Traditional
As it turns out, it takes a lot more focus to blog consistently than I seem to have. I promise to (try to) do better over the next few weeks that I’m in Cambodia. Quite a lot has happened since my first post, but all of that goodness must wait its proper time. Today, I’m bringing you pictures from a traditional Cambodian dance show I attended last night at the National Museum here in Phnom Penh. While there, I learned about one aspect of the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. During the group's time in power (roughly from 1975-1979) they managed to kill nearly 90% of the country’s artists. NINETY PERCENT. I’ll let that sink it. Because most of these traditions were passed orally and rarely written down, this devastated Cambodia's artistic heritage. More on the Khmer Rouge to come in a later post when I talk about my visit to the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields. But back to the performance – it's run by a non-profit which supports training programs for young, usually at-risk Cambodians by older artists, and aims to promote Cambodian art throughout the world. The show was made up of singing and dancing; and watching it, you could not help but smile. The costumes were intricate and beautiful during the Aspara dances, the mood was light and fun-filled in a number about the pursuit of love, the proud and majestic hunters in the buffalo sacrifice ceremony were haunting, and the peacock dance had the audience ooh-ing and ahh-ing. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so enough of my blabbing!
