The Ritual Origins of the Classical Dance Drama of Cambodia

Author(s): Paul Cravath

Source: Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 179-203
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1124400
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The RitualOrigins
of the Classical
Dance Dramaof Cambodia
Paul Cravath

The court-dance tradition of Cambodia is among the oldest and

most refined theatre forms in Asia. Prior to 1970 dances of extraordinary
beauty were performed by a single troupe resident in the royal palace, where
they were revered as a living symbol of the kingdom. Known to outsiders
as the Royal Cambodian Ballet, the lakhon lueng (king's dancers) traditionally represented the earth over which the king was lord. Their performance in a ritual context was considered an offering to the spirit realm
of deceased ancestors, capable of influencing monsoon rains and the land's
fertility.
The relationship between dancer, spirit world, and monarch in
Cambodia developed from ancient indigenous roots to support the evolving needs of local kingship in the early centuries A.D. This essay examines
the ways in which the ritual function of Khmer dance confirms its indigenous origin. My method will be to survey the ritual context of dance in
earlier periods and to describe archaic elements still found in dance performance today, foremost of which are offertory rites honoring natural
and ancestral spirits. In this continuity of ritual function we discern a
structure of belief so fundamental to the Cambodian worldview that the
dance which embodies it can only have originated among the Khmers
themselves.
This view is radically different from the theory widely accepted
throughout this century that the overall style, gestures, and repertoire of
Southeast Asian classical theatre, dance, and puppetry are performed
"exactly as in Indian choreography," a view espoused by French historian
George Coedes ([1944] 1968, xvii) and reiterated by numerous scholars
during the colonial period. Until his death in 1969 at age 103, Coedes was
Paul Cravath recently completed his doctoral dissertation on Cambodian theatre at the University of
Hawaii, where he is an instructor of acting in the Department of Drama and Theatre.

180

Cravath

the most influential Southeast Asian scholar of the century, due in large
part to his translation of many early stone inscriptions. His subsequent
interpretation of virtually all early Southeast Asian culture as a colonial
transmission by Brahmans and traders from India was never veiled: "It is
interesting to note that even in prehistoric times the autochthonous peoples
of Indochina seem to have been lacking in creative genius and showed
little aptitude for making progress without stimulus from outside" ([ 1962]
1972, 13).
Minority views developed, however, with the Dutch historians in
particular tending to a more "Southeast Asia-centric" point of view. The
most radical and, ultimately, the most influential of these was the economic
historian J. C. van Leur, who wrote in 1934 that in Southeast Asia both
Hinduism and Islam are a "thin, easily flaking glaze on the massive body
of indigenous civilization" (1955, 169). During the past three decades, this
claim has been dramatically substantiated by a widespread network of
scholars whose dean is archaeologist Wilhelm G. Solheim. Their conclusions are the impetus for my rejection of the belief that Indian elements
form the foundation of Cambodia's classical dance.
In an excellent summary of the spectrum of theories concerning the
so-called Indianization of Southeast Asia, I. W. Mabbett summarizes
Solheim's work as a series of claims which
uncompromisingly assert the primacy of Southeast Asians in all major
Asian technical innovations and thus deny the region's dependence upon
diffusion from China, India, the Far West, or anywhere else. On the
contrary, many things are held to have been transmittedto parts of China,
Japan, and the coasts of the Indian Ocean by Southeast Asian sailors and
traders (1977, 5-6).
As evidence, recent excavation in northeastern Thailand has dated
double-mold bronze casting at about 2700 B.C. (Bayard 1972, 1411), indicating bronze manufacture up to a thousand years earlier than in either
China or India and allowing speculation that "early in the fourth millennium B.C. bronze was invented somewhere in Southeast Asia" (Solheim
1972, 14). Proponents of Solheim's interpretation of such archaeological
data posit a "Hoabinhian technocomplex" or group of cultures sharing
certain techniques (Gorman 1970, 82) which spread throughout the vast
circle of Southeast Asia. Solheim believes that around 8000 B.C. or earlier,
fully distinct cultures began to "crystallize" out of the Hoabinhian resulting ultimately in the cultural, ethnic, social, linguistic, and economic
mosaic that we know today (1975, 151).
To date, the new discoveries have received little scholarly application to the study of Southeast Asian performing arts. In response, the

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

181

present interpretation of dance-related data presupposes a greater age,

sophistication, and integrity of Khmer culture than historians have previously allowed and attributes to Khmer dance an indigenous ritual function
within that culture from the earliest times. If the "new" view of Southeast
Asian history is correct, then a new explanation of the significance of the
dance drama in Cambodia is necessary. For that we must look carefully at
the local indigenous cultural patterns.

