khmer

Displayed in several of the images below is some of quintessential postures found in the Cambodian dance. These beautiful paintings are rich in color with a beautiful transition from light to dark (left to right) the 5 towering pillars of Angkor Wat are captured in many of the backgrounds with other figures, while the strength of many of these pieces remains the strong contrast of the golden crown, jewelry and skirt of the Apsara dancer in relation to their scenic setting. A wonderful painting displaying the lively posture and pronounced hand movements which make the Apsara dancer so attractive.

Pictured above are highly skilled depictions of a various single Apsara dancers detailed to near perfection. The craftsmanship of these pieces are brilliant, notice the subtle brush strokes in each paintings background, as well as the background depiction of Angkor Wat figures to the rear of selected paintings. Eloquently holding the golden flower in hand, with left arm fluently placed on hip, these richly decorated skirted Apsara dancers are covered with beautiful lotus/jasmine flowers throughout. Complete clear skin tones and fantastic use of lighting/shading has each piece marked as a potential favorite.

The Traditional Khmer Apsara Dancer is at the heart of Traditional Khmer Classical Dance, the enchanting Apsara character, with graceful hand gestures and refined swaying body movements bring a special charm to the religious ambience of Khmer art and culture. The slow graceful movements that correspond to the character are vastly intricate, representing a plethora of meanings that it would take years of study to fully understand.

The Apsara dancer plays a dominant role in Cambodian Culture, both modern and traditional, as images of her can be found throughout Cambodia. Adorned with gold headdresses, silken tunics, skirts and lush jewelry the Apsara character is one of the most beautiful and identifiable characters in Cambodian Dance and History.

The sleek looking leading Apsara dancer is eloquently decorated in Customary Jewelry, a traditional White Silk Kaben with a white top. The non leading dancers are decorated in pink kabens and customary jewelry as well as the golden flower in each of the non leading dancers hand. This is truly a very crisp and clean painting by one of the talented and leading painters in Cambodia.

Khmer Angkor Wat Apsara Statue 24" Wooden Khmer Dancing Apsara Left-side Height: 24.0 Inches, Width: 10.0 inches, Depth: 3.1 Inches, Weight: 7.0 lbs Style: Angkor Wat 12th Century. This wooden statue is a beautiful piece of dancing Apsara .

Early Period (Mid 7th - Mid 9th Century) The most characteristic of the early Cham art is the collection of sculptures from My Son (outside of Da Nang), the most venerated temples in ancient Champa. This group of sculptures marked the golden age for Cham culture, even if this culture was influenced by pre-Angkorian Khmer art. A century later, when the leadership of Champa passed to the southern provinces, artistic activity seems to have declined. It was at about this time that the Indonesian attacked on the peninsula stimulated the growth of Buddhism in Champa and revitalized its iconography. The Period of Indrapura (Mid 9th to End of 10th Century) Around the year 850, power once again passed to the northern provinces and for a century and a half Indrapuri (Dong Duong in present Quang Nam province) was the capital of the Cham kingdom. Though typified by two quite opposite tendencies, the period was one of intense artistic activity. As early as 875, the founding of the great Mahayana (Dai Thua) Bhuddist complex at Dong Duong led to the embellishment of a vigorous style that was much more concerned with grandeur than with human beauty, and yet welded together with a surprising degree of originality the most varied borrowings from Indonesia and China. A quarter of a century later, with the decline of Buddhism, sculpture became progressively more humane and decoration more delicate (Khuong My). When, towards the middle of the 10th century, architecture achieved a classical balance (My Son, group A), sculpture moved into its second golden age with the style of My Son A1 and Tra Kieu which shows a strong Indonesian influence. By the end of the 10th century, when the kingdom engaged in hostilities with a now independent Viet Nam, its art had already lost many of its finest qualities, especially with regard to the rendering of the human figure. The Period of Vijaya (11th to End of 15th Century) As result of attacks by Vietnamese forces, Indrapura, which lay to far to the north, was evacuated in favor of Vijaya (Cha Ban in the present Qui Nhon city), a capital further to the south. Even though the kingdom was threatened from all sides, Vijaya was to witness much artistic activity during the 11th and 12th centuries. Growing tension between Khmer (Cambodia) and Champa led to the introduction of some new borrowings from the Khmer art; however the worsening of political relations culminated in the occupation of Champa by forces from Angkor (1181 to 1220). All Cham artistic activity ceased, and the kingdom was to emerge much the poorer from the experience. Once set in motion, the decline was accelerated by the invincible onslaught of Viet Nam, and then, at the end of 13th century, by the Mongol threat. The few buildings erected in the 15th century in the less harassed regions are of heavier proportions and became progressively less and less ornamented (Po Klong Garai). Late Period (After 1471) This period began with the capture of Champa's capital of Vijaya by the Vietnamese. Po Ro Me temple, probably built in the 16th century, was the last sanctuary of the traditional type. Those that followed it (the bumongs of hybrid construction) were to be influenced by Vietnamese architecture. Religious images became mere steles (kut) which are characterized by the progressive effacement of the human physiognomy, until only attributes of rank (especially head-dresses) remains as a reminder of them. Yet although these sculptures reveal a continuos decline, they do manage to retain something of the profound originality that is the only truly constant feature of the art of Champa. Kut in human shape, sandstone, 17th century, Thanh Hieu.
	Cham Sculpture Cham sculpture, unlike the architecture that is conservative in its design and methods, is marked by continual changes, reflecting new influences rather than a natural evolution. Although it can not be denied that there were occasions when Cham art reached heights of pure, classical beauty (such as the My Son and Tra Kieu temples), sculptures for the most part to have expressed contradictory tendencies: conventionality and innovation, a lack of decorative details and an excess of it, both realism and fantasy. There is more and more an aversion to sculpture in the round until, finally, carving in high relief became the only means of expression, and a certain disregard for natural poses resulted in a loss of balanced proportions. It should be stressed that, in view of the constant and profound changes in Cham art, it is the study of costume, hairstyle, and above all, personal ornaments that give the most reliable stylistic evidence for dating sculpture. Apsara dancer, sandstone pedestal from Tra Kieu, early 10th century
In spite of the fact that sufficient examples of bronzes and terra cotta have survived to demonstrate that these two techniques were important at all times, too many have been destroyed for us to be able to trace their development satisfactorily. Some detachable ornaments from idols (head-dresses, bracelets, necklaces, etc.) of chased gold or silver dating from the end of the 9th century or the beginning of the 10th have been found. The only other known ornaments (the regalia of Cham kings) are not earlier than the 17th century. The visual evidence relating to personal ornaments in the intervening period is limited to that provided by sculpture. Royal Tiara, Gold, 17th century. Hinduism had profound influence on the ancient art of Champa and inspired many sculptures that decorate the Cham's temples and towers. These statues and bas-reliefs were carved from stone or made of terra-cotta after figures of god and mythical animals from the Brahman religion. The three divinities worshipped by the ancient Cham people are: Brahma is the Creator who is continuing to create new realities. Brahma has four arms and four faces (represent East, West, North and South). His wife is Saravasti. Brahma is usually displayed riding on the sacred goose of Hamsa. Shiva, the Destroyer, is at times compassionate, erotic and destructive. He symbolizes all the violence and forces in the universe. Shiva has a third eye in his forehead. and can have many arms and faces. Shiva has many wives, among them Parvatti, the goddess of Earth, Uma, the goddess of grace and Durga, the goddess-combatant. Shiva is sometimes displayed riding the sacred bull of Nandin Vishnu, the Preserver who preserves these new creations. Vishnu has one face and four arms, each arm holds a disc, a horn, a ball and a club. His wife is Laksmi, the goddess of beauty. Vishnu is usually displayed riding Garuda, the mythical creature of half-human and half bird. Other religious figures found on the ancient Cham sculptures are Ganesa-the god of intelligence, Indra-the god of the rain, Kama-the god of love, apsara-the celestial dancers and naga-the multiple-head serpent, the founder of the dynasty.

