Category Archives: Travel

National Museum of Cambodia

Posted on by
2

The National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh housed a large collection of art work from the Khmer culture, dated back to the periods even before the Khmer Empire. This museum was opened in 1917, but during the Khmer Rouge era (1975-1979) it was abandoned. The museum building was left in disrepair, the roof rotten, and it became home to a vast colony of bats. In 1979, it was repaired and reopened to the public. As we visited the museum more than 30 years later, the museum was already back as an important place to learn about the Khmer art history.

As we entered the museum, the ambience inside the museum reminded me to the National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta that I visited years ago. The museum building itself was an old building (93 years old, as compared to the Indonesian one that’s almost 150 years old), and it was also started by the colonial government that occupied the land when the museum was founded (the National Museum in Cambodia was founded by the French, while the National Museum in Indonesia was founded by the Dutch). The collections of art work were also similar that they represent the history going back to hundreds of years ago.

I think to really get an appreciation of the importance of the artifacts we’re seeing at this museum, we would need a guide and / or good understanding of the historical context of the culture and time where the artifacts came from. We were on our own and we only had short time to visit this museum, so unfortunately our tour at the museum was very cursory.

The photo below was taken at the courtyard inside the Museum. It’s nicely set up and felt very nice and peaceful to be there.

National Museum of Cambodia

Encounter with Poverty

Posted on by
Reply

When you’re visiting a developing country, especially one that had just emerged from years of civil war like Cambodia, you’re likely have to deal with the reality that many local people are struggling economically. I had read in the guidebooks and on people’s travel journals about encountering poverty in Cambodia, with many children begging for change from tourists. But I wasn’t really prepared to experience this personally.

After finishing our tour of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, we continued the day with a visit to the National Museum of Cambodia that is located pretty close from the Royal Palace. When we arrived there, I went to the ticket office to purchase tickets. As I stood in front of the ticket counter to wait for our tickets, I felt a gentle tug on my shirt. I looked down, and under the ticket counter there was a little boy, looking at me with a sad face, asking for some change. This caught me off guard. I ended up looking back at the little boy, shook my head to say no, and walked away. He stayed there and waited for the next visitor to come.

Many guidebooks suggested to tourists not to give money to the child beggars, as in most cases, the children actually wouldn’t benefit from the money as they were taken advantage of either by their own parents or by other adults. They suggested donating through other means, like by supporting Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that work with the street children to help them out of poverty. Logically that made sense, but emotionally it’s still hard to just walk away and not do anything for the little boy.

I took the photo below few minutes later from a little distance. The little boy stayed there at the ticket counter, and asked for money from the next visitor coming to purchase ticket. The person at the ticket counter didn’t do anything and let the little boy stay there.

Child beggar

King Father Norodom Sihanouk

Posted on by
Reply

I wrote a post last month about the Thai King. Cambodia is also a Kingdom, and it has a King as well. The King’s role is mostly ceremonial, but similar to the Thai people, the Cambodians also revere their King. Their current King is King Norodom Sihamoni, who became King in 2004 replacing his father King Father Norodom Sihanouk who abdicated his Throne due to health reasons. If King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand is the longest reigning monarch in the world, King Father Norodom Sihanouk held the world record for the number of positions that he held during his lifetime. The Guinness Book of World Records identifies him as the politician who has served the world’s greatest variety of political offices. These included two terms as King, two as Sovereign Prince, one as president, two as prime minister, and one as Cambodia’s non-titled head of state, as well as numerous positions as leader of various governments-in-exile.

When Kristi and I visited the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, we saw an exhibit at the museum dedicated to the life of the King Father Norodom Sihanouk. He was born in 1922 (so he’s 90 years old this year) and first became King in 1941. At the exhibit, there was a photo of him with the first Indonesian President, Soekarno, not long after Indonesia gained its independence. That’s how long he’s been around. People in Cambodia revered him, as evident to him being restored to his position as the King of Cambodia in 1993 after years of being in exile during the Khmer Rouge era.

The photo below was taken when we visited the Banteay Srei temple near Siem Reap. It was the photos of the current King Norodom Sihamoni on the left, the King Father Norodom Sihanouk in the middle, and Queen Monique on the right.

Cambodian Royal Family

Khmer Empire

Posted on by
Reply

The most popular place to visit in Cambodia is the Angkor Wat. While in itself it’s already quite impressive being the largest religious structure in the world, it’s even more impressive to learn that it was only one of many temples in an area called Angkor that at one time was the largest pre-industrial city in the world (about 1,000 square kilometres in area — more than 10 times the size of Manhattan). This was during the heights of the Khmer Empire, between the 9th and 15th centuries. The Khmer Empire at its height spans all the way to modern day Thailand in the west, the modern day Laos in the north, and the modern day Vietnam in the east.

During our visit to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, we also saw some museum display that showed artifacts from the Khmer Empire era, and particularly interesting to me was seeing a map of the Khmer Empire superimposed on the geographical map of the modern world — clearly showing how vast that empire was. I couldn’t help to think of the contrast between seeing this map that in a subtle way saying the Khmer culture is more superior than its neighbors the Thai and the Vietnamese, and seeing the model of Angkor Wat at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, which was built to commemorate the time when the Thai conquered the Angkor area. It’s interesting to think of these two cultures that are both deeply rooted in Buddhism (thus advocating peace and not being confrontational), but they still have the nationalistic pride when comparing themselves with their neighboring countries.

The photo below was taken at the museum in the Royal Palace. It was the Khmer Empire map I mentioned above.

Khmer Empire map

Cambodian Traditional Music

Posted on by
Reply

When you’re visiting a foreign country, one way to appreciate the local culture is by by listening or watching traditional performing arts like dances and music. Some cultures have traditional music instruments that might be unique only to their culture, while others may have traditional instruments that are similar to other cultures in the same geographic region. Some of the music pieces are performed among the common people, while others are more for formal, royal functions.

When we were visiting the Royal Palace complex in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, while walking around the Silver Pagoda we heard some sound of music playing in a distance. We walked towards the sound source, and found a pavilion where several people were playing traditional musical instruments as an ensemble. Later on I learned it’s called the pinpeat ensemble, which plays music during ceremonies at the royal court or the temples. The ensemble includes wooden xylophones, a circle of small gongs, and a couple of drums. The music sounded similar to the gamelan ensemble from Indonesia.

As we stood near the pavilion and listened to the group performing, several more tourists came to join us enjoying the performance. Then one of the performers looked at the crowd, and motioned to one of the visitors to come over, and he let her played the instruments for a little bit. I thought that was a wonderful way of letting visitors learn and appreciate your culture.

The photo below was taken as we listened to the group performing. I thought it was great that one of the guys actually looked at us while playing and smiled — showing that it’s not all about being serious and the music was meant to be enjoyed.

Pinpeat ensemble