Dance in Early Ritual

There is strong evidence that dance was an essential element in
Southeast
Asian religious ritual. The earliest evidence of dancing
early
specifically associates this art with funeral rites and, by extension, the realm
of ancestor spirits. Dancing figures are a primary motif in the elaborate
ornamentation of large bronze kettledrums of a type found from southern
China to Indonesia, including sites in Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia,
dating from at least the fifth century B.C. (Groslier 1962, 32). The drums
have been found in association with burial sites, suggesting a link between
the dancing figures and the deceased.
As early as the seventh century A.D., written documents regarding
the area of Cambodia also associate dancers with funeral rites (Ma 1883,
424), and the evidence as a whole suggests that drums and dancing were
believed to assist the deceased in gaining rebirth in the spirit world.
Certainly that has been the case in the twentieth century. In 1927 when
King Sisowath died in Phnom Penh, his body was placed in fetal position in
a silver urn filled with mercury for a lengthy period prior to the cremation
ceremony, which was largely a rite of rebirth into the ancestral world
(Poree and Maspero 1938, 147). Dancers attended the corpse of King
Monivong during similar rites in 1941. They wore the traditional deadwhite face makeup associated with the spirit world toward which they
functioned as the king's escorts. Although this is modern evidence, we
know that the custom of burial in fetal position was widespread and has
been documented in the region as early as the fourth millennium B.C.
(Coedes [1962] 1972, 15); the associated custom of dancers accompanying
the king's remains is undoubtedly ancient as well.
Beyond the context of funerals, dance was performed traditionally
as an offering. To this day, Cambodians view dance as one of the most
powerful temple offerings to obtain assistance from the spirits, and what is
known of Khmer temples from the sixth century A.D. onward suggests that
the belief is ancient. While the soul of the deceased migrated to the abode
of ancestors (believed to be on top of a mountain), a part of his essence
could be enshrined within a rock or tree or structure from which he would
continue to benefit the community if proper offerings and attentions were

Cravath

182

FIGURE

4. Royal dancers attending the funerary urn of King Monivong in 1941.

rendered. Thus, there has always been an ambiguous identity between the
spirit of the powerful ancestor and the spirit of the land with which he or
she was associated. As Paul Mus concluded, ancestor worship and a
fecundity cult were the two primary, interrelated features of indigenous
religious belief in mainland Southeast Asia (1933, 367). On the basis of the
many dancers known from the earliest written records to have been associated with temples, it seems fairly certain that ritual dance has been
intimately connected with ancestor communion and fertility rites in the
area of Cambodia from the most ancient times.
Ritual Dance from the Third to Ninth Centuries
The earliest written records of dance in the area of present-day
Cambodia are from the late sixth century, despite earlier Chinese accounts
documenting a relatively advanced third-century "kingdom" which had

THE RITUALORIGINSOFTHECLASSICAL
DANCEDRAMAOFCAMBODIA 183

books, libraries, taxes paid in gold, and a port city on the Mekong delta
controlling much of the earliest international trade through Southeast Asia
(Pelliot 1903, 254; Wolters 1967, 37). Numerous records from the sixth
century onward mention dance as a temple offering. One seventh-century
account, for instance, details the gifts given by a high dignitary to a temple
which he had erected. Included were nine female dancers, seven female
singers, and nine male musicians, together with three other female dancers
and six female singers who presumably held a different position or function
than those first indicated; all are mentioned by name (Coedes 1937, V,
64).
Such accounts appear in stone inscriptions listing the property and
lands attached to particular temples. Female dancers, female musicians,
female singers, and male musicians donated or belonging to the temple as
"slaves of the god" often headed the lists. The "god" so honored was
traditionally a sacred tree or stone which embodied the spirit of that place,
and dances were performed in its honor according to a strict schedule.
These inscriptions reflect certain forms of Indian influence now
believed to have begun in the second half of the fourth century A.D.
(Christie 1970, 3) through a process that has been much debated. In a
recent summary of all arguments, Kenneth R. Hall concludes that "entrepreneurial activities of traders of various cultures stimulated the local
rulers to selectively adopt Indianized patterns for their own purposes,"
namely to lend greater authority and legitimacy to a central overlord
capable of dominating regional patterns of maritime trade and enforcing a
stable network of interdependence and loyalty among his lesser chiefs
(1985, 53).
Sanskrit became a religious and socially cohesive force in the hands
of an increasingly powerful monarch whose authority was believed to
emanate from his spiritual prowess rather than, as previously believed,
from his military power (Hall 1985, 47). In the local temples to which
dancers were attached, deities (sacred trees and stones) were given additional Sanskrit names and Indian forms (Aeusrivongse 1976, 116). For
example, the oldest inscription in the Khmer language (dated A.D. 611)
mentions that a single donation to a temple included seven dancers, eleven
singers, and four musicians offered to the local deity whose name signifies
a tree but included the suffix -isvara, indicating Shiva (Coedes 1937, V,
18-19).
Temples which the dancers served in the pre-Angkorean period
were ultimately extensions of the state temples, and in the dancers themselves we see evidence of the monarch's pervasive influence. Unlike other
slaves who bore Khmer names such as "Cat," "Dog," or "Stinking,"
dancers in the earliest inscriptions bear Sanskrit names including "Adorable," "Gifted in the Art of Love," and "SpringJasmine" (Lancaster 1971,

