This video was a labor of love. As expressed in previous posts, I was deeply moved by our experiences in Cambodia -  inspired by the creativity of its people, by the mystery of its landscapes, by the dynamism of its history and cultural heritage. This montage of still photos, video, and music is my homage to Cambodia; an expression of my affection and admiration for this beautiful land and the kind Khmer people.

The original music here is not based on any traditional Khmer musical forms or instrumentation; it is my own musical tribute, impressionistic and subjective, to this vibrant musical geography. The primary instruments are mandolin, wood flute, ukulele, and percussion. I recorded the music in a span of approximately ten days in April 2014, almost immediately upon our return. The track titles are as follows;
1) Tuk-tuk
2) By the Wat
3) Cicada Daze
4) The Lemongrass Devata Stomp
5) Night Fires
6) Apsara Dream (To The Sacred Dancers of Angkor)
The video also features the wonderful Musicans of Neak Pean, one of several bands we saw playing traditional Khmer music in the temples. The music heard in the closing video clip is performed by the Musicians of Banteay Srey.

I was enchanted by Cambodia and hope to return there someday, to teach, to explore, to learn. Until such time there are the many fine memories and impressions which I share with you here.

My thanks to all those who helped to make our experience in Cambodia memorable and deeply rewarding: to Nathalie, Chan, Chan Tra and everyone at Maison Polanka; to Shila and all the staff and students at the Music for Everyone School; to Longdy, our kind and intrepid tuk-tuk driver; to Len, our wise and humorous guide; to the amazing Sacred Dancers of Angkor; to Hong and Den at Quad Adventure Cambodia; to all the Khmer musicians of Angkor.

Kiss of the Mango Rain

            A Lyric for Cambodia

Here the midnight stars glow red
And roosters crow long before sunup.

With first light comes the chant of drums
And voices from the temple
Faint whisper of night’s leftover breeze
Rustling leaves of bamboo and mango trees
The strange sweet smoke of slash fires
Like incense inflames the senses
Invades the tangled mind of memories.

No dream is as dream-like
As this life we are born to visit.

By day it is ancient ruins
Stone mysteries lurking
In a landscape steeped in torporific heat
The hypnotic riffs and melodic hysteria
Of myriad jungle birds
Cicada hoards that roar unseen
Then grow tomb-silent.

Giant faces gaze from a lost age
With sly enigmatic smiles mostly
Though some appear ghostly
To be mourning a faded glory
An irretrievable esteem
They are kings, they are bodhisattvas
They are legend and they are dust
But their monuments still breathe
Life and pride into a people
Who share many burdens
Who bear many scars.

This land is heavy with memories of death
Scenes of carnage, depravity and torture
When sacred trees withered and died,
Their roots drowned in Khmer blood.
It is not possible to ignore the ghosts
Nor is it wise to play with them.
In this land flows venom and dark water.
In this land the White Bones Village screams
For retribution a million times over.
The seven-headed cobra has many eyes
And just as many fangs.

Only the enlightened being apprehends
The balance between justice and forgiveness.

But there is music grown here
Music whose blossoms heal
Nourished by the living
Victims of landmines
Crippled, maimed, and blind
Who keep Khmer music alive
In the shadows of Angkor’s shrines,
The wild strings and strains coursing
Through the laterite veins,
A blood-tuned ancestral modality
Chime of heart, gong of bone
High holy fidelity to the
Resilient melody of somehow living
This cursed and blessed life.

See the monks in bright orange robes
Shuffling over terraces carved with
Epic scenes of long ago
Men with bows, clubs, and spears
Horses and great elephants in battle
But these disciples have no interest
In the mythic war they survey
One is talking on a cell phone
As another lights a cigarette --
Buddha is in the details
And the statue of a smiling leper king
Lords silently over all.

Out in the sweltering countryside
Water buffalo plod through sun-baked paddies
As egrets huddle in ragged whispers.
Naked children play carefully by the road,
Their mothers and fathers
Aunts uncles brothers sisters
Work the dikes and dusty fields,
Cherish the shade of their stilt-raised houses.

Music from a nearby wedding
Dances in the red dirt road as
A man rides by on a motorbike with
Two dead pigs strapped to the rack,
Proud bearer of the nuptial feast.
There are many guests assembled
And the celebration will last several days.

At dusk on the spring equinox
Finally the sweet kiss of the mango rain
The pre-monsoon shower heaven-sent
To soothe the earth that aches
The bodies that thirst
After wilting months of dry.

Palm fronds tremble in the cool spatter
Frogs light out fresh on evening meanders
Geckos make with their noisy chatter

And the mangos
In the midnight wind
Begin to ripen.


(c) Eric Walter 2014
All rights reserved.

A glimpse into the countryside that surrounds Angkor in Siem Reap Province.

These are the beautiful young members of the dance troupe, Sacred Dancers of Angkor, welcoming our group to their conservatory in the village of Banteay Srey. We were there for a private performance arranged through our hosts at Maison Polanka. This is an amazing troupe dedicated to keeping alive traditional Khmer dance forms. Many of the dancers are from poor families of farmers but their devotion to their art is heartwarming and awe-inspiring. Their training includes daily meditation and prayer and their repertoire reflects a deep spiritual connection to their cultural heritage. The program they performed for us featured approximately fifteen dancers and eight musicians. It included a Cambodian creation myth called Preah Thong Neang Neak, a piece based on a story from the Hindu epic, The Ramayana (called Reamker in Khmer), and a powerful folk tale of love and faithfulness called Lakhorn Mahori. 

The movements in Khmer dance are formally spare, elegantly precise. Yet within that formalism and precision there is powerfully realized emotion.  The faces of all the dancers were so expressive, so emotionally in tune with the action of the dance. Two women served in lead roles throughout, dancing both female and male characters. They were marvelous - stunning beauty of features, graceful and enigmatic - whether expressing tragic grief or bestowing sly smiles like the ones on the faces in the temples of Angkor, they commanded attention and raised the level of the performance to that of high art.

The final dance on the program was a lovely Apsara dance, Robam Teap Apsor. Apsaras are the celestial nymphs born of the foam of the Churning of the Ocean Milk in Hindu mythology. These delightful figures are found everywhere in the carvings of Angkor and the dance itself was inspired by these images. 

The whole performance was exquisite, enthralling, and inspiring. At the conclusion, I was invited up to play some of the instruments. I hammered out a feeble melody on the roneat  (Khmer xylophone), embarrassing really, but the dancers and musicians applauded all the same. As we left, the dancers lined up (just as they had in greeting us) to bid us farewell. It was dark as we made our way to the van but we could hear the students, so formal throughout, now being dismissed and erupting into giggles and excited conversation. Out on the road, family members pulled up on motorcycles to take the kids home. Many of the dancers, we were told, rode their bicycles between home and the conservatory, some as far as ten kilometers each way.

Fires burned in the Cambodian night and a few raindrops spattered the dust on the windshield as we bumped along on the road back to Siem Reap. The images and sounds of a beautiful, spiritual evening lingered in my mind. They linger still.