Cambodians are a suspicious bunch and just generally
have some strange rituals they perform. Often these ceremonies mean there will
be public holidays associated with them or Cambodians just take the day off cos
they feel like it and often do not see it necessary to tell you about it as they
don’t understand that we don’t have the same rituals and beliefs in the West.
Cambodia has a mixed culture and a strong Chinese
influence and a lot of the festivals they have, which are not Buddhist, are
Chinese. It’s often hard to get any explanation as to why they are doing things
or why a festival is taking place, as the Cambodians don’t question anything.
They just do it whether they have an understanding of its importance or not.
Everything is based around luck, happiness and making
offerings to the ancestors and Gods. Often buses stop so you can stop at sacred
places to make offerings and pray/pay for good luck and happiness (you’re just
meant to know when the bus is leaving cos there is no warning that they are
going to announce they are moving on again). There is an expectation that
everyone will want to pray to Buddha in a temple and they have little
understanding as to why you wouldn’t want to. They seem to have this fear of bad luck and I’m wished good
luck by everyone I cross paths with. “Good luck to yoooouuuuu.” I hear it so
much that I’ve realised I’m saying it too.
All businesses and common places, at some point, will
have a blessing performed by the monks.
My guesthouse recently had a blessing, which lasted 3
days. There just seems to be a lot of chanting going on at stupid o’clock, a
lot of incense burnt and the monks get paid a substantial sum to do the
blessing. In some ways you can see the comfort it gives the Cambodians and can
understand it from that point of view. However, the second day came as a wee
bit of a surprise. As I went down for dinner the monks were sitting there
talking away and here’s the dwarf monk getting stoned in the middle of the
dining room. I wondered if this was part of the ceremony?!
I came down from my room one morning and could smell
burning, which was a little strange as I couldn’t see any smoke. I followed the
smell to the front of the guesthouse and saw the staff throwing money into a
pot, which had flames coming out of it. Slightly confused I had to go a little
closer to see why they were burning money and was curious as to how much it
was. I thought, isn’t this a poor country and they are burning what money they
do have? They told me they were burning money for their ancestors and the more
money they burnt the better their (ancestors) lives would be in the after
world. No wonder they all want to be rich. I’m not sure how their ancestors
would be using Cambodian Riel and US dollars in their next life and what they
needed to pay for?! Thank God it was all paper money. This was my first
exposure as to how much value they put on the afterlife.
As you travel just out of the city you see house after
house with these things tied to a fence or post outside of the house. I
initially just assumed that they were scarecrows and were there to protect the
rice crops but just not in the most logical place. Cambodia is a place where logic
is often so far out the window this didn’t seem all that far fetched. As I
started seeing them in front of houses which didn’t have rice fields I decided
to ask questions and was told that they were put there to ward off the evil
spirits and ghosts and bring a family good luck.
I didn’t tell the recent volunteers that the teachers
genuinely believed in ghosts as it’s not exactly part of the orientation but
later wished I had.
The volunteers decided to do some lessons with the
teachers about story telling and covered fairytales, crime, non-fiction and
ghost stories etc. They asked the teachers what each kind of story involved and
when they came to ghost stories asked, “Are these stories true or not?” and
were met with a unanimous “Yes. Of course.” They then spent the next 30mins
trying to convince these 20 something males that ghosts were not real and
couldn’t understand why they all believed they were and could not be swayed. The
volunteers went home so confused that night and were laughing when they asked
me “Do you know the teachers believe in ghost?” I can only imagine what the
teachers thought of the volunteers after the lesson and the conversations over
their dinner table! Going back in to teach the lesson the following day and
approaching the ghost section again, when I’d then explained that ghost were a
very important belief in Cambodian culture, the volunteers had to tread
carefully and found all new levels of professionalism.
The best thing is when someone asks me what a certain
ritual or belief is in English as often I have no idea what they are on about
and they have to explain. Some of the stories that come out are quite funny.
One day a teacher goes “Leah. What’s it called in
English when you grill the baby?” and left me standing in front of a class of
male teachers who were eagerly waiting for an answer. Trying to answer this one
with my jaw not hitting the floor, laughing or thinking that they all abused
children was a hard task. Usually, I automatically show my emotions all over my
face. I asked him to explain what he meant and he went on to tell me how the mother
lies on a wooden bed and they put a fire underneath her for the baby until the
baby is gone. For a few seconds I thought that maybe this was one of the
cultures where they ate the placenta (I wouldn’t put it past them).
It was so hard to find a balance between what they
actually already know and answering questions they have honestly without
crossing the cultural and professional line. I’m quite pleased I don’t get
asked questions like this in my day job! This is however the teacher who asked
what the word was for a man who caught a woman for sex.
Baffled as to what they were talking about I did more
digging and finally came to understand that most women in rural areas have a
home birth and after giving birth, the woman and newborn baby remain on the
bed, warmed by charcoal heat from underneath and covered by curtains for a few
days to one week. The mother and baby are segregated from normal life
and are not allowed to bathe with cold water for the entire time.
They believe that this treatment improves their blood
circulation and their skin becomes more beautiful. Some even insist that it provides them with physical energy for the following months after
childbirth. But at the same time,
the mother is able to take a complete rest during this period.
They also put a heated stone, covered with
cloth, on the mothers belly. As the charcoal burns out they hold “the fire
ceasing ceremony,” or “the (baby’s) eye opening ceremony” On this
day, the mother and her baby
appear in public, and the placenta, which has been kept for a while,
will be buried in a suitable place by her husband following the advice of the
local medicine man.
Remind me not to have children in Cambodia!
No comments:
Post a Comment