CAMBODIA KUN KHMER

  Arjay Stevens bids farewell to Kingdom with final exhibition Arjay Stevens, the bio-scientist and pharmacist turned independent photographer and researcher, is holding a farewell exhibition titled  Look Up – Billboards: Cambodia’s Vanished Art . He is moving back to his native Germany after nearly three decades in the Kingdom. Stevens visited Cambodia for the first time in 1996 and has been photographing and studying Cambodia’s cultural and artistic heritage ever since. “It’s a homage to Cambodia and I’m touched by Arjay’s sensitivity and generosity,” said Marina Pok, founder of the Anicca Foundation and curator of the exhibition, which is only display at Aroma Gallery near the National Museum from March 24 - April 8. The charming and often witty billboards advertise family and local businesses during the Golden Age of Cambodia before the civil war and during the initial decade of recovery in the 1990s. “These vintage billboards were very popular in the 90s when Cambodia cam...

  Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to see the sunrise over the central spire of the temple, at the same time as Cambodia’s torch lighting ceremony for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games. “There were 6,500 domestic tourists and 2,226 foreign visitors,” he said. Thourn Sinan, chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Cambodia Chapter, was happy to see the large crowds of tourists there, describing the scence as a positive sign for the recovery of tourism in the province. He said he expects that there will be even more visitors following the event and natural phenomenon. According to the Ministry of Tourism, the sunrise aligns wit...

  Nearly 50 states join Kun Khmer Federation, all set for training In a little over a week, the Kun Khmer International Federation (KKIF) has accepted membership requests from 20 new nations, in addition to the exiting 29. The sudden influx of international recognition stems from the Kingdom’s successful introduction of Kun Khmer to the 32nd Souheast Asian (SEA) Games, which Cambodia will host. “Over the past few days, many countries have approached us about joining the federation, and we now have almost 50 members. International media companies have been in contact with us too – they all want to learn about the history of our ancestral martial art,” said Meam Ra, head of the federation. He added that each of the applicants was eligible for recognition as the representatives of their respective countries, but it appeared that some of them wanted to test Cambodia’s claims to Kun Khmer. Several delegates from other nations asked for evidence of Kun Khmer’s long presence in Cambodia, ...

  How Cambodia's Bokator is Roaring Again Climbing the stairs up to Chan Reach’s  Cambodian Top Team  gym in the Cambodian capital  Phnom Penh , the phoenix-like rebirth of the former chroming factory and one-time snooker hall nicely mirrors that of  Bokator , the nation’s resurgent martial art that’s now being avidly practised. Government support Overshadowed as Cambodia’s premier martial art for much of the past century by the more spectator-friendly Cambodian kickboxing (or  Kun Khmer) ,  Bokator  has witnessed a government-supported comeback in recent years in line with country’s economic development and growing self-confidence. This resurrection has been aided by Cambodian-made martial arts films such as the wildly popular  Jailbreak  (2017) ,and success of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters such as  Chan Rothana . The upper floor of the building houses a practice boxing ring, MMA cage, numerous heavy bags and gym equipment – an...

  Bokator: The Khmer Martial Art on The Edge of Extinction The ancient Cambodian martial art of bokator is teetering close to the brink of extinction. As efforts continue to revive the ancient art, we take a look at the traditional Khmer martial art’s roots, how it has evolved and the fight for its future. “Bokator belongs to  Cambodia . Our great, great, great grandfathers and great kings from thousands of years ago practised it,” says Grandmaster San Kim Sean, one of a handful of bokator masters who survived the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime. With its roots steeped deep in history — carvings of bokator fighters can be found in abundance on the walls of  Angkor Wat  — the martial art was crafted by Angkorian armies to help the Khmer Empire keep its grip on the region from the 9th to 15th centuries. Believed to be the father of other Southeast Asian fighting forms, bokator is esteemed for its weapons techniques and was carved into a deadly fighting tool to help c...

  Education in Cambodia in the​ Funan Period Southern Vietnam was a part of Funan, an Indianized Cambodian monarchy noted for its exquisite art and architecture , from the first to the sixth century A.D . The Funan period lasted from 100 BC to 550 AD.   The walled city of Angkor Borei, close to modern-day Takeo, served as the capital of this kingdom,  which the Khmer people referred to as Nokor Phnom. The Funanese built a complex network of canals for transportation and rice cultivation. Archaeological digs at Oc-Eo, Funan's main port city in the Mekong delta, have shown connections between Funan and China, Indonesia, Persia and even the Mediterranean. In what is now Cambodia, complex polities started to emerge after the first century AD. The strongest of them, called Funan by the Chinese, may have lived in the southern Vietnamese region between Ba Phnom in Prey Veng province and Oc-Eo in Kien Giang province. Funan lived in the same era as lesser- known fiefdoms like Kuru...