184

Cravath

9). Such names should not be viewed as revealing a link between their
dance and the dance of India, but as a badge of their significance in the
royal cult.
While kingship and its religious adjuncts betray Indian influence in
the pre-Angkorean period, the arts in general do not. We can document
drainage and irrigation systems of"astonishing" magnitude and engineering skill (Groslier and Arthaud [1957] 1966, 19). Large sculpture-portraits
erected as a further means of maintaining contact with ancestors and
which are among the most exquisite works of art in the ancient world
betray no Indian elements whatsoever (Giteau 1965, 55). Even Coedes
observes that the architecture is clearly distinguished from that of India by
"very remarkable differences" ([1944]1968, 255). Similarly, there is no
evidence of Indian influence in the function of ritual dancers in preAngkorean temples.
Always associated in the eyes of the populace with ancestor worship
and, ultimately, fertility, the dancer played an important role in reconciling those ancient concerns with new ideas of kingship emanating from
India. The greatly enhanced political power of the monarch, the expansion
of territory under his control, the construction of a capital, and the perpetuation of an empire all evolved by "successfully integrating indigenous folk
traditions, symbols, and religious beliefs into a cult which was visibly
concentrated in the center" (Hall 1976, 8). The dancer lay at the very
heart of that integration process, and her numbers and significance expanded in proportion to the mystical power that was increasingly attributed to the Khmer king and to the vast temples of Angkor Thom, the
"Great City" that was his capital.
Dance in the Angkor Kingdom
The Angkorean period, conventionally dated from 802 to 1432, was
the most culturally and politically sophisticated age in Cambodian history.
We look to it for significant evidence of the function of dance in traditional
Khmer culture and note initially that the numbers of dancers in the state
temples increased tremendously during this period. At one point near
Angkor's zenith, for instance, KingJayavarman VII installed 615 female
dancers in the temple dedicated to his mother's spirit (Coedes 1906, 77);
1,000 dancers in the temple dedicated to his father's spirit; and 1,622
dancers in other temples throughout the kingdom (Coedes 1941, 297)
these in addition to the many dancers already in temple service at the time.
The extent to which dance and dancers were integral to the social and
religious fabric of Cambodia is perhaps unequaled in world civilization. To
better understand the proliferation and significance of the temple dancers
we must consider what they had come to symbolize in the Angkorean
cosmology.

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

185

The creation of the dancer in celestial form is the theme of an

important Khmer myth carved in bas-relief on the southern halfofAngkor
Wat's east gallery. The myth is seminal to much of the temple and city
architecture itself and objectifies the Khmer view of the interaction of earth
and sky, matter and spirit, female and male, rice and rain-that is to say,
the union of the Feminine and Masculine which engender all fertility,
spiritual fulfillment, and life itself. The myth is sometimes known as the
"Churning of the Sea." 1
At the bottom of the sea a great ndga serpent stretches the entire
forty-nine yards of this mythical ocean, "symbol of the uncreated" (Groslier 1970, 33). Above this, the ndga appears a second time-a convention
by two groups of figures. On the left
suggesting a later action-supported
are ninety-twoyakkha (ogres) pulling on the head; on the right are eightyeight deva (gods) pulling on the tail. The ndga, the most frequently used and
oldest Khmer symbol of the earth's forces, is wound around the stone,
mountainlike seat of a four-armed deity. The effect of the resultant churning is seen along the top of the carving: thousands of flying dancers emerge
from the ocean's foam (PLATE 10).

These celestial dancers, conventionally termed apsaras, symbolize

the welfare of the kingdom-the
untold riches often said in the inscriptions
to issue forth from "the earth in intimate union with the passionate vital
principle of [the] king" (Groslier and Arthaud [1957] 1966, 30). The two
contending forces ofyakkha and devaparadoxically work together to support
the central male figure, and the bas-relief thereby depicts perfect fulfillment of the serpent power, or earth's potential (Feminine), in union with
the dualistic forces of the king (Masculine). In short, the dancer revealed
the form of the Feminine in its most perfect flowering.
The dancing apsaras were the embodiment of the life-creating
energy resulting from a process for which Angkorean temples and entire
cities were architectural metaphors. Bridges leading to the gates of several
Khmer cities including Angkor had ndga balustrades supported by giant
stone deva and yakkha, and the city gates at each of the cardinal points
reproduced the central "temple-mountain" in miniature. The entire construction was a reflection of the "Churning of the Sea," since the vast
reservoirs surrounding the city represented the ocean (as well as fertility
for the broad areas they watered); the gate tower and central temple
represented the ancestral mountain or king; and the ndga in the balustrade
supported by gods and giants represented the earth serpent.
It is no wonder that at Angkor there were myriads of dancers both
in art and in human form. The king was surrounded by thousands of
women as concubines, dancers, and even guards. His central position in
this feminine world was believed to create the welfare of the kingdom, and
one fundamental and timeless function of the Khmer royal dancers was to
provide a necessary harem-a function reputedly maintained until 1970.

Cravath

186

FIGURE 5. In a bas relief from Angkor, ogres (below) pull on the head of a serpent.
The celestial dancers (above) emerge from the ocean's foam. (Photo: Groslier.)

':: ' ...

FIGURE6. A detail of the celestial dancers (Figure 15) being created from the
foam of the churning sea. (Photo: Groslier.)