Two stark U.N. reports found severe mismanagement problems in a tribunal set up to try former members of the Khmer Rouge, which murdered over 1 million Cambodians in the late 1970s.

The long overdue trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders now appear to be threatened by defects in the United Nations-backed tribunal set up last year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The court, dubbed the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), suffers from leadership and management problems so severe that the UN should either take much firmer control or consider getting out entirely. That, at least, was the conclusion of two stark assessments—one by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) and the other by two UN experts—that became public in the last two weeks, putting the cash-strapped tribunal under increasing pressure to reform.

The news must be disheartening to those who hoped the Cambodian people might finally see some form of justice. Thirty years after the Khmer Rouge bludgeoned, worked and starved to death about a quarter of Cambodia's population, two of the regime's most notorious leaders are finally in jail. Three more suspects are expected to be arrested soon by the ECCC. And a major fundraising campaign to pay for the courts is scheduled to begin soon.

But it's not yet clear how far donors, who are footing almost the entire bill for the tribunal, will go to stave off the growing concern that this court could devolve into an old-style Cambodian network of nepotism and corruption, abetted by weak international leadership. The ECCC's administration, budget and judiciary are split into Cambodian and UN sides. The court is headed by a Cambodian administrator, and Cambodian judges are in the majority in all chambers.

In their confidential June report obtained by NEWSWEEK, the two U.N. experts—Robin Vincent, the former registrar for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and Kevin St. Louis, the Chief of Administration for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia—called the split structure "divisive and unhelpful." They said they could see no good reason why the court had been set up as such "save for possibly a sense that the division was in place to protect the 'sovereignty' of the National Staff side." They cited "considerable frustration" with the court's leadership among international staff, which they feared had so corroded morale that key staffers would continue to leave; several have already quit the court. After more than a year, the UN experts said, renovation work on the main courtroom had not even begun, and they pointed to serious problems with crucial court functions like translation, witness protection and public affairs.

The court recently announced that it's looking to replace its top international administrator, Michelle Lee. The tribunal's U.N. spokesman, Peter Foster, says that Lee's retirement has been long-planned; she turns 60 this summer, at which point she must retire, under U.N. rules.

The ECCC made the second report, an audit of Cambodian human resources practices commissioned by UNDP, public on Tuesday. UNDP, which manages $6.4 million in funds for the Cambodian side of the tribunal, had for months refused to share the written audit results, even with donors and members of its tribunal oversight board. The Cambodian side of the court opted for transparency, bowing to pressure from the imminent fundraising campaign and a series of scathing editorials in The Wall Street Journal, kicked off when Chapman University law professor John Hall got his hands on a draft copy of the tightly-held UNDP audit. In making a lightly edited version of the final audit public, along with its rebuttals, the ECCC said it hoped to "to put an end to uninformed speculation that damages the process of justice."

The Roluos group of monuments comprises of Prah Ko, Lolei and the Bakong temple. The buildings here are among the oldest to be found in the area. It is believed that the the capital was founded here before it moved to the area near Phnom Bakheng and (much later) Angkor Thom.
The lay-out of Prah Ko consists of four enclosing walls from which only parts of the inner two and the entrance tower remain. The six towers of the central sanctuary are built from brick with sandstone lintels and balusters. The towers were originally covered with a light-coloured plaster of which little remains today. The lintels (the large stones above the doors) are beautifully carved.

In 1997 restoration of Prah Ko was undertaken. This will probably last until 1999. A little north of Prah Ko and the Bakong you can find the small temple of Lolei. (picture above right and below) It consists of four towers in a declining state. As the brick is relatively soft plants flourish on them. Still a miracle that
they stand after a thousand years of wind and weather.

