khmer sources

The Piti Thvay Bangkum Kru or Piti Sampeah Kru is a ceremony to salute the masters and teachers. Each traditional art—Khmer traditional dance or Royal Ballet, the masked theatre of Lakhorn Khorl, the shadow puppet theatre of Lakhorn Sbek, Lakhorn Bassac or the Khmer musical dramas of Yike—has its own form of the ceremony, but each ceremony serves the same basic purpose. The prayer is for perfection and for the safety of all the performers.

Proeung Chheang is the vice-dean of the Royal University of Fine Arts. He says that the apsaras of the Royal Ballet prepare a Piti Thvay Bangkum Kru without fail before beginning any stage performance. A ceremony of this type is also held when actors begin to practice any play.

"The day selected for holding this ceremony is always Thursday, because we believe that it is the day of teachers and masters," he says. "Even students who come for their daily lessons have also to follow this tradition closely. Every Thursday, they have to bring candles and incense sticks to be offered to their instructors, who also perform a ceremony to worship the spirits of their own deceased masters. When a new student comes to learn the Khmer traditional dances, he or she has to prepare a ceremony to salute the instructor first so that the latter will accept them as student from that day onward."

The ceremony is elaborate and contains some items that might come as a surprise, he says. "Things prepared for the instructor include five incense sticks, five candles, cigarettes, areca nuts, betel leaves and a pair of Bachha, or pieces of banana trunk decorated with flowers and usually associated with religious. These things have to be arranged properly on a tray and then offered to the instructor in a saluting gesture by sitting on the legs which are folded backwards to one side.

"When I was a student, I had to prepare incense, candles, cigarettes, areca nut, betel leaves and flowers to be offered to my teachers every Thursday, too," recalls the dean. "We also held a quite big ceremony of this type once a year when the New Year was approaching. Besides the above mentioned offerings, we also bought perfume, bees wax, makeup, fabric for making clothes and towels to be presented to our instructors. This serves as a way of paying respect to both the instructors who are still alive and those who have passed away."

Grandmother Ruos Kong, 69, an instructor of Khmer traditional dances at the Royal University of Fine Arts, says the ceremony is integral to the dance. The two cannot be separated, she says, and most dancers would say that without observing the Piti Sampeas Kru, they simply would not be able to dance.

"Traditional dancers prepare the Piti Sampeas Kru before every practice session or stage performance to pray for ease of learning and success in their performance. The teachers and instructors themselves also hold a ceremony to salute the spirits of both the great and the lesser masters as often as they can afford—perhaps once or twice a year. In the old days, Queen Kosamak Nearirath herself held the annual ceremony of saluting the great Masters sometime just before the annual Water Festival."

Offerings for the "lesser masters" include a pig’s head, a boiled chicken, between five and seven different kinds of fruit, flowers, incense, candles, popped rice, honey, and baiseis, which are made of decorated banana trunks, she says.

"For the Great Masters, the offerings are much more elaborate—three pigs' heads (two cooked and one raw) represent three main characters. The female and the male are represented by the two cooked heads. The giant is the raw head, because giants eat their meat raw," she explains. "A pair of chickens, a pair of ducks, a pair of fish and at least seven different types of fruit are also offered, plus up to 11 incense sticks and a musical performance before the performance in which every instrument is played. A singer performs a song of prayer, and the number of pieces of music performed exceeds that played at the ceremony of saluting the small Masters.

"The ceremony has to be arranged before an altar where the masks of a hermit and giants and the crowns for important characters of the dance to wear are displayed .

An elder with profound knowledge of the arts is also invited to attend to invoke the spirits of all the masters from the whole of modern Cambodia as well as from the former territories of the kingdom to be present. Other spirits are believed to come to participate and enjoy the ceremony. Meanwhile, other elders use scissors, combs and face powder to make up the masks and crowns in the same way they do for the real characters in order to please all the spirits, who then might help young performers to perform perfectly."

The old lady says young performers are not forced to believe in this ancient animist practice, but they all choose to. "It has been noticed," she says, "that those who observe this practice firmly are always successful in their careers and become well known while those who do not observe it become failures, and some even become crazy or mad. For me, I have fully observed it. That was why I learned what my teachers had taught me very well. Even after surviving the Pol Pot regime, when everything was eliminated, I still have this knowledge in my mind, so I am able to teach the young people of this generation. Unlike in my generation, the children now forget what they have learned very easily after they have failed to practice for a few months. This is because they do not observe the ceremony regularly," she says.

No matter where Khmer performers go, they take their ceremony with them—even if it just means lighting some incense and praying together before a performance in some distant country.
Grandmother Em Theay, 70, is a respected teacher of music, theatre and dance at the Royal University of Fine Arts. She says that before a student is accepted to study any traditional dances, he or she has to prepare a baisei to be offered to the teacher.

"This is a tradition that we have practiced since the ancient times," she says. "And before practicing a new play, we also need to set up the baisei first. This is to make the spirit of arts of our nation survive vividly forever. Although our teachers in the previous generations have all died, their spirits always take care and govern us, the artists, all the time. Furthermore, this is also a way of teaching Cambodian children the moral principles so that they will be gentle, polite and quiet. This helps them to learn to understand the difference between right and wrong, and will safeguard the noble traditions of our nation."