An artist transforms dreams into reality

Photo by: Sam Rith
Painter Norn Saran works on a Buddhist mural at a pagoda in the village of Tuol Ksach.

A benevolent Buddha beams down at the visitors to the quiet temple in Kampong Chhnang province.

The mural artist painting new icons onto a blank wall of the temple pauses occasionally to choose a fresh palette from several bottles of brightly coloured paint standing on a bench.

Adorning the other walls are paintings of cruel giants’ faces and and other depictions of Buddhist legends.

Norn Saran, a temple painter in Tuol Ksach village in Kampong Chhnang’s Rorlea Paear district, said he learned his trade at the Macha Tep private school in Battambang.

Although he was trained as a billboard painter, he developed his skills painting the interiors of temples.

Norn Saran’s father is a taxi driver and his mother is a housewife, while his younger sister works in a garment factory. Through his work as a painter, Norn Saran earns money to help support himself and his family. ( Please read more )

Children of Sunrise Village celebrated in new exhibition

Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON
Kids perform the coconut dance in Kandal province. The dance will be performed at the opening of Dance to the Light at FCC.

TRACEY Shelton’s Dance to the Light photo exhibition, which depicts the lives of orphans at the Sunrise Children’s Village, debuts tonight at the FCC.

“The idea we had was to take the traditional dances the children perform and take them into the traditional areas where the dances evolved,” says Shetlon. “The title of the exhibition and the images themselves evoke a sense of hope, new directions, and new beginnings for the children.”

Proceeds from the exhibition will go toward Sunrise’s funding.

Shelton came to Cambodia as a volunteer at Sunrise in 1998, saying she was inspired by an interview she saw on TV in Australia with Sunrise president Geraldine Cox. ( Please read more )

Villagers find a hole new way to catch fish

Photo by: ROTH MEAS
Meas Seiha crouches down next to a hole that attracts Snakeheads seeking warmth.

The sun hasn’t risen yet, but several teenagers have got up and left their beds, bound for nearby rice fields. It takes at about 15 minutes for them to walk the one kilometre down a narrow path to some holes they have dug near the edge of the paddy.

Carrying a plastic container, Meas Seiha, 17, a young boy with muddy trousers, takes the thatched cover off one of the holes at the corner of a rice field. Meas Seiha sticks his hand in recess hoping to find trei ros, or Snakehead fish, that might have crawled in during the night.

Snakeheads are a strange evolutionary phenomenon. They are one of the few species of fish that can breathe in and out of water. A small cavity allows for air intake, so they can survive for hours out of water, and can even move on land.

During the cooler months of October, November and December, the people of Kampong Preah commune, Sangke district, Battambang province, dig holes at the edges of their rice fields to catch these fish.

“The fish look for the holes because they don’t like the cold paddy water during the cool season,” Meas Seiha explained.

Seiha says that the fish crawl out of the cold water and seek the holes too keep warm. ( Please read more )

Hitting all the right notes

Photo by: Ou Mom
Retired arts lecturer Yan Borin is teaching a group of teenage students who want to learn the traditional form of Khmer poetry and set it to the sounds of the flute.

While many of Phnom Penh’s teens listen to hip-hop and R&B, a group of around 30 teenagers at Baktouk High School are listening to a retired teacher of traditional drama.

The youngsters have formed a group to learn to compose and recite traditional Khmer poems and accompany them on flute, under the tutelage of 61-year-old Yan Borin.

The former Royal University of Fine Arts lecturer said he had given up his Sunday mornings to nurture the teenagers’ keen interest in studying this traditional artform.

“The students created this study programme and just invited me to teach them,” Yan Borin said. “I didn’t demand a fee from them, but they gave based on their capacity.”

Yan Borin said that while music is part of the curriculum in many countries, the Cambodian education system lacked resources to teach students to play musical instruments. So he endeavours to give his students two hours per week, saying he is proud of them and that they are gifted in poetry. ( Please read more )

Cambodia looks to host ‘Hair Olympics’

Photo by: PHOTO SUPPLIED
Cambodian hairdresser Sun Heang at the Hair Olympics in the Phillipines.

Hairdressers in the Kingdom are stylin’ up in an effort to become the host country for an international hair and make up competition.

The Asia Pacific Hairdressers and Cosmetologist Association (APHCA) recently invited Cambodian hairdresser Sun Heang to act as a judge in its 13th Hair and Make Up International Competition, held in Manila last October.

And although Cambodia has no such association, the APHCA is still planning to hold its “Hair Olympics” in Cambodia in 2011.

Sun Heang, director of Christina Beauty School, said she felt honoured that Cambodia was selected as one of the Asia Pacific countries to be represented on the committee.

“I gained much experience in my profession, and learnt how to host for the competition in the future,” she said.

Through Sun Heang’s professionalism and experience, Cambodia became a member of APHCA in 2007. She said the purpose of the organisation was for cultural exchange and the development of hairstyles.

“Now we are considering a lot about being a host of this competition,” she said.

And while Cambodia is restricted by the modesty of its Khmer culture and tradition, Sun Heang said most of Cambodia’s stylists were young.

“Moreover, Cambodia’s traditional hair, tie and clothes are perfect and unique, which can be an advantage in competition,” she said.

Phnom Penh Post, Thursday, 24 December 2009
By Ou Mom

Artists more than able in their minds and spirit

Photo by: KIM HAK / MELON ROUGE
Kong Nai, the blind Khmer chapei musician who not only plays the blues but lives them.