The temple originally was an island in the middle of a baray (water basin) some 3800 by 800 metres, now dry.

Archaeological evidence indicates that parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited from around 1000-2000 BCE by a Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
culture that may have migrated from South Eastern China to the Indochinese Peninsula. By the first century CE, the inhabitants had developed relatively stable, organized societies which had far surpassed the primitive stage in culture and technical skills. The most advanced groups lived along the coast and in the lower Mekong River valley and delta regions in houses constructed on stilts where they cultivated rice, fished and kept domesticated animals. Recent research has unlocked the discovery of artificial circular earthworks

Earthworks

Earthworks can refer to:* Earthworks "lumps and bumps" on the landscape showing archaeological features;* Earthworks in civil engineering based on moving massive quantites of soil;...
dating to Cambodia's Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
era.1 The Khmer people

Khmer people

The Khmer people; ; are the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14.2 million people in the country. Part of the larger Mon-Khmer languages ethnolinguistic peoples found throughout Southeast Asia, they speak the Khmer language....
were one of the first inhabitants of South East Asia. They were also among the first in South East Asia to adopt religious ideas and political institutions from India

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of the land lying substantially on the Indian Plate. The subcontinent includes parts of various countries in South Asia, including those on the continental crust , an Island#Continental islands country on the continental shelf , and an Island#Oceanic islands countr...
and to establish centralized kingdoms surrounding large territories. The earliest known kingdom in the area, Funan

Funan

Funan was an ancient pre-Angkor Indianized kingdom Khmer kingdom located around the Mekong Delta. It is believed to have been established in the first century C.E, although extensive human settlement in the region may have gone back as far as the 4th century B.C.E....
, flourished from around the first to the sixth century AD. This was succeeded by Chenla

Chenla

Chenla , known as Zhenla in Chinese language and Ch?n L?p in Vietnamese language, was an early Khmer people kingdom.At first a vassal state to Funan , over the next 60 years it achieved its independence and eventually conquered all of Funan, absorbing its people and culture....
, which controlled large parts of modern Cambodia

Cambodia

The Kingdom of Cambodia is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 13 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh....
, Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
, Laos

Laos

Laos , officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west....
, and Thailand

Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar....
.

Funan Empire: 68-550

The Funan

Funan

Funan was an ancient pre-Angkor Indianized kingdom Khmer kingdom located around the Mekong Delta. It is believed to have been established in the first century C.E, although extensive human settlement in the region may have gone back as far as the 4th century B.C.E....
ese Empire reached its greatest extent under the rule of Fan Shih-man in the early third century

3rd century

The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era.In this century, the Roman Empire sees a Crisis of the Third Century, marking the beginning of Late Antiquity....
C.E., extending as far south as Malaysia

Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
and as far west as Burma. The Funanese established a strong system of mercantilism and commercial monopolies that would become a pattern for empires in the region. Fan Shih-man expanded the fleet and improved the Funanese bureaucracy, creating a quasi-feudal pattern that left local customs and identities largely intact, particularly in the empire's farther reaches.

Chenla: 550-802

The Khmers, who are believed to be vassals of Funan had reached the Mekong River from the northern Menam River via the Mun River

Mun River

The Mun River , sometimes spelled Moon River, is a tributary of the Mekong river. It carries approximately 21,000 cubic kilometres of water per year....
Valley. Chenla

Chenla

Chenla , known as Zhenla in Chinese language and Ch?n L?p in Vietnamese language, was an early Khmer people kingdom.At first a vassal state to Funan , over the next 60 years it achieved its independence and eventually conquered all of Funan, absorbing its people and culture....
, their first independent state developed out of Funan, absorbing Funanese influence.

Ancient Chinese records mention two kings, Shrutavarman and Shreshthavarman who ruled at the capital Shreshthapura located in modern day southern Laos. The immense influence on the identity of Cambodia to come was wrought by the Khmer Kingdom of Bhavapura, in the modern day Cambodian city of Kompong Thom. Its legacy was its most important sovereign, Ishanavarman who completely conquered the kingdom of Funan during 612-628. He chose his new capital at the Sambor Prei Kuk

Sambor Prei Kuk

The ancient temple complex of Sambor Prei Kuk is located just to the north of the town of Kompong Thom, Cambodia.Located on Eastern bank of Tonle Sap, the central part of Sambor Prei Kuk is divided mainly into three groups....
, naming it Ishanapura.

After the death of Jayavarman I

Jayavarman I

Jayavarman I is considered by some to be the first king of the Khmer empire, as it evolved out of the Kamboja kingdom . He ruled from approximately 657 to 681....
in 681, turmoil came upon the kingdom and at the start of the 8th century

8th century

The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era....
, the kingdom broke up into many principalities. Pushkaraksha, the ruler of Shambhupura announced himself as king of the entire Kambuja

Kambuja

Kambuja was the ancient name of Cambodia,the correct pronunciation of name Kambuja should have been Kom-Bu-Ja , not Kam - Bu -Ja . Scholars believe that this name is obviously derived from Sanskrit Kamboja , the name of a well-known ancient tribe of Indo-Iranian affinities , still living as Kamboj & Kamboh in northern India and Pak...
. Chinese chronicles proclaim that in the 8th century

8th century

The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era/Common Era....
, Chenla was split into land Chenla and water Chenla. During this time, Shambhuvarman son of Pushkaraksha controlled most of water Chenla until the 8th century which the Malayans and Javanese dominated over many Khmer principalities.

Khmer Empire: 802-1431

The golden age of Khmer civilization, however, was the period from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, when the kingdom of Kambuja

Khmer Empire

The Khmer Empire was the largest empire of South East Asia based in what is now Cambodia. The empire, which seceded from the kingdom of Chenla, at times ruled over and/or vassalised parts of modern-day Laos, Thailand,Vietnam, Myanmar, and Malaysia....
, which gave Kampuchea, or Cambodia, its name, ruled large territories from its capital in the region of Angkor in western Cambodia.

