining Ming resistance, to establish the Qing Dynasty.

In 2009, an additional 290 kilometres (180 miles) of previously undetected portions of the wall, built during the Ming Dynasty, were discovered. The newly discovered sections range from the Hushan mountains in the northern Liaoning province to Jiayuguan in western Gansu province. The sections had been submerged over time by sandstorms that moved across the arid region.^[12]

Under Qing rule, China's borders extended beyond the walls and Mongolia was annexed into the empire, so construction and repairs on the Great Wall were discontinued.

Notable areas

An area of the sections of the Great Wall at Jinshanling

The Great Wall

The following three sections are in Beijing municipality, which were renovated and which are regularly visited by modern tourists today.

• "North Pass" of Juyongguan pass, known as the Badaling. When used by the Chinese to protect their land, this section of the wall has had many guards to defend China’s capital Beijing. Made of stone and bricks from the hills, this portion of the Great Wall is 7.8 meters (25.6 ft) high and 5 meters (16.4 ft) wide.
• "West Pass" of Jiayuguan (pass). This fort is near the western edges of the Great Wall.
• "Pass" of Shanhaiguan. This fort is near the eastern edges of the Great Wall.
• One of the most striking sections of the Ming Great Wall is where it climbs extremely steep slopes. It runs 11 kilometers (7 mi) long, ranges from 5 to 8 meters (16–26 ft) in height, and 6 meters (19.7 ft) across the bottom, narrowing up to 5 meters (16.4 ft) across the top. Wangjinglou is one of Jinshanling's 67 watchtowers, 980 meters (3,215 ft) above sea level.
• South East of Jinshanling, is the Mutianyu Great Wall which winds along lofty, cragged mountains from the southeast to the northwest for approximately 2.25 kilometers (about 1.3 miles). It is connected with Juyongguan Pass to the west and Gubeikou to the east.
• 25 km west of the Liao Tian Ling stands of part of Great wall which is only 2~3 stories high. According to the records of Lin Tian, the wall was not only extremely short compared to others, but it appears to be silver. Archeologists explain that the wall appears to be silver because the stone they used were from Shan Xi, where many mines are found. The stone contains extremely high metal in it causing it to appear silver. However, due to years of decay of the Great Wall, it is hard to see the silver part of the wall today.

Another notable section lies near the eastern extremity of the wall, where the first pass of the Great Wall was built on the Shanhaiguan (known as the “Number One Pass Under Heaven”), the first mountain the Great Wall climbs. Jia Shan is also here, as is the Jiumenkou, which is the only portion of the wall that was built as a bridge. Shanhaiguan Great Wall is called the “Museum of the Construction of the Great Wall”, because of the Meng Jiang-Nu Temple, built during the Song Dynasty.

Khmer History of Battambang

The new statue, apparently in the old days, the great Khmer warriors would drink and/or rub a magic potion on their skin to protect them against arrows and spears etc. This magic potion would cause their skin to become very dark, which could be a reason why the artist of the new statue painted him black. I'm not sure why the new statue looks skinnier.

Map of Kampuchea Krom, incorrectly known as South Vietnam

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Rare pictures of Angkor Wat - Pre Khmer Rouge era

You will notice in the following pictures that Angkor Wat has pointed peaks, which have now been destroyed. Also

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wow!...... its so beautiful.

On June 3rd, 2007 sanski says:

wow!...... its so beautiful. i wish the war never happened.

Khmer Civilization

Khmer Civilization

History of Cambodia

The Khmer or Angkor Civilization came into existence during the period from 802 to 1431 A.D. and stretched as far as the modern Thailand-Burma Border in the West and Wat Phou of Laos in the North during its peak.

Its emergence lies in the fact that the ancient Khmer rulers adopted a right political doctrine of its time, which enforce the unity among people. Moreover, they had developed an intelligent irrigation system to control the water of the great Mekong River for agricultures, which enhanced its prosperity. The Khmer Civilization had long been perished over 5 centuries ago, but it left outstanding monuments such as the great Khmer temples of Angkor Wat and Bayon and numerous unique sculptures like Apsara.

The word "Angkor" is derived Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, of "Nagara" which means "City". Angkor Wat literally means "City of Temple" and Angkor Thom "The Magnificent City".

No doubts, the ancient Khmers were great masters of stone carving. As we can see today the unarguable evidences of various Angkor temples lying on the vast plain of Siemreap, or even beyond its present-day border to the Preah Vihear at Dangrek Mountain, Phnomrung and Phimai in Thailand and Wat Phu in Laos. All these were created and carefully crafts by the ancient Khmers in successive centuries. This seems to contradict with the normal and easy-going life of the local Khmer people and villagers of their time. What drive them to put such an extraordinary efforts and time will be explained in the next chapters.

The study of Khmer civilization in depth is not easy and pain-taking by the historians and archaeologists. Most of the writing, found after the excavation of Angkor, were carved in the stones which became the unperishable materials against time. Although these evidences are important for us to understand the basic constituency of Khmer society and its chronology, they were mainly concerned with religious rituals, King's praise, and literature of Indian epics of "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata". There were little things saying about the ordinary life of the local people.

Interestingly, we learn about the daily way of life of the ancient Khmers, not from the Khmer themselves, but from the Chinese annals. In the middle of 13th century during Chinese Yuan Dynasty, a Chinese ambassador named Zhou Daguan traveled to Angkor, stayed with the local villagers, and explored this empire for a year before his return. He wrote in his Chinese chronicle about this amazing empire, and explain vividly how the people lives with the clear portrayal of the Khmer society during those days.

The center of the Khmer Civilization is at the Angkor Wat area which is situated on the plain of present-day Siemreap province north of the Great Lake of Tonle Sap. Throughout the course of Khmer history, the kingship was frequently attained by violent means with bloodshed throne. There were successive capitals built by different kings in the region, not far from each others; these capitals are at area of Angkor Wat and Roluos with the different names such as Harihalara, Yasodharapura, Jayendanagari, Angkor Thom and a few unknown names.

Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and several other Khmer temples are undoubtedly the relics of the past Khmer Civilization. In order to help travelers as well as readers to get a clearer picture of Cambodia and these temple complexes, we have put up several articles on Khmer Civilization which covers the historical background, successive eras from the beginning till the end, reasons of rise and fall of this civilization and a chronology.

Royalkhmer