ThaRum

Two’s most influential people in Cambodian history: Samdech Sangha Raja Jhotañano Choun Nath, a master in Buddha’s teaching, and the King of Khmer music of all time, Sin Sisamouth.

Last December I received an email from a student in California, the United States. It was an email question of great people in the history of Cambodia for a school research project.

One paragraph of the entire email:

My part of the report concerns important people in Cambodian history and in today’s Cambodian culture. I am really stuck trying to find contemporary influential people in Cambodian society. Could you provide a few current names along with how they have contributed? …Ironically, I asked this question of the international students from Cambodia who are a part of the Cambodian club here on campus, and no one could give me any names.

A flash of thought came to me just a couple of minutes after reading the email. The very first name of person I included in my response emaill is: a son of farmers who later became a monk, Samdech Choun Nath. Born in March 11, 1883, Choun Nath or Samdech Sangha Raja Jhotañano Choun Nath dedciated to conserve the Khmer language in the form of the Khmer dictionary. Everytime I do not quite understand a Khmer vocubulary, his name–his dictionary came to my mind.

In his lifetime, partly when the whole nation was influenced by French colonialism, he promoted the use of “Khmerization” in both religions and public education. He refered Khmerization to new Khmer words derived from its ancestral roots, the Pali and Sanskrit languages. In 1915 a major work to compile a Khmer dictionary began. And the first edition of the current Khmer dictionary was released to the public domain in 1967.

His other achievements to Cambodia include his protection of Khmer identity and history, one of which is the national anthem, Nokor Reach and Savada Khmer. He had vast knowledge of the Khmer language. Probably he was the most famous and most knowledgeable monk Cambodia had ever had. And in religious world he also is a master in the teaching of Buddha.

And if allowed to go further, I would choose to add Sinn Sisamout, a prolific singer-songwriter in Cambodia during the 1960s and ’70s, to the list of great Cambodian figures. Popularly known as the “King of Khmer music,” Samouth, along with Ros Sereysothea, Pen Ron, was part of a thriving pop music scene. One of his songs, ‘Battambang Bandol Jet,’ describes the beauty of people and Battambang province. It makes us feel like reading a short story vivid of nature and living things. The boat is gone away, but not the port. At least, people at all age have heard of his song-his name. The past has its shadow. The era he lived to entertain the whole nation was gone. But he left something unvaluable to this post-war generation. Many of songs of thousands he wrote still survived, decades after civil wars. Today they are source materials of commercial music reproduction company.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 16th, 2006 at 20:10 pm and is filed under Book, Cambodia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.