Security Guards Fire at Protesting Chinese Workers Stranded in Cambodia

via the PPP

SECURITY police at the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh opened fire during a confrontation with more than 100 protesters Wednesday as they sought intervention over a pay dispute.

About 110 Chinese construction workers employed by the Jiangsu Province First Construction Installation Co Ltd gathered at the embassy, claiming the company owners fled the country leaving them without six months’ back pay.

A protester representative said the workers were employed by the company to work on Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac City development for almost eight months but had so far received just two months’ pay.

He also said the company had taken their passports, stranding them in Cambodia.

“We want the embassy to contact the company and force them to return our passports and pay us our salary,” said another worker.

During the protest, which began midday, the workers carried a banner reading, “We want to return home”, demanding a meeting with embassy officials. Security guards ordered protesters to cross the road to wait and fired three warning shots in the air when protesters tried to push their way inside the embassy gates.

via The Phnom Penh Post – Shots fired at worker protest.

Ka-set – Information website about Cambodia – Yiey Yah, high priestess of possession ceremonies

following is an excerpt from the beginning of a wonderful short article on spirit possession among the Cham in Cambodia by Emiko Stock, an anthropologist working with and on the Cham for over a decade now. The article deals with a host of important issues, though as a newspaper piece rather than an academic one, these are largely alluded to. Can’t wait to read more from Ms. Stock!

R.I.P, Svay Ken

Thanks to Jinja for putting this out at his blog. RIP, លោក​គ្រូ Svay Ken

Svay Ken

Gifted artist Svay Ken passed away today at the age of the age of 76.

[Above: self-portrait from The Advisor #4]

via Webbed Feet, Web Log » Blog Archive » Svay Ken: 1933 – 2008.

An Ey Srey An

លោក​គ្រូ Frank noted in my last post the debt that Preap Sovath’s great Nom Banchok video owes to the early 1970’s movie An Ey Srey An, which he used to (still does?) regularly show in his Khmer Language classes at SEASSI.

An Ey Srey An is really a great film (my favorite part includes a bear), and the duelling Nom Banchok sellers’ song is a real highlight. They don’t make movies like this anymore in Cambodia, more’s the pity. Here are the two videos together, for your enjoyment and comparison.

h/t to Lokkru, and cheers to Preap Sovath for ‘citing’ this classic Khmer movie.

Lecture, Exhibition and Book Launch at Reyum: PIDAN (ពិតាន) « ចន្រ្ទពង្ស . CHANDRAPONG 007

I have loved Reyum since I began to learn Khmer, and about Cambodia. Founded by Ly Daravuth and the late, lamented, Ingrid Muan, Reyum ran one of Cambodia’s most inspiring, consistently excellent arts organizations from the earliest date. Their books remain some of the most beautiful and consistently high-quality publications of any academic press in Cambodia (or, for that matter, out).

Typically, they choose one form of artistic expression and investigate in detail, creating an exhibit and unbelievably informative, beautiful catalogs to accompany them. They also run a school, and to support the organization, a small research wing.

Their new exhibit on Pidan (ពិតាន) looks brilliant. Pidan is a word which in Khmer means ceiling, but the particular Pidan which this exhibit seems to concern itself with are the gorgeous woven cloths which tend to be placed above the central Buddha image in a typical vihear (វិហារ), and comes closer to the Pali / Sanskrit meaning of the word, Vitan (वितान), “spread-out, canopy, awning.” (T.W. Rhys-Davids‘ Pali-English Dictionary, s.v.).

Pidan often represent images of heavens, or of the triple world, with the implication that the Buddha has access to heaven via his enlightenment. Of course, the Buddha himself is not supposed to have gone to heaven after his final enlightenment (Parinibbana), but to have merely ‘attained nirvana,’ with all the transcendent meaning that implies. But he did, according to his biography, visit the heavens during his lifetime, such as during one rainy season, when he visited the Tavatimsa heaven in order to preach the dharma (specifically, the Abhidhamma) to his deceased mother, Mahamaya.

Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this new work from Reyum.

via Lecture, Exhibition and Book Launch at Reyum: PIDAN (ពិតាន) « ចន្រ្ទពង្ស . CHANDRAPONG 007

Class Trip to Wat Munisotaram on Pchum Ben

Like most immigrant communities, the Khmer community in America has had to adjust the days of its celebrations to accord with the only god that all Americans worship in common – the work week. Thus, instead of holding their final day of the dark fortnight of the pretas (ប្រេត) this morning, as was done in Cambodia, the good, and immensely hospitable, folks at Wat Munisotaram held it over two days on the weekend.

[sorry can't resist pointing out how wonderful the name of the temple is. Muni-sota-aram means "the monastery of that which was heard from the sage" (i.e., The Buddha's Teaching Monastery). Not so surprising, but listen to the sound of it - it was also chosen because it sounds like "Mini-sota". Hah!]

As I did last year, I organized an optional fieldtrip for students from my relevant classes (How to do things with dead people, and Buddhist books), and invited folks from some of the anthropology department classes as well. All told, we managed to haul 34 people out of bed before 4 AM on a Saturday morning, to go on an optional, completely uncredited, fieldtrip to a field in Hampton Minnesota.

And it was awesome.

Here are some of my favorite photos. More on my flickr site, and a few great ones from Somongkol over at Restless Trotter

more photos after the jump….