Under Jayavarman VII (1181–ca. 1218), Kambuja reached its zenith of political power and cultural creativity. Jayavarman VII gained power and territory in a series of successful wars against its close enemies; the Cham

Cham people

The Cham people are an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. They are concentrated between Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and central Vietnam Phan Rang-Thap Cham, Phan Thiet, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang areas....
and the Vietnamese. Following Jayavarman VII's death, Kambuja experienced a gradual decline. Important factors were the aggressiveness of neighboring peoples (especially the Thai, or Siamese

Thai people

The Thai are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnic group found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China....
), chronic interdynastic strife, and the gradual deterioration of the complex irrigation system that had ensured rice surpluses. The Angkor

Angkor

Angkor is a name conventionally applied to the region of Cambodia serving as the seat of the Khmer empire that flourished from approximately the ninth century to the fifteenth century A.D....
ian monarchy survived until 1431, when the Thai captured Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom was the last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer empire. It was established in the late twelfth century by king Jayavarman VII....
and the Cambodian king fled to the southern part of the country.

Dark Ages: 1618-1863

The fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries were a period of continued decline and territorial loss. Cambodia enjoyed a brief period of prosperity during the sixteenth century because its kings, who built their capitals in the region southeast of the Tonle Sap

Tonlé Sap

The Tonl? Sap , i.e., large body of water is a combined lake and river system of huge importance to Cambodia. It is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997....
along the Mekong River, promoted trade with other parts of Asia. This was the period when Spanish

Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
and Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
adventurers and missionaries first visited the country. However, the Thai conquest of the new capital at Lovek

Lovek

Lovek was a city in ancient Cambodia that became the nation's capital in the 16th century after Civil War Between Sdech Kan And Ponhea Chan. Howere Ponhea Chan won and become the new king of Cambodia....
in 1594 marked a downturn in the country's fortunes and Cambodia. Becoming a pawn in power struggles between its two increasingly powerful neighbors, Siam and Vietnam. Cambodia remained a protectorate of Siam. Vietnam's settlement of the Mekong Delta

Mekong Delta

The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries....
led to its annexation of that area at the end of the seventeenth century. Cambodia thereby lost some of its richest territory and was cut off from the sea. Because of current king's brother, prince Ang whom allowed the Vietnamese to settle and take over the last portion which was left of Cambodia's soil to the sea. Such foreign encroachments continued through the first half of the nineteenth century because Vietnam was determined to absorb Khmer land and to force the inhabitants to accept Vietnamese culture.

French colonial period: 1863-1953

In 1863, King Norodom

Norodom of Cambodia

Norodom ruled as king of Cambodia from 1860 to 1904. He was the eldest son of King Ang Duong and half-brother of Si Votha as well as the half-brother of Sisowath of Cambodia....
signed an agreement with the French

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
to establish a protectorate over his kingdom. The state gradually came under French colonial domination.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese allowed the French government (based at Vichy

Vichy

Vichy is a Communes of France in the Departments of France of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It is known as a Spa town and resort town....
) that collaborated with the republican opponents and attempted to negotiate acceptable terms for independence from the French.

Cambodia's situation at the end of the war was chaotic. The Free French, under General Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles Andr? Joseph Marie de Gaulle , , was a French people general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President of France from 1959 to 1969....
, were determined to recover Indochina, though they offered Cambodia and the other Inchochinese protectorates a carefully circumscribed measure of self-government. Convinced that they had a "civilizing mission

Civilizing mission

The Civilizing mission was the underlying principle of French and Portuguese colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was influential in the French colonies of French rule in Algeria, French West Africa, and French Indochina, and in the Portuguese colonies of Portuguese Angola, Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Mozambique and...
," they envisioned Indochina's participation in a French Union of former colonies that shared the common experience of French culture.

Sihanouk's "royal crusade for independence" resulted in grudging French acquiescence to his demands for a transfer of sovereignty. A partial agreement was struck in October 1953. Sihanouk then declared that independence had been achieved and returned in triumph to Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the Capital and largest city of Cambodia. It is also the capital of the Phnom Penh municipality. It is an economic, industrial, commercial, cultural, tourist and historical center....
.

First administration of Sihanouk: 1955-1970

As a result of the Geneva Conference on Indochina, Cambodia was able to bring about the withdrawal of the Viet Minh

Viet Minh

The Vi?t Minh was a national liberation movement which dated its foundation to May 19 1941 in South China. The Vi?t Minh initially formed to seek independence for Vietnam from France and later to oppose the Vietnam during World War II....
troops from its territory and to withstand any residual impingement upon its sovereignty by external powers.

Neutrality was the central element of Cambodian foreign policy during the 1950s and 1960s. By the mid-1960s, parts of Cambodia's eastern provinces were serving as bases for North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong (NVA/VC) forces operating against South Vietnam, and the port of Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville , also known as Kampong Som, is a port city in southern Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand and is a growing Cambodian urban center....
was being used to supply them. As NVA/VC activity grew, the United States and South Vietnam

South Vietnam

South Vietnam refers to an internationally recognized state which governed Vietnam south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone until 1975. Its capital was Saigon and its origin can be traced to the French colony of Cochinchina, which consisted of the southern third of Vietnam....
became concerned, and in 1969, the United States began a fourteen month long series of bombing raids targeted at NVA/VC elements, contributing to destabilization. Prince Sihanouk, fearing that the conflict between communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam might spill over to Cambodia, steadfastly opposed the bombing campaign by the United States along the Vietnam-Cambodia border and inside Cambodian territory. Prince Sihanouk wanted Cambodia to stay out of the North Vietnam-South Vietnam conflict and was very critical of the United States government and its allies (the South Vietnamese government). The United States claims that the bombing campaign took place no further than ten, and later twenty miles (32 km) inside the Cambodian border, areas where the Cambodian population had been evicted by the NVA. Prince Sihanouk, facing internal struggles of his own, due to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, did not want Cambodia to be involved in the conflict. Sihanouk wanted the United States and its allies (South Vietnam) to keep the war away from the Cambodian border. Not only did Sihanouk try to keep the communist North Vietnamese soldiers from entering Cambodia territory, but he also did not allow the United States to use Cambodian air space and airports for military purposes. This upset the United States greatly. The United States saw Prince Sihanouk as a North Vietnamese sympathizer and a thorn on the United States, and using the CIA, it began plans to get rid of Sihanouk.