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

187

Whether or not the king's dancers were actually his sexual partners-and
many were-they
collectively symbolized in all periods the energy of the
fecund earth itself and of necessity were in constant attendance on the
monarch as an image of the fertility which together they represented and
mystically engendered.
While there is some correspondence between the Angkorean cosmology thus described and the Indian model-as Vishnu is surrounded by
heavenly dancers in paradise, for instance, so should his earthly correlate
be similarly attended-its
overall contour is nonetheless determined by
Khmer beliefs regarding ancestral influence and fertility. There is one
element, however, which has been widely assumed to reveal an Indian base
for the Khmer performing arts and requires some analysis-namely
the
the
of
the
Indian
hero
in
Rama
Rdmker,
legend
(Ram
epic
Khmer).
Excerpts from the Rdmkerform one of the three most frequently
performed pieces in the repertoire of Khmer classical dance drama, and the
story is known by virtually all Khmers in simplified form. Popular versions
of the tale, however, are not necessarily to be identified with the classical
Indian Rdmayanawhich was recited in Khmer temples under sponsorship of
the Indianized, indigenous, ruling elite as early as the sixth century A.D.2
This sacerdotal function of the Ram legend was not maintained in
Cambodia, and the Rdmkeris not among the seven "sacred" stories traditionally performed in palace ritual. In brief, the Indian Rdmayana was
known in Brahmanic Cambodian temples in early times, but it did not
survive with either its form or religious function intact.
The Rdmker, the "jewel of Khmer literature," has, on the other
hand, remained an important form of entertainment uniquely reflective of
fundamental Khmer concerns. In the Ramker,for instance, as performed by
all-male lakhon khol troupes-a village tradition conforming in most elements to the form of royal dance-Komphakar,
the brother of Reap
(Ravana), is the central focus. He has stopped the flow of the waters and
only by trickery on the part of Ram's monkey cohorts are the rains
liberated. The scene was often performed to bring an end to drought (Sem
1967, 161-162), as were a few other revered dances in the village folk dance
tradition.
On such evidence, as well as careful study of many scenes from the
Ram story carved by Angkorean sculptors, and on the basis of internal
literary evidence, some scholars have concluded that the Rdmker was
indigenous to Southeast Asia and appreciably different from the Indian
Rdmdyana(Martini 1938, 1950, 1961; Przyluski 1924). The main difference
lies in the primary focus of the Rdmkeron control of feminine power and the
resultant fertility. Thus, the Indian epic of Ram was not so significant to
the Cambodian people as were selected motifs coinciding with their belief
structure and the rituals which gave it life.

Cravath

188

A second important contribution of Ramkerscholarship has been to

demonstrate that following the demise of Angkor in the early fifteenth
century, the royal dancers continued to perform at the Khmer court,
certainly on a less grand scale but without interruption. Saverous Pou has
isolated a version of the Rdmkertext evolved by a number of talented poets
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The five thousand stanzas
in a carefully integrated style are in no way comparable to the Indian epic,
particularly in their unelaborated "binary intellectual framework" of two
fundamental forces in contention. Furthermore, Pou concludes, the
Khmer poets created a text that is clearly Buddhist in its moral teachings
and was unquestionably a work meant for recitation in theatrical performances (1977, 134). Pou's study strongly confirms the Khmer claim that
the court-dance tradition in Cambodia remained unbroken from the preAngkorean period to the present.
The Form of Khmer Classical Dance Drama
In order to show the way in which the modern form of Khmer court
dance-descendant
of the ancient temple tradition-reveals
its indigenous roots, we turn now to an examination of the dance as performed in the
1970s. I will consider a number of performance elements and attendant
customs to demonstrate also that Khmer dance, whether in repertoire,
music, choreography, or gesture, owes very litttle to Indian influence.
I first gained familiarity with the form of Khmer dance in 1975
when, after lengthy negotiation, I managed to arrive in Phnom Penh
eleven days after the Khmer Rouge had begun their final siege of the
city on New Year's Eve. The "Classical Khmer Ballet," as Norodom
Sihanouk's personal dancers were known during the republic, had made
their last foreign appearance in Bangkok a month earlier and now only
rehearsed periodically and perfunctorily. By contrast, younger students of
classical dance at the University of Fine Arts (UBA) continued to meet
their teachers at least four days a week despite food shortages, a social
world disjointed by refugees, and rockets falling daily into the city.
The dancers practiced a style and rehearsed a repertoire. The
repertoire is of two types. First are the roeung (dance dramas), involving
plot, characterization, and "dialogue" chanted by a female chorus of
former dancers. The dramas originate from about forty stories; in some
cases single episodes have remained popular, while in others the entire
story is telescoped into a flexible series of episodes. While many of the
dramas concern events in the lives of protohistorical kings, the pervasive
theme of the dramatic repertoire is the eternal struggle for control of the
Feminine (Cravath 1985, 289-343).
This struggle exists on two levels, the realistic and the archetypal.

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

189

On the realistic level it concerns the timeless, painful passing of the female
from father to husband. The hero-husband requires magic power and even
help from animal energies to wrest his beloved from her father, who is in
most instances a yakkha. The yakkha does not represent evil but rather
the older order with an incestuous aspect. The oldest Khmer myths concern the union of a female-male pair of progenitors. The contemporary
repertoire of the dance drama adds pair after pair of characters to this list.
It is by the action of the male upon the female that fertility must be
achieved in the face of all opposition. This concern with fertility is a
dramatic reflection of the dancers themselves, who symbolically enact its
creation onstage and, as the king's harem, embody it themselves offstage.
The second branch of the repertoire is the robam ("pure dance"
pieces), of which some sixty are known to have been performed in this
century. The robamare group dances in which female and male roles are
both danced by women (PLATE 9). The robamare much older than the
roeungand are believed to have originated as ritual dances to hasten the
coming of the rains. In the seventeenth century, robamwere performed "on
the occasion of ceremonies and also at the beginning of theatre presentations ... to put the spectator in some way under the invocation and the
protection of the divinities incarnated by the dancers" (Coedes 1963, 499).
Dancers are accompanied by a standard ensemble of male musicians who play eight percussion instruments (drums, gongs, and xylophones) and a four-reed sralay, somewhat similar to an oboe. The highpitched blend of the chorus leader's chant with the sralay is one of the
distinguishing features of the genre. Traditionally, Khmer music was
performed as an offering to the spirit world and was considered to be an
ancestral heritage and, hence, sacred. French musicologistJacques Brunet
has pointed out that:
contrary to the generally accepted notion, Cambodian music owes very
little to Indian influence. It gradually evolved on the basis of the autochthonous stratum, systems that originated in the local culture, and instruments which for the most part are indigenous to the Indo-Chinese peninsula (1970).
Apart from repertoire and music, formal elements of the dance
choreography itself indicate an indigenous origin associated with the spirit
world or fertility rites. These include a hypnotic tempo, the spiritlike
appearance of the dancers, a pervasive concern for the creative tension
between female and male, offerings to the four directions, and a concern for
social and sexual harmony.
Khmer dance choreography uses a loose vocabulary of movements
which are individually fixed but may be combined with infinite variation.

