Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-07T01:21:03.112Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spirit cults and Buddhist practice in Kep Province, Cambodia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Matthew O’Lemmon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article focuses on the growth of spirit cults in Cambodia since the end of the Democratic Kampuchea regime through an examination of the most common type of tutelary spirit, neak ta, in Kompong Tralach in Kep Province. The role of neak ta is discussed in relation to Buddhism through their representation in local legends and myths, as reported by villagers and monks, and as the focus of rