My initial perception of Cambodia
The very first, but vague impression of Cambodia would be their numerous temples and a rather dominant religion with a huge number of the population sharing the same religion. It is a rather low developed country with its poor living conditions especially in rural countries, and their education and literacy level throughout the country’s citizens are rather low. Developments of their infrastructure and technology are also rather low. Cambodia is still rather rundown to me.
Cambodia’s Culture
Travelling through Cambodia reveals a vivid palette of colours, whereby the rural rice padi fields glimmer like emeralds and diamonds, Buddhist monks’ saffron robes shimmer under the bright sunlight as they walk in procession
Buddhism is the major religion belief in Cambodia, with 96% of its population as Buddhism followers. The Theravada variant of Buddhism is the form of Buddhism adopted by Cambodia. Buddhism makes up a great part of the Cambodians’ life, that it governs most of the culture, attitudes and behavior of the Cambodians. The main idea of the religion is social tranquility and acceptance of the trials in life. Most boys enter monkhood for perhaps six months or longer for their only opportunity to receive education.
(Adapted from http://society.ezinemark.com/2011-vesak-day-around-the-world-7736c30aaf67.html )
Agricultural livelihood attributes to the iconic image of the countryside, rice paddies . Majority of the Cambodians has made agricultural farming their livelihood. During the planting season, the Cambodian women are seen working in the fields, with the traditional Cambodian large checkered head scarf called Karma.
( Adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookiesound/5552519324/ )
(Adaptedfrom http://www.fao.org/gender/gender-home/gender-insight/gender-insightdet/en/?dyna_fef%5Buid%5D=43537
Cambodia is the undisrupted temple capital in Asia. Angkor wat, the most important cultural symbol in the country, is the home of gods cast in stone. Cloaked in green moss, this significant cultural artefact is proudly categorised as one of the seven wonders in the world.
( Adaptedfrom http://www.culturefocus.com/cambodia-angkor.htm)
Cambodian artisans are also well known for their cotton, silk weaving, basketry, silver and gold jewellery, sliver work, handmade pottery and straw mats..
A common belief that prevails in Cambodia would be that the ancestors remain in their familiar earthly environment while in transitory to the next life. Hence, a spirit house is common in Cambodia for the departed to use.
Traditional dances of Cambodia are also important aspects of their culture. One of them is the famous traditional Khmer dance performance, commonly referred to as the “Apsara Dance”. Its distinctive, ornamental dance costumes, aligned with arched back and feet, fingers flexed actions.
Here’s a video to showcase “Aspara Dance’
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhgBDZa8-lk&feature=player_embedded)
Indigenous group – Pearic People
Their livelihood is mainly supported by subsistence rice farming, and agricultural production. It is their tradition to move their fields every few years.. While majority of them live in short stilted houses, a minority of them still live in the Cardamom mountains.
The Pearics are primarily animistic, worshipping powerful spirits called Neak Ta or Arak whom they believe can harm them and require sacrifices to appease them. More than often , it is their culture that the Pearics often practice the use of traditional medicine which actually consists of a mix of spiritism and medicinal. However, it is true that most of the time; these practices bring more harm than benefits to the Pearics. Superstitious, the Pearics live in fear of the Spirits. An example would be, those minority Pearics living near the forests, have a certain set of rules regarding their behaviour whenever collecting cardamom in the nearby forests.
( Adpated from http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php )
Cambodia’s authenticity from the point of view of a tourist
From a travel blog i read a tourist who visited Phnom Penh in Cambodia during April 14th -17th 2009. Quoted from the blog post: ‘Stopping by Phnom Penh was the right choice to make- important to experience cities of this magnitude before it gets overrun by tourists. Cambodia and Phnom Penh seem to be in the early stages of encouraging tourists to visit, so it didn’t seem as organised as some of their modern neighbours......... I hope that Cambodia can shake off its tragic past.’
This post clearly shows that this tourist feels that the Cambodia is still rich in culture and their culture is still authentic as tourism has not really taken a toll on the cultures yet. This is because it has only been few years since Cambodia opened its door to the world and tourism. However, the tourist despite enjoying the authentic cultures still hopes that the tragic past of the country can be slowly faded away. Again, this shows the authenticity of Cambodia’s culture as even their tragic past was fully displayed. This can be a point to note for the Cambodia tourism board, as what they have presented to the tourists about their dark past maybe too overwhelming and raw that some tourists may feel uncomfortable. The ‘back’ of Cambodia’s tragic past may have been shown too much, perhaps the ‘front’ of the past can be brought forward more instead to offset the negativity felt by tourists.
Tourism impacts on Cambodia’s culture and the indigenous group
Cultural tourism is the cause of these tourism impacts below. Definition of cultural tourism is ‘ visits by persons from outside host community motivated wholly or in part by interest in the historical, artistic, scientific or lifestyle or heritage offerings of a community, region, group or institution.’
A case study on Suoy people, illustrates how the a tourism concession was administered in an area sacred to the Suoy people in Kompong Speu province, despite resistance from the local community.
A tourism concession resulted in the Suoy’s sacred area being paraded out for the tourists. This would bring about more commercialisation of their original culture. For example, a religious sacred act, ritual or dance may be altered, shortened for the sake of the tourists. Forms of change in their culture will be inevitable, leading to a debatable question of their culture’s authenticity.
The Apsara dance is now widely performed. It is seem that due to tourism, these cultural performances which were once performed solely for the sake of religions or culture, have now lost their original meaning and purposes when they are performed for economical benefits.
Some locals are seen to re-create traditional cultural values with some form of alterations without consulting the cultural conservationists. An example would be the Trot performance in Siem Reap province. By tradition, Trot performance only occurs during the Khmer New. However, it is now sometimes celebrated just to attract the attention of the tourists.
Cambodian traditional handmade scarves, handmade art and craft goods, and other products are currently all mass produced to be sold to tourists. These are no longer authentic as they are not produced for the sake of their own Cambodian culture but for the sake of revenue.
Cambodian Cultural Village was built as a showcase for Cambodian cultures to tourists. However, this showcase is criticised by a few experts who feel that the culture showcased is too much commercialised and does not really represent the true Cambodian culture. This again reflects how much Cambodia’s culture has been commercialised for the sake of tourists hence losing their authenticity.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mI0fOEbKzM&feature=player_embedded)
Khmer art performances have been reconstructed after the prolonged civil war to showcase it to the tourists. It is performed many times for economical reasons in front of the tourists, but no longer performed solely for cultural purposes. Hence authenticity is lost. Yet, tourism played a part in reviving this culture dance as the dance was revived after the war mainly to showcase it to tourists. The video below proves the work of tourism this double-edged sword.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hFCd5DzqTk&feature=player_embedded)
Focus of calendar of events
The festival days in Cambodia can be said to be a combination of religious and political events.
There are three types of Chinese New Year in Cambodia - the Gregorian ,the Chinese New Year and the Cambodian New Year (Bonn Chaul Chhnam).
The Cambodian New Year which falls on 13-16 April , sees participants exchanging blows of water at each other light heartedly.
Unique Cambodian festivals like the ancestor day, also known as Bonn Pchum Ben, held in both September and October. It is whereby families visit at least seven pagodas to pay respect to their forefathers.
Another traditional festival is the Royal Ploughing Day, celebrating the beginning of the ploughing season in May. Two oxen will be seen drawing a plough to dig a furrow in front of the National Museum in Phnom Penh. The King’s soothsayers will then predict the weather and harvests for the following year.
Here’s short clip of the Ploughing Day!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omzL7_31f5g&feature=player_embedded)
The Bonn Om Tuk day celebrates the day whereby the Tonle Sap River reverses its flow, back into the dam, providing new water sources.
Other festivals are like the Labour Day, International Children’s day, United Nations Human Rights Day.
As you can see although Cambodia does celebrates the usual festivals like Labour Day, it is rather obvious that Cambodia’s calendar of events is focused on the cultural festivals that are blooming with their own cultural aspects in Cambodia. For example, the Royal Ploughing Day is unique to Cambodia, as not many countries nowadays still depend on ploughing and agricultural farming as their livelihood. Therefore, it can be concluded that Cambodia is a country that focuses on their cultural events that are unique to their own country, and places less emphasis on Western festivals.
Disneyization in Siem Reap (Cambodia)
Siem Reap
Themeing is whereby consumer landscape is made up of homogenized fare. The Sokha Angkor Resorts in Siem Reap, is themed like the Angkor Wat as its name suggests and it is very near to the temple itself. Stone sculptures are commonly seen used as a decorative element in the hotel. Hotel’s design is forced to be similar to the Angkor Wat. Major streets of the city are boulevards fronted by bulidings with a French Colonial feel, an example of themeing again.
Evidence of Angkor Wat themeing in Sokha Angkor Resort :
( Both adapted from http://www.fivestaralliance.com/luxury-hotels/siem-reap/sokha-angkor-resort-siem-reap/gallery/15018_6_sokhaangkorresortsiemreap )
Performative labour is is the embellishment of an employee’s role as a service provider to that of a performer. In the Sokha Angkor Resort, the frontline service staffs are seen to be performing Cambodia’s cultural performance in the hotel for the guests’ entertainment and happiness. Since the staffs are performing the cultural performance just to make the guests happy, but not for cultural purposes, it is performative labour.
Hybrid Consumption is the blending of services and products in an effort to provide more customers and retaining them. In Siem Reap, besides Angkor Wat, there are hotels, , shopping area and western-styled pubs, bars at Psar Chas area. There are also Italian, French, Russian, Thai, Korean restaurants, with some providing Aspara Dance performance along with dinner. Fishing villages , silk farm and bird sanctuary are also available for visits. Bicycle tours around the rice paddy fields are also available.
Merchandising is the marketing of what would typically be rather indistinguishable items with the logo of a particular product. Hotels in Siem Reap with their own souvenir shops, sells t-shirts with the Angkor Wat print, as Angkor Wat is the iconic symbol of their country.
Reflection
I feel Cambodia is one of those country with their unique culture due to their, Khmer Rouge past. It is slightly lagging behind other countries in terms of development due to the closing of its borders to foreigners due to the Khmer Rouge communists. This explains my initial perception of Cambodia being a low developed country with poor education and living conditions. However, in the recent 20 years the country started to open its doors to the world. It was a right decision made as now the economical state of Cambodia is seen to be improving due to the help of tourism after opening its door.
Yet, all these come with a price to pay. Tourism has indeed brought about many positive impacts like economical benefits and development, yet it cannot be denied that along with it comes the erosion of the local authentic culture and traditions. Cultures and traditions that were once precious and unique to the locals are now commercialised for the tourists. It is a pity to lose that authenticity of such valuable Cambodian culture. However, on the contrary, it is evident that through tourism development, the economic benefits gained can be used to improve the living conditions and development of infrastructures in Cambodia.
Commendable is, cultural aspects of Cambodia may be vibrant but the Cambodians brings the most colour of all with their beautiful smiles and warm welcome which are the enduring memory of any tourists’ visit.
References
Apsara Dance : Traditional Khmer Dance - Drama and Dance- Drama Performances. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2011, from Cambodia Travel Guides: http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/srothersr.htm
Disneyology : The study of treehouses, toons, and tiki birds. (2010, March 25). Retrieved November 26, 2011, from Disneyfication and Disneyization: http://disneyology.blogspot.com/2010/03/disneyfication-and-disneyization.html
Ly, S. (n.d.). Siem Reap Province. Retrieved December 4, 2011, from Cambodia Community Day: http://www.cambodiancommunityday.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=83
North, P. (2008). CultureShock! A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette. TarryTown: Marshall Cavendish Corporation.
People-in-country-profile. (2011, June). Retrieved November 25, 2011, from Joshua Project: http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php
The Travel Blog. (2009). Retrieved December 26, 2011, from Trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia - April 2009:
Silberberg. (1995). Cultural Tourism and business opportunities for museums and heritage sites.
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