Throughout the 1960s, domestic Cambodian politics became polarized. Opposition to the government grew within the middle class and leftists including Paris-educated leaders like Son Sen

Son Sen

Son Sen was a member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea/Party of Democratic Kampuchea from 1974 to 1992. He was a leader of the genocidal Khmer Rouge and was married to Yun Yat , who became the Khmer Rouge minister of education and information....
, Ieng Sary

Ieng Sary

Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
, and Saloth Sar (later known as Pol Pot

Pol Pot

Saloth Sar , widely known as Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
), who led an insurgency

Insurgent

Insurgent, insurgents or insurgency can refer to:*The act of Insurgency*Iraqi insurgency, uprising in Iraq*USS Insurgent , US Navy ship...
under the clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK). Sihanouk called these insurgents the Khmer Rouge

Khmer Rouge

File:CPKbanner.PNGThe Khmer Rouge was the communist ruling party of Cambodia — which it renamed Democratic Kampuchea — from 1975 to 1979....
, literally the "Red Khmer." But the 1966 national assembly elections showed a significant swing to the right, and General Lon Nol

Lon Nol

Lon Nol was a Cambodian politician and soldier who served as Prime Minister of Cambodia twice as well as serving repeatedly as Defense Minister....
formed a new government, which lasted until 1967. During 1968 and 1969, the insurgency worsened. In August 1969, Lon Nol formed a new government. Prince Sihanouk went abroad for medical reasons in January 1970.

The Khmer Republic and the War: 1970-1975

In March 1970, while Prince Sihanouk was absent, General Lon Nol deposed Prince Sihanouk in a coup d'état which, contrary to common belief, was not planned by the CIA. Lon Nol assumed the power after the military coup and allied Cambodia with the United States. Son Ngoc Thanh announced his support for the new government. On October 9, the Cambodian monarchy was abolished, and the country was renamed the Khmer Republic.

Hanoi rejected the new republic's request for the withdrawal of NVA troops. 2,000–4,000 Cambodians who had gone to North Vietnam in 1954 reentered Cambodia, backed by North Vietnamese soldiers. In response, the United States moved to provide material assistance to the new government's armed forces, which were engaged against both CPK insurgents and NVA forces.

In April 1970, US President Nixon announced to the American public that US and South Vietnamese ground forces had entered Cambodia in a campaign aimed at destroying NVA base areas in Cambodia (see Cambodian Incursion

Cambodian Incursion

The Cambodian Campaign was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during the late spring and summer of 1970 by the armed forces of the United States and the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War....
). The US had already been bombing Cambodia for well over a year by that point.

Although a considerable quantity of equipment was seized or destroyed by US and South Vietnamese forces, containment of North Vietnamese forces proved elusive. The North Vietnamese moved deeper into Cambodia to avoid US and South Vietnamese raids. NVA units overran many Cambodian army positions while the CPK expanded their small-scale attacks on lines of communication.

The Khmer Republic's leadership was plagued by disunity among its three principal figures: Lon Nol, Sihanouk's cousin Sirik Matak, and National Assembly leader In Tam

In Tam

In Tam is a former Prime Minister of Cambodia. He served in that position from May 6 1973 to December 9 1973, and had a long career in Cambodian politics....
. Lon Nol remained in power in part because none of the others were prepared to take his place. In 1972, a constitution was adopted, a parliament elected, and Lon Nol became president. But disunity, the problems of transforming a 30,000-man army into a national combat force of more than 200,000 men, and spreading corruption weakened the civilian administration and army.

The Communist insurgency inside Cambodia continued to grow, aided by supplies and military support from North Vietnam. Pol Pot

Pol Pot

Saloth Sar , widely known as Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
and Ieng Sary

Ieng Sary

Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
asserted their dominance over the Vietnamese-trained communists, many of whom were purged. At the same time, the Communist Party of Kampuchea

Communist Party of Kampuchea

The Communist Party of Kampuchea was a communist party in Cambodia. Its followers were generally known as Khmer Rouge ....
forces became stronger and more independent of their Vietnamese patrons. By 1973, the CPK were fighting battles against government forces with little or no North Vietnamese troop support, and they controlled nearly 60% of Cambodia's territory and 25% of its population.

The government made three unsuccessful attempts to enter into negotiations with the insurgents, but by 1974, the CPK were operating openly as divisions, and some of the NVA combat forces had moved into South Vietnam. Lon Nol's control was reduced to small enclaves around the cities and main transportation routes. More than 2 million refugees from the war lived in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the Capital and largest city of Cambodia. It is also the capital of the Phnom Penh municipality. It is an economic, industrial, commercial, cultural, tourist and historical center....
and other cities.

On New Year's Day 1975, Communist troops launched an offensive which, in 117 days of the hardest fighting of the war, collapsed the Khmer Republic. Simultaneous attacks around the perimeter of Phnom Penh pinned down Republican forces, while other CPK units overran fire bases controlling the vital lower Mekong resupply route. A US-funded airlift of ammunition and rice ended when Congress refused additional aid for Cambodia. The Lon Nol government in Phnom Penh surrendered on April 17—5 days after the US mission evacuated Cambodia.

Democratic Kampuchea (the Khmer Rouge/Red Khmer age): 1975-1979

Immediately after its victory, the CPK ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns, sending the entire urban population into the countryside to work as farmers, as the CPK was trying to reshape society into a model that Pol Pot had conceived.

Thousands starved or died of disease during the evacuation and its aftermath. Many of those forced to evacuate the cities were resettled in newly created villages, which lacked food, agricultural implements, and medical care. Many who lived in cities had lost the skills necessary for survival in an agrarian environment. Thousands starved before the first harvest. Hunger and malnutrition—bordering on starvation—were constant during those years. Most military and civilian leaders of the former regime who failed to disguise their pasts were executed.

Within the CPK, the Paris-educated leadership—Pol Pot

Pol Pot

Saloth Sar , widely known as Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
, Ieng Sary

Ieng Sary

Ieng Sary was a powerful figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979 and held several senior positions in the Khmer Rouge until his defection to the government in 1996....
, Nuon Chea

Nuon Chea

Nuon Chea, also known as Long Bunruot, is a retired Cambodian communist politician and former chief ideologist of Khmer Rouge. He is of Chinese Cambodian ancestry....
, and Son Sen

Son Sen

Son Sen was a member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea/Party of Democratic Kampuchea from 1974 to 1992. He was a leader of the genocidal Khmer Rouge and was married to Yun Yat , who became the Khmer Rouge minister of education and information....
—were in control. A new constitution in January 1976 established Democratic Kampuchea as a Communist People's Republic, and a 250-member Assembly of the Representatives of the People of Kampuchea (PRA) was selected in March to choose the collective leadership of a State Presidium, the chairman of which became the head of state.

Prince Sihanouk resigned as head of state on April 4. On April 14, after its first session, the PRA announced that Khieu Samphan

Khieu Samphan

Khieu Samphan was the president of the state presidium of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976 until 1979. As such, he served as the country's head of state and was one of the most powerful officials in the Khmer Rouge movement, though Pol Pot was the group's true political leader and held the most extensive power....
would chair the State Presidium for a 5-year term. It also picked a 15-member cabinet headed by Pol Pot as prime minister. Prince Sihanouk was put under virtual house arrest.

The new government sought to completely restructure Cambodian society. Remnants of the old society were abolished and religion, particularly Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
and Catholicism

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
, was suppressed. Agriculture was collectivized, and the surviving part of the industrial base was abandoned or placed under state control. Cambodia had neither a currency nor a banking system.

Life in 'Democratic Kampuchea' was strict and brutal. In many areas of the country people were rounded up and executed for speaking a foreign language, wearing glasses, scavenging for food, and even crying for dead loved ones. Former businessmen and bureaucrats were ruthlessly hunted down and killed along with their entire families; the Khmer Rouge feared that they held beliefs that could lead them to oppose their regime. A few Khmer Rouge loyalists were even killed for failing to find enough 'counter-revolutionaries' to execute.

Solid estimates of the numbers who died between 1975 and 1979 are not available, but it is likely that hundreds of thousands were brutally executed by the regime. Hundreds of thousands died of starvation and disease (both under the CPK and during the Vietnamese invasion in 1978). Some estimates of the dead range from 1 to 3 million, out of a 1975 population estimated at 7.3 million. The CIA estimated 50,000–100,000 were executed and 1.2 million died from 1975 to 1979.

Democratic Kampuchea's relations with Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
and Thailand

Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar....
worsened rapidly as a result of border clashes and ideological differences. While communist, the CPK was fiercely pro-Cambodia, and most of its members who had lived in Vietnam were purged. Democratic Kampuchea established close ties with the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
, and the Cambodian-Vietnamese conflict became part of the Sino-Soviet

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
rivalry, with Moscow backing Vietnam. Border clashes worsened when Democratic Kampuchea military attacked villages in Vietnam. The regime broke off relations with Hanoi in December 1977, protesting Vietnam's alleged attempt to create an Indochina Federation. In mid-1978, Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia, advancing about before the arrival of the rainy season.

The reasons for Chinese support of the CPK was to prevent a pan-Indochina movement, and maintain Chinese military superiority in the region. The Soviet Union supported a strong Vietnam to maintain a second front against China in case of hostilities and to prevent further Chinese expansion. Since Stalin's death, relations between Mao-controlled China and the Soviet Union were lukewarm at best. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, China and Vietnam would fight the brief Sino-Vietnamese War

Sino-Vietnamese War

The Sino?Vietnamese War, also known as the Third Indochina War, was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam....
over the issue.

In December 1978, Vietnam announced formation of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS) under Heng Samrin

Heng Samrin

Heng Samrin is a Cambodian communism politician.Heng was born in Prey Veng province, Cambodia. He became a member of the Khmer Rouge communist movement led by Pol Pot, and became a political commisar and army division commander when the Khmer Rouge took over the government in 1975....
, a former DK division commander. It was composed of Khmer Communists who had remained in Vietnam after 1975 and officials from the eastern sector—like Heng Samrin and Hun Sen—who had fled to Vietnam from Cambodia in 1978. In late December 1978, Vietnamese forces launched a full invasion of Cambodia, capturing Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979 and driving the remnants of Democratic Kampuchea's army westward toward Thailand.

People's Republic of Kampuchea (Vietnamese occupation): 1979-1993

On January 10 1979, Communist

Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east....
installed Heng Samrin

Heng Samrin

Heng Samrin is a Cambodian communism politician.Heng was born in Prey Veng province, Cambodia. He became a member of the Khmer Rouge communist movement led by Pol Pot, and became a political commisar and army division commander when the Khmer Rouge took over the government in 1975....
as head of state in the new People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). The Vietnamese army continued its pursuit of Pol Pot

Pol Pot

Saloth Sar , widely known as Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
's Khmer Rouge

Khmer Rouge

File:CPKbanner.PNGThe Khmer Rouge was the communist ruling party of Cambodia — which it renamed Democratic Kampuchea — from 1975 to 1979....
forces. At least 600,000 Cambodians displaced during the Pol Pot era and the Vietnamese invasion began streaming to the Thai

Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar....
border in search of refuge. The international community responded with a massive relief effort coordinated by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
through UNICEF and the World Food Program. More than $400 million was provided between 1979 and 1982, of which the United States contributed nearly $100 million. At one point, more than 500,000 Cambodians were living along the Thai-Cambodian border and more than 100,000 in holding centers inside Thailand.