190

Cravath

New works may be choreographed at any time. By almost any standard,

the dance is "slow," with a wavelike rhythm of alternating moments of
expanding and suspended energy.
Comparatively large movements of arms or legs, together with
various forms of turning, walking, and kneeling, alternate with long
periods of standing in a single spot performing very small movements of
hands, feet, and head, often in delicate interaction with a partner. Nonetheless, the elbows are continually away from the body, one or both arms
are usually extended at shoulder height, the fingers are always taut with
energy, the knees are bent, and one foot is often raised for long periodsall of which contributes to a hypnotic balance of movement and stillness.
Throughout the dance, there is a smoothness and continuity to all movement which gives the entire scene exceptional grace and lightness.
In terms of space, there is a very strong feeling that the dancers, who
are considered in many robamto embody divine spirits, come from a sacred
place into a space which is in turn sanctified by their presence. The Khmer
term for entering the stage is chaen("to go out") whereas leaving the stage is
chol ("to enter") -as though suggesting that the dancer goes somewhere in
performance and upon her exit from the stage reenters this world. In the
"pure dance" robam,the physical space is empty of props, furniture, or set
pieces. In the roeungdance dramas, this sense of appearing without reference to time or space is altered by plots and staging techniques which
localize the dancers in palaces, forests, skies, and, in general, the human
realm.
The dancer always moves in synchronization with others. In the
all
the female characters on stage make identical moves simultarobam,
neously; the male characters do the same. Often the two groups dance the
same movements with slight variations of degree appropriate to their
character's gender-the
male's gestures are broader, his stance is wider,
and so forth. In scenes of seduction, for instance, with many couples on
stage simultaneously, all the princes' gestures are synchronized, as are the
princesses' responses. In the robam, the dancer is rarely a solo performer.
With the exception of cues for entrances, exits, and sequential movements
with her partner of opposite character gender, the Khmer dancer is a
member of a group which moves as one.
The floor patterns which the dancers execute show us that the
dance is fundamentally offertory in nature. For Cambodians, dance is
considered to be a requisite and effective element of rituals designed to
achieve harmony with nature spirits. The dancers' movements over the
ground must necessarily be respectful of those spirits, especially the huge
ndgaserpents believed to dwell just beneath the earth's surface. In plowing
a field, for instance, one must take care to follow the contour of the naga
body, particularly in the first ritual soil-breaking of the season. In an earlier

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

191

FIGURE 7. In a performance of robam circa 1973, male and female characters

dance in pairs.

192

Cravath

age, such considerations undoubtedly played a major role in determining

the elaborate choreographic patterns of dancers who today still move
swiftly in curves and circles around the dancing area, especially upon entry
and prior to exit.
On the modern Khmer stage, spatial orientation is based on a
center and four distinct corners or directions. Upon entering the stage,
dancers proceed in a single file to each of the four corners and immediately
prior to exit pass through the center. During the buong suong ceremony
(discussed below) and in several robam, the choreography specifically includes symbolic offerings in silver cups made to the four directions in turn.
Careful observation of group entrance and exit patterns used throughout
the repertoire reveals that the circular floor movements are a shorthand,
moving version of this offertory ritual.
A second conclusion can be drawn from studying the floor patterns
in the main segment of each robam:Khmer dance is the artistic representation of the tension between the Feminine and Masculine principles,
ultimately portraying social balance and harmony between female and
male. In the robam, dancers move through a choreography of lines and
circles. The lines are generally stationary; that is, dancers are in a fixed
floor location. The circles are usually transitional movements. Thus a row
of female characters dancing at length beside or in front of a row of male
characters is the most frequent configuration in Khmer dance. The lines of
dancers are usually either perpendicular to or parallel with the audience's
line of vision. Brief circular movement sequences are used to change from
one linear configuration to another.
Never are all the female roles on one side of the performance area and
all the male roles on the other; rather, the rows they form always alternate.
When two of the rows move closer together-following
a promenade-to
form couples, all couples simultaneously perform in place the stylized
movements of pursuit, seduction, or other subjects of the narration. Frequently a pair of dancers, each of whom leads his and her respective row,
move into the center of a circle formed by the other couples. These lead
dancers are always the last to exit from the stage at the conclusion of a
group dance. If the dance is part of a roeung,it is the prince and princess or
the main character couple in the story who are thus featured.
Overall, the floor patterns suggest that in the Khmer view, the
individual partners in the dance of life are always part of a society of equals.
Within this society there may be a prince or superior person, but everyone
is pursuing the same pattern of action. Never is the entire society severed by
group-to-group confrontation, since the conflict or tension of any single
couple disappears within the objectively viewed balance of the society at
large. Never does one structure simply change into another; it is through
the circular pattern of dissolution and rebirth that a new image emerges.