ON DECEMBER 3, hundreds of people gathered at the park next to Wat Botum for a special ceremony – and to share talents and ideas – in celebration of the 26th International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This happy gathering was different from others in the park – though one could hardly tell at first glance – because most of the participants, who hailed from numerous NGOs, happened to be disabled.

The day has been an international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992, typically organised by volunteers. In Cambodia this year’s event was co-organised by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation [CDPO].

Messages of support from both the King and prime minister were read to the 3,500-strong crowd. A representative from the CDPO, Ngin Saorath, later requested the government ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. After the serious business, however, games and wheelchair races started up, finishing the day on a fun note.

Two days later, on December 5, many of the same people showcased their abilities in the Spotlight 2009 arts performance, co-organised by London-based NGO Epic Arts and the Nippon Foundation. In front of Chenla Theatre, the strains of classical music, played by a group of disabled children near the theatre’s entrance, wafted over the street. ( Pleasd read more )

Demining deadline extended by decade

Photo by: Photo Supplied
The winner of the online Miss Landmine contest, Miss Battambang, Dos Sopheap, was announced Thursday on the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. She received 2,315 online votes.

PARTIES to the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty have formally approved Cambodia’s request to push back the deadline for clearing all antipersonnel mines by 10 years, though the government’s formal extension request asserts that “current productivity levels will not be sufficient” to meet the revised goal.

Leng Sochea, deputy secretary of the Cambodia Mine Action Authority [CMAA], on Thursday confirmed that the request had been approved Wednesday at the Summit on a Mine-Free World, which is being held this week in Cartagena, Colombia.

“Whether we completely clear all land mines in the country or not, it will depend on the money that we receive from the donor countries and other donors,” he said.

A Cambodian delegation attending the summit said clearance efforts for the next 10 years will cost approximately US$330 million.

Cambodia became a signatory to the Ottawa Treaty, formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, in 1999, thereby committing to clear all antipersonnel mines by the end of this year. ( Please read more )

Local photographer seeing the Kingdom in a new light

Photo by: MEOUN NHEAN
Cambodian photographer Meoun Nhean modified his digital camera to capture the ethereal mood of Angkor Wat using infrared light.

Angkor Wat has been photographed from every conceivable angle and light from sunup to sundown. It hosts millions of tourists a year, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a visitor who isn’t trying to capture its beauty through his own lens.

So snapping a truly unique picture of the temple seems like an impossibility.But it’s a challenge he thrives on.

Finding new ways of capturing Cambodia’s picturesque places is Moeun Nhean’s artistic passion, and his recent work – which uses a digital camera to record light waves that are invisible to the human eye – shows the Kingdom’s most recognisable locale from a different perspective.

In a photo of the entrance to the Bayon temple in Siem Riep, the statues lining the road look normal, but are shaded by bright white trees that appear to be covered with snow. In a photo of Angkor Wat, the temple looks purple, the sky looks green, and the trees reflect the same ghostly white. These images have not been digitally manipulated on a computer, but produced in-camera. ( Please read more )

A cleaner, sparser festival

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Racers compete in the dragon boat races at the Water Festival on Tuesday morning in Phnom Penh.

LONG before the first vendor from the provinces unrolled her woven mat and set down her bundle of wares, the organisers of this year’s Water Festival in Phnom Penh anticipated low attendance. Typhoon Ketsana left tens of thousands of families struggling to rebuild and replant, cut off from roads and waterways and in a far-from-festive mood. The effects of the global economic crisis further tightened household budgets, and even without these disasters, the 2009 festival simply couldn’t compare to last year’s all-out extravaganza, which coincided with the 575th anniversary of Phnom Penh and Cambodia’s 55th Independence Day.

Sure enough, the turnout was low: Upwards of 2 million Cambodians usually pour into the capital for the Water Festival. This year, official estimates put that number at 1 million. In Siem Reap last year, 30,000 visitors joined in the festivities, whereas this year it was only 24,000.

Far from putting a gloomy cast on the first days of the dry season, however, this year’s Water Festival went to show that outside of the boat races, Bon Om Tuk is more than just a competition; it’s a national party. ( Please read more )

New training centres aim to boost tourism sector services

Photo by: Tracey Shelton
New education centres proposed by the Ministry of Tourism are set to apply international standards of training in cities in Cambodia.

Thong Khon, the tourism minister, was quoted in a press conference last week in Siem Reap as saying that the ministry plans to build hospitality and tourism training centres and culinary schools to cater to the demands of newly emerging and developed tourist sites. The schools aim to foster the development of specific skills which will allow students the ability to provide international standard service that is expected of the tourism industry.

Four sites – the capital city Phnom Penh, Preah Sihanouk, Siem Reap and Kratie provinces – are the main targets for building schools that will train the next generation of tourism and service providers who will ensure top quality products for their clients.

Thong Khon, who has recently returned from a state visit to Australia supported by the University of Queensland and AusAID (Australian Government Overseas Aid), said that his five days in the city of Noosa gave him insight into how the seaside city approaches ecotourism and adventure travel development at other Australian sites.

“We want to compete in the global economy. If we don’t have the required standard of service, how do we stand a chance of competing?” he said, adding that “we are determined to complete work in this mandate”.

Thong Khon said he remains committed to Cambodia’s viability as a growing destination with high-quality facilities and services and is certain that the Kingdom’s natural resources and physical beauty can be tapped to shape and strengthen tourism sites.

“In the past, it wasn’t that we had no desire to develop, but we did not dare to develop due to our lack of experience,” he said, adding that Cambodia is capable of building attractive new sites to which tourists will flock.

Cambodia’s limited sea coasts could be compensated for by the numerous riverside locations in several of the Kingdom’s provinces, Thong Khon said. ( Please read more )