Modern Cambodia: 1993-Present

On October 23, 1991, the Paris Conference reconvened to sign a comprehensive settlement giving the UN full authority to supervise a cease-fire, repatriate the displaced Khmer along the border with Thailand, disarm and demobilize the factional armies, and prepare the country for free and fair elections. Prince Sihanouk, President of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia (SNC), and other members of the SNC returned to Phnom Penh in November 1991, to begin the resettlement process in Cambodia. The UN Advance Mission for Cambodia (UNAMIC) was deployed at the same time to maintain liaison among the factions and begin demining operations to expedite the repatriation of approximately 370,000 Cambodians from Thailand.

On March 16, 1992, the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) arrived in Cambodia to begin implementation of the UN Settlement Plan. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees began fullscale repatriation in March 1992. UNTAC grew into a 22,000-strong civilian and military peacekeeping force to conduct free and fair elections for a constituent assembly.

Over 4 million Cambodians (about 90% of eligible voters) participated in the May 1993 elections, although the Khmer Rouge or Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK), whose forces were never actually disarmed or demobilized, barred some people from participating. Prince Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC Party was the top vote recipient with a 45.5% vote, followed by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party and the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, respectively. FUNCINPEC then entered into a coalition with the other parties that had participated in the election. The parties represented in the 120-member assembly proceeded to draft and approve a new constitution, which was promulgated September 24, 1993. It established a multiparty liberal democracy in the framework of a constitutional monarchy, with the former Prince Sihanouk elevated to King. Prince Ranariddh and Hun Sen became First and Second Prime Ministers, respectively, in the Royal Cambodian Government (RGC). The constitution provides for a wide range of internationally recognized human rights.

On October 4, 2004, the Cambodian National Assembly ratified an agreement with the United Nations on the establishment of a tribunal to try senior leaders responsible for the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Donor countries have pledged the $43 million international share of the three-year tribunal budget, while the Cambodian government’s share of the budget is $13.3 million. The tribunal plans to begin trials of senior Khmer Rouge leaders in 2008.

With excitement mixed with trepidation, a group of seven students from Belmont University School of Nursing spent three weeks this past May in Phnom Penh, Cambodia working at the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE for the poor while earning course credit. Students divided their clinical time between the medical and surgical wards, the operating room, the emergency room, the outpatient clinic, home visits to AIDS patients and a hospice for AIDS patients. Students were interested to see how health care had developed following the devastation caused by the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970’s. They met one nurse, Mom Sam Oeun, who had been working during this regime and had been sent into the provinces to live with her family in one room with very little food. Fearing for her life, she hid her status as a nurse until Pol Pot’s reign ended and then returned to nursing. Many examples of courage and struggle were seen among the Khmer people.

Because so many seek free, quality health care at Sihanouk Hospital, the Cambodian people determined that the only fair way to decide who would be treated each day was to hold a lottery. Almost every day and according to the hospital census, ten new patients are chosen by lottery. These can come to the hospital at any time for care along with the others already in the hospital. Others, of whom many have come from far away provinces, will return day after day, hoping to be chosen to receive some of the best care that is available in the nation. One of the goals of the hospital is to share knowledge and information with governmental and other hospitals so that the standard of health care can be improved throughout the country.

Another international course to Cambodia is planned for May 2008. Please contact the Belmont University School of Nursing if you would like more information on this exciting opportunity.

Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and 32 dancers and musicians of her Khmer Arts Ensemble, Phnom Penh, will return to New York City for a one-week engagement at The Joyce Theater (175 Eighth Avenue @ 19th street), October 9 – 14, with Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute. Tickets are $44 ($33 for Joyce Theater members), and in celebration of The Joyce's 25th Anniversary Season, tickets to Sunday evening performances are $25. To purchase tickets, please call JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or via the internet at www.joyce.org.

Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute, is a new and original work, choreographed and directed by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. It was created at the request of theater director and impresario Peter Sellars for New Crowned Hope, a festival in Vienna held in 2006 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth. With so many others around the world celebrating this occasion with performances of the music of this great composer, Sellars asked those he commissioned to explore the ideas and themes, the philosophies and concerns that Mozart addressed in the last works he composed prior to his death, at the age of 35, in 1791.

The musical score for Pamina Devi draws and expands on traditional Cambodian motifs, and is performed by a pin peat ensemble of Cambodian instruments. Lyrics were written by Cheam Shapiro, who has also modified the opera's story. For instance, The Queen of the Night and the King of the Sun here are cast here as Pamina Devi's estranged parents – representing two distinct, and perhaps, mutually exclusive world views. Though bidden to do so, Pamina Devi refuses to choose one over the other. Instead, she opts to take a riskier path. Acknowledging the lessons of the past, she sets out into the unknown, determined to create a society founded on principles of tolerance, justice, and understanding.

On December 8, 2006, a magnificent ‘battle of the courts' took place in Vienna's Schönbrunn castle when Pamina Devi premiered in Europe's oldest continually operating theater there. As the audience took their places in the plush red velvet chairs of what can only be described as a jewel-box theater, they marveled at the gold-gilt surroundings. As the curtain rose, the celestial beings of Cambodia — resplendent in spired crowns, intricately woven silks, and bejeweled fingers and ankles — returned the favor.