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

193

The female/male polarity, both individually and socially, remains, and in

the final closely formed lines and circular exit we see that social balance
and harmony as well as rebirth are both represented and invoked.
One specific aspect of Khmer dance choreography which has been
the hand gestures, of
widely misinterpreted merits scrutiny-namely
which there are just four. The hands are often held in one of the four
gestures for long periods and, in various combinations, are used to mime
the choral narration and portray formalized emotions (PLATE8). There is
no moment in Khmer dance-save
for onstage "relaxation"-when
the
hands are not held in one of the four gestures.
To illustrate a certain sentiment in "expressive dance"-those
of
parts
performance accompanied by the chorus-the four gestures are
used in conventionalized ways. But just as frequently-in
"pure dance"
segments without choral accompaniment-the
gestures are simply the
way the hands are held during a particular temporal unit of the dance.
One, for example, almost always signals the conclusion.
Although the hand gestures appear to have no names, they are
sometimes referred to as the leaf, flower, tendril, and fruit of a plant.
Khmer dance teachers claim that the choreography originated in imitation
of natural forces. The positions for standing are inspired by the undulation
of water; music comes from the sounds of nature and animals; dance
movements derive from the trees represented by the dancer's body. These
images connoting nature, however, need not be strictly viewed as inherently descriptive since they often simply add beauty rather than meaning
to the dance. They are, in a sense, a dance unto themselves.
Observers have often used the Sanskrit term hastain reference to the
hand gestures in Cambodian dance, but this word is extremely misleading
because it implies a link to Indian dance hasta which in many cases form an
actual language of denotative gestures. That is certainly not the case in
Khmer dance.
Moreover, Indian counterparts to the four Khmer gestures cannot
be isolated.3 A study of 373 hasta used in South Indian kathakali, for
instance, reveals somewhat similar gestures but no correlation whatsoever
in meaning. The mudrakhyamudrdslightly resembles the Khmer "flower"
gesture, but none of its twenty enumerated meanings includes "flower."
On the other hand, the kataka mudra means "flower" but in no way
resembles the Khmer hand gesture (Venu 1984, 28-33, 35). A similar
absence of relationship obtains in regard to the other three gestures as well.
In the preceding examination of formal elements, we noted that the
repertoire is primarily concerned with the theme of fertility. The music is
an offering to the local spirits, choreography reflects fundamental and
ancient Khmer social values, and the hand gestures represent natural
forces. Together these features strongly deny any significant influence from

Cravath

194

Fruit

D)

Picking
a

FIGURE

Flc

7jwer

8. The four basic hand gestures of Khmer dance, and a specific mimed

application.

THE RITUAL ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL DANCE DRAMA OF CAMBODIA

195

India in either the form or function of the dance, especially in light of the
fact that the basic structural pattern of large group dances by female and
male partners (both played by women or otherwise) is virtually unknown
in India. It is in the contemporary offertory function of these dances,
however, that we discern the strongest circumstantial evidence for concluding that Khmer court dance derives from indigenous roots and still
reveals the essentially spiritual function that dance has always maintained
in Cambodia.
Ritual Function of the Dance Drama Today
Performances in the royal palace by the king's dancers were traditionally believed to elicit assistance from supernatural powers in creating
natural harmony throughout the kingdom, especially in regard to rainfall.
In her study of the "sacred dances" of Cambodia, French ethnologist
Solange Thierry pointed out that many Khmer folk dances were traditionally considered to represent a point of contact between the celestial and
terrestrial worlds (1963, 350). But in the Cambodian mind it was always
the royal palace dancers who were believed to be the most potent means of
such communion. Thus, we turn now to an examination of the evidence of
ritual in this century, ritual performed within the memory of living dancers
and showing through its continuity the power of its hold on Cambodia. We
begin with the royal palace ceremony of buongsuong, in which the dancers
were the most significant element.
The royal ceremony to bring rain was known as buongsuongtevodaor
simply buong suong; loosely translated it means "paying respects to the
heavenly (feminine) spirits." Implicit in the ceremony is making an offering and requesting that a wish be granted. An ordinary person could do the
buongsuongritual in very simplified form at any temple. The royal version
was performed as a general blessing for the nation or to alleviate unfavorable conditions. It was usually performed in the throne room, in the Royal
Monastery of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Preah Keo), or in some other
important wat.
Due to the essentially private nature of performance by the king's
dancers prior to 1970, little has been written about this ritual. Notable
exceptions are brief announcements published in Kambuja magazine in
1965 and 1967. In both years, with continuing serious drought in a number
of provinces, head of state Samdech Sihanouk received delegations of
peasants requesting that he perform the buong suong tevoda ceremony to
bring rain. The ceremony, which Sihanouk on both occasions ordered
performed and over which he presided, consisted mainly of "sacred
dances." In the presence of ritual offerings and following the invocation of
both supernatural forces (neakta) and the spirits of dead kings by the palace