Link Dump for Saturday 1.2

Trying to catch up. Some good stuff in the following:

• An American Psychiatric AssociationAmerican Psychological Association resolution banning the use of psychiatrists in interrogations has passed. This should have been a no-brainer, since psychiatrists are physicians, and therefore take Hippocrates’ famous oath: to do no harm. Thankfully, it passed. Now maybe the psychologists will get off their lazy asses and do the same. [UPDATE & CORRECTION: Yikes! The consequence of blogging after massive surgery and too many percocet should now be obvious. The Psychiatric Association has opposed involvement in torture for years and year. See here, for instance. What I meant to notice was that the aforementioned morally spineless Psychological Association had finally taken the only morally defensible stand. Congratulations! You're late to the party, but the flip side is, your position never adequately represented the vast majority of your membership!]
• Mongkol, who was shown on this blog previously as part of my efforts to make Lokkru Frank Smith a worldwide icon of brilliance on all things Khmer (he already exists as such, my effort is to make him known as such!), apparently needs help. I’m unclear that spoken Khmer is really under attack in the province, but have no doubt that the Thai university of Mahidol’s attempt to teach Khmer using Thai script is just another effort to insist on their greater identity as citizens of the Thai state, and deny their linguistic, ethnic, and cultural identity as Khmers.
• Two good sets of queasy-making reflections on the economy, and the stupid-ass moves the current administration is making, from people who oughtta know: Robert Reich, former labor secretary, and Paul Krugman, (actual) economist. Both via AnEconomistsView Blog
• KI Media has a few photo collections of the celebrations of Pchum Ben, my favorite celebration in Cambodia, period. Love it love it love it. [link]
• Here’s an audio and photo album of speakers at the Dakota encampment of Coldwater Spring, a sacred origin place for the native Dakota, currently an abandoned mine. They camped there for four days during the RNC to push forward their demands that the spring be rehabilitated and returned to their care. It’s a good claim, and it’s hard to see why it would be denied. The land currently just costs the state money, and they’ve extracted all the stuff they want from it anyway. But nope – the cynical bastards running the show surrounded the camp for four full days with riot cops and police officers. Man. Thanks to Griff Wigley at Native American Minnesota
• We’re on a roll here with the whole ’stupid things cops do’ meme, so why not include this little speech, given by mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, about no-knock warrants, and how he and his family were held hostage, tied up, and forced to watch for hours and police killed his dogs as they were running away from the cops. All because some local group of dope traffickers had the excellent idea of having packages of pot sent to his address. Warning, hosted by the Cato Institute. via BB.
• A fantastic short interview with Bob Waldrop over at Powering Down. Bob is a fourth-generation Oklahoman, member of the Oklahoma Sustainability Network, member of the Oklahoma Food Policy Council, founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, and generally swell guy. Reading inspiring things like this remind me why the Catholic Workers are so freaking rad.
• A nice, provocative essay titled “Why I watch people die,” from an American Buddhist, courtesy Danny Fisher.
• Andrew Flood released this slide show and talk/discussion he gave on the Chinese anarchists before the Mao takeover. It’s full of great material, accessibly presented. I’m trying to put together a history of modern Asian revolution with an anarchist bent to it, for offer in the Asian Studies program, and think this might be useful there.
• This made my weekend.
  via videosift.com

Favored Links for Friday

I won’t be online much, I hope, this next week. Here are a few links to tide you over:

Architecture for Humanity, and Lulan Artisans have a great-looking new project operating throughout mainland Southeast Asia that promises scalable support for traditional artisanal industries, in an effort to provide attractive and sustaining jobs for those who might otherwise be trafficked. They are applying for a grant from American Express, and could use your vote. You don’t need to be a member. Click here for information on the project. Click here to nominate the project for the grant. [via BB]

Here’s a fun quote on language in Old Cambodge, courtesy of New Mandala.

Lorenz of anthropologi.info has a good synopsis of the news that has begun changing the way archaeologists approach rainforest urbanism. The specific story is out of the Amazon, but the findings apply nicely to rainforest cities throughout the world.

Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog points to a map that shows how global ‘agriculture value added’ looks throughout the globe.

គ្រូ​បង្រៀន បន្ត …

Your favorite lokkru and nekkru continue to teach the youth of America Khmer. This hilarious clip comes from SEASSI (Southeast Asian Summer Studies Institute)’s “Poetry Night,” and includes a bunch of beginning and intermediate students singing the classic Khmer pop song, “មក​ពី​ណា?” (Where you from?), the kru’s acting out the parts, and a chorus of traditional Khmer kazoo (កាស្ស៉ូរ).

The Treasures of the Buddha – សម្បត្តិ​ព្រះ​ពុទ្ធ

This is the Khmer Proverb that supplies the title of my dissertation: “Treasures of the Buddha: Imagining Death and Life in Contemporary Cambodia.”

សម្បត្តិ​មនុស្ស​គឺ ស្រី​ស្រា​ឡាន​វិឡា

សម្បត្តិ​ទេវតា មាន​ធូប​មាន​ទៀន

សម្បត្តិ​ព្រះ​ពុទ្ធ​គឺ ផ្នូរ​នឹង​និព្វាន៕

The treasures of man are women, wine, cars and villas

The treasures of the angels include incense and candles, but

The treasures of the Buddha are the grave and nirvana.

The proverb, which is somewhat obviously ‘non-traditional,’ speaks to what different types of beings consider valuable, and was my entrée to discussions of value in Cambodia, and its  transformations, which is the focus of my dissertation.

The last line identifies the treasures of the Buddha with death and (the impossible-to-conceive) nirvana. How is this a value? Khmer often find this proverb both funny and unnerving, since it mirrors back to the monastic establishment what they themselves say about value and the treasures of the Buddha, but does so in such a blatant way that they are convinced, somehow, that it is somehow ’sacrilegious.’