Cheam Shapiro's critically acclaimed work was last hosted during a sold-out Joyce season in 2005. This presentation of Pamina Devi is part of a 5-city national tour. The work tours Europe in the Spring of 2008.
Sophiline Cheam Shapiro is a choreographer, director, dancer, vocalist and educator whose works include Samritechak (2000), The Glass Box (2002) and Seasons of Migration (2005), which she has set on Cambodia's finest performing artists and toured to three continents. Notable venues include Cal Performances, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, New York's Joyce Theater and the Venice Biennale. Cheam Shapiro's next project, a collaboration with composer Chinary Ung for the Los Angeles Master Chorale, will premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall in November 2008. Among her essays is "Songs My Enemies Taught Me," published in Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors, compiled by Dith Pran, edited by Kim DePaul (1997, Yale University Press). She has received numerous honors, including Creative Capital, Durfee, Guggenheim and Irvine Dance Fellowships, as well as the 2006 Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture. Cheam Shapiro was a member of the first generation to graduate from the Royal University of Fine Arts after the fall of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime and was a member of the faculty there from 1988 to 1991. She studied all three major roles for women (neang, nearong and yeak), which is rare. With RUFA's ensemble, she toured India, the Soviet Union, the USA and Vietnam. She immigrated to Southern California in 1991 and studied dance ethnology at UCLA on undergraduate and graduate levels. Cheam Shapiro is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Khmer Arts Academy based in Long Beach, CA and Takhmao, Cambodia.

Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute will play the following engagements this fall:

October 20 and 21: Power Center, University Musical Society, Ann Arbor MI
October 25 and 26: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park

Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute will play Tuesday & Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday & Friday at 8:00pm, Saturday at 2:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are $44 ($33 for Joyce members) and can be arranged by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at www.joyce.org. In celebration of The Joyce's 25th Anniversary Season, all tickets to the Sunday evening performances are $25. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.

* * * * * *

Leadership support for The Joyce Theater's 2007-2008 season has been received from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Altria Group, Inc. is the 2007-2008 Season Sponsor of The Joyce Theater.

The presentation of Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute was made possible by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the National Dance Project, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Major support for the National Dance Project is also provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Ford Foundation and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Performances by international companies at The Joyce are supported, in part, by American Express Company.

Additional support for this engagement was provided with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and with private funds from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund to encourage the performances of out-of-town companies at The Joyce Theater. Major support for the season was received from Carnegie Corporation of New York, First Republic Bank, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and The Starr Foundation.

Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute. By Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. In The Kingdom of the Sun. Courtesy Khmer Arts Academy.

Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute. By Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. In The Kingdom of the Sun. Courtesy Khmer Arts Academy.

Koh Ker is an Angkorian site in northern Cambodia. 100 km northeast of Angkor itself, it was briefly the capital of the Khmer empire between 928 and 944 under king Jayavarman IV and his son Hasavarman II.After the Khmer empire had been established in the Angkor area (Roluos), Jayavarman IV moved the capital in 928 almost 100km northeast to Koh Ker. Here a vast number of temples were built under his reign, until his successor returned to the Angkor area about twenty years later.

The Koh Ker site is dominated by Prasat Thom, a 30 meter tall temple mountain raising high above the plain and the surrounding forest. Great views await the visitor at the end of an adventurous climb. Garuda, carved into the stone blocks, still guard the very top, although they are partially covered now.

Across the site of Koh Ker there are many prasat or tower sanctuaries. A couple still feature an enormous linga on a yoni that provides space for several people. The outlet for the water that was sanctified by running it over the linga can be seen in the outside wall of one of them. In other cases, three prasat stand next to each other, dedicated to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. Most of them are surrounded by libraries and enclosures, many also had moats. At that time, the roofs were still made of wood. Today, only the holes for the beams remain in the stone structures.

The site is still 3 hours away from Siem Reap, the area has been demined only recently and basic visitors’ facilities are just being built. This makes Koh Ker very attractive for anyone who would like to experience lonely temples partially overgrown by the forest and inhabited only by birds, calling to each other from the trees above.

Koh Ker is not the easiest temple to get to as involves an early start and a long journey to get there from anywhere. The site is about 100 km north of Siem Reap and the road, repaired in 2004, is in decent condition (by Cambodian standards). There are no public transport or tourist facilities; other than makeshift tables near the police camp at the entrance to Prasat Thom.

‘What to see:

The ancient Khmer city is in a distant jungle location with up to a hundred ruined temples including a huge stepped pyramid; the largest in the region. More ancient temples are being found in the jungle; so there is a true sense of discovery here. Many of the temples were built in brick using a mortar made from tree sap. It is quite remarkable how well they have stood up to the test of time

The Entry fee is $10 payable at the booth near the entrance to Beng Mealea temple 60 km to the south west. If you are heading from Tbeang Meanchey and Preah Vihear there is no means if getting a ticket … Yet but no doubt a facility will be set up in the not too distant future.

There are temples in abundance , most are brick built and all are in a picturesque state of ruin with many being overgrown. The Prang is the largest structure here, it is a 7 stepped pyramid approx 40metres high the views from the top encompass a lonely landscape of forest with the distant Dangrek Mountains on the Thai Border to the north and the Koulen Mountain Range 70 km to the south. Prasat Thom is the name of the temple that lies directly at the bottom of the Prang and one must negotiate this to gain entrance to the pyramid enclosure. In 2007 Prasat Thom was cleared of vegetation and the moats cleaned out by villagers working for the APSARA Authority that now manages the site. Tickets are sold by the Kham Samet Company that built the road to Koh Ker.

If you want to stay over night there is a simple guest house at the village of Sray Young 1 km to the south. Camping is not permitted in the temple areas.

* Koh Ker Guest House. Has a few rustic rooms with bucket shower and WCs under the stilt house, new rooms are being added at present.