196

Cravath

FIGURE 9. The buongsuongceremony being performed at Wat Preah Keo near the

royal palace. (Photo: Cambodian Information Department.)

astrologer (hora), the buongsuong tevodawas performed first in the throne
room of the palace and then in Wat Preah Keo in front of the statue of King
Norodom (Anonymous 1967).
A number of dances regularly performed as late as the 1970s were
considered sacred and the dances performed as the offering in buongsuong
were among them. According to Professor Chheng Phon of the University of Fine Arts, there are seven sacred dances: Robam Vorachhun,
Robam Mekhala, Robam Ream Eyso, Robam Preah Thong, Robam
Baolut, Robam Sarahbarom, and Robam Baramit (Chheng Phon 1975).
Of these, the first three form a unit and are the most important.
The buongsuong in 1967 began with the entrance of the dancers,
each holding a silver tray of offerings. They performed a dance in which
these trays were raised to the four cardinal points in turn. They then
performed the three dances, culminating in a battle. First Ream Eyso, "the
Thunder God," entered in the midst of his followers and danced wielding
his magic axe. He exited and Mekhala, "Goddess of the Waters," appeared
playing with her magic crystal ball and surrounded by her followers, the
tepthida.Then Vorachhun, "King of the Divinities," all in gold, armed with
a sword and surrounded by his followers, the tevoda,joined the goddess;
Mekhala, Vorachhun, and their followers together executed a dance
expressing peace, joy, goodwill, and serenity.
Into this harmony burst Ream Eyso, jostling both tevodaand tepthida
in trying to reach Mekhala. Three times she threw her magic ball into the
air and caught it, representing three flashes of lightning that blinded Ream

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197

Eyso and knocked him to the ground. In the fracas, tevodaand tepthidaas
well as Vorachhun departed, leaving the two principals to their eternal
contest symbolizing lightning and thunder, earth and sky, beauty and
ugliness, gentleness and violence, female and male. The dance concluded
when Mekhala flung her lightning bolt one final time and ran away
smiling, leaving Ream Eyso temporarily vanquished. "From their invisible
confrontation in the skies there results ... the rainfall which fertilizes the
earth" and causes the rice to grow (Anonymous 1967, 23).
Significantly, the dances included in the buongsuongtevodawere not
esoteric in nature. In fact, they were among the most popular in the
repertoire and would have been known by most classically trained dancers,
including dance students at the University of Fine Arts. Within the ritual
context of the buongsuong tevoda,however, and following the preparatory
rites, the dances assumed a unique power due to the fact that the tevoda
(celestial deities) actually appeared in the dances as main characters. A
dancer performed the role of tevodaor other supernatural force, and the
giver, the gift, and the recipient became one. In a limited sense, the spirit
entered the dancer.4
Until the 1940s, one important element traditionally identifying
the dancer with the spirit world was her makeup, which obscured all
personal features under a layer of white paste. (Teeth and eyebrows were
blackened and lips were reddened.) The color white is identified with
death throughout much of Southeast Asia, and the female spirit mediums
of southern Thailand still rub their faces with white rice powder in preparation for going into trance (Gandour and Gandour 1976, 100). We cannot
say whether the Khmer dancer's makeup is the vestige of any similar
function, but unquestionably the thick white powder gave her the appearance of a dissociated, otherworldly spirit. Today, in fashionable
makeup, the dancer's face still remains immobile (in sharp contrast to
Indian dance) except for a mysterious half-smile.
Royal Khmer dancers were believed to have a positive effect on
natural disorders not only through buongsuong but also by performance of
their weekly ceremony to assure good health for themselves and proper
rhythm for the musicians. This ceremony, known as tway kru ("salutation to
the spirits"), was performed every Thursday in a large rehearsal space on
the ground floor of the palace. The musicians were required to play at least
five specified pieces of music, four of which corresponded to the four role
types: female, male, monkey, and ogre.5 Dancers trained in each of the role
types danced with the music; if dancers were not present to represent one of
the four types, the musicians performed anyway. The king (or president)
could ask that this ceremony be done in a more elaborate form-including
thirty pieces of music lasting up to two hours-to "create security" for the
country or to fulfill some national need.

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A third ceremony in which we see a ritual function for the classical

dance was the annual ceremony ofpithi sampeahkru lokhonkropmuk ("ceremony of homage to the spirits and teachers for wearing the masks").
Usually called simply sampeahkru, the ceremony's purpose was to make
offerings to the spirits of the dance, the kru, to gain their power. The word
kru is always used ambiguously in Khmer dance because it also means
"teacher," and the essence of the ceremony is receiving the teachers'
empowerment to perform the dance.
The sampeah kru was presided over by a man, traditionally appointed by the king, who was very familiar with the dance tradition and
was able to play the nondancing role of the eysei (hermit) in the roeung.He
was called the teprobamand, together with the monkey roles and the clown,
was one of the few men who performed with the female dancers. The ceremony, which took place in the palace and was attended only by teachers,
dancers, and the king or queen, lasted two days. On the first day elaborate
food offerings were made on altars erected at the eight cardinal points and
on a main altar where all the masks (belonging to theyakkha roles), headdresses, and stage weapons were displayed.
On the second day further offerings were made and the core of
sampeahkruwas performed. Placing the mask of the eyseion his head, the tep
robamtook each of the masks and headdresses in turn, placed it on the head
of the dancer who had learned that role, and then removed it. At that point
and subsequently, according to Brunet,
the masks are in fact regarded as living spirits as soon as they are worn by
the dancers. The purpose of all the invocations before the dance is to
ensure that the masksare "possessed"so that the dancers may become one
and the same person with the mask (1974, 221).
Popped rice was thrown to the spirits assembled to receive the offering of
food and dance, and the sampeahkruconcluded with a group dance in which
each performer wore her mask or headdress-many
for the first timefollowed by a dance from each of the role types: yakkha, masculine roles,
feminine roles, and monkeys, in that order.
The bond established between spirit and dancer in the ritual act of
placing the mask on the dancer's head in the sampeah kru was highly
respected by all performers. The dancer always saluted the mask with the
sampeahsalutation before wearing it, and she never put the mask on by
herself. Even for simple dances she would take the mask and have it placed
on her head by the teacher of that role, thus receiving the spirit (kru) of the
mask from the kruof the role. When a young dancer feared performance or
had difficulty remembering her role, the tep robamplaced the mask of the
eysei momentarily on her head to infuse her directly with the spirit of the

THE RITUALORIGINSOFTHECLASSICAL
DANCEDRAMAOFCAMBODIA 199

dance, the chief kru. In this ceremony, then, we see the certification of the
Khmer dancer's contact with the spirit world, since her art subsequently
always had the ability to call forth the presence and life-power of the spirits
to calm the aberrations of nature, if not of armies.
The Fading Flower of Khmer Dance
The matrix of the Khmer dancer as a ritual performer lies within a
culture whose level of advancement has only recently been appreciated.
The evidence suggests that dance was associated with funeral rites, with
large bronze drums, with ancestor worship involving sacred stones, with a
fertility cult, and with a pattern of kingship enabling communion with the
ancestor-spirit realm in order to assure sufficient rain for the earth's
fertility.
In the early centuries of this era, dance flourished in a culture
dedicated to extensive navigation throughout the Indian Ocean and, at
home, to the engineering of large stoneworks to control water and invoke
fertility. Dance was primarily performed in temples dedicated to ancestral
spirits residing in stones, the rites for which were transformed during a
period of religious syncretism with Sanskrit and Brahmanic practices
around the fourth century A.D.
In the Angkorean period thousands of dancers served in the temples
as an offering to the ancestral spirits who could influence the cosmic
interaction of earth and water. In the modern period dance remained an
offering, and the choreography of contemporary dance drama continued
to invoke fertility through the tension and harmony of female and male just
as the Angkorean apsarasembodied the energy of nature's balanced forces.
Khmer dance reveals no Indian influence in music, gestures, or
choreography, and from a repertoire of some forty dramas and sixty
dances, only the story of Ram shares similarities with the Indian epic. By
moving beneath surface similarities such as adopted character names or
selected story lines, however, we begin to view the ancient structure and
function of Khmer dance as ritual to invoke natural harmony and prosperity. That ritual in the buongsuong, the tway kru, and the sampeahkrutakes the
form of direct intercession with the world of spirits for the benefit of society.
The Cambodian palace dancers lost their raison d'etre with the
demise of monarchy in 1970, but classically trained dancers remain today a
powerful symbol of Khmer national identity-an
image sustained initially
by the government of the republic (1970-1975), then by refugees in camps
along the Thai border, and, at present, in various Khmer communities in
France, the United States, and elsewhere. Despite great effort to preserve
the classical dance tradition, one significant function of Khmer dance
as a ritual offering to
appears to have been irretrievably lost-dance

Cravath

200

deceased ancestors believed to influence the fertility of the land. This

function reflects an ancient indigenous method of invoking natural harmony and human happiness. Today there is very little dance in Cambodia
and the classical tradition has been severed from its roots. The flower is
without nectar, and an intimate link with mystical wisdom has been lost.

NOTES
1. Unlike the well-known Indian "Churning of the Sea of Milk" related in
the Bhagavata Purana, the bas-reliefs show what is very much a Khmer sea filled
with fish representing Angkor's food and livelihood. The most significant difference from the Indian variant, however, is that instead of the twelve sacred
objects appearing from the sea, only one treasure appears in the Khmer myth as a
result of the churning: waves of dancers.
2. In those temples the Mahbbharatawas also chanted, but today we find
no evidence of that epic in either the court or popular performing arts traditions. A
process of selection seems to have favored stories conforming to Khmer values.
3. This point is only casually acknowledged in Jeanne Cuisinier's influential study (1927) of Khmer hand gestures-a
study that insists upon an
Indian origin for Khmer gestures and assigns them Sanskrit names.
4. The Cambodian dancer was never a spirit medium in the sense that she
became possessed by a spirit manifesting itself in ecstatic behavior or a trance state.
That role was traditionally fulfilled by a medium known as the rup, a word literally
meaning "image" or "form," with whom village dance was often associated. One
function of the village dancer was to attract the neak ta spirits into the medium.
5. Each dancer is trained in just one role type, but each role type includes
numerous subcategories. All four role types appear in the roeungdramas, whereas
it is primarily female and male role types that appear in the robam.Both female and
male roles are performed by women. The ogre (yakkha) roles are usually played by
women, but some men have been trained in them for use in extremely vigorous
performances. Monkey roles were traditionally played by women also, but in the
1940s men came to be preferred for their greater stamina. No women were being
trained in the monkey roles in 1975, although one of the oldest teachers had played
them in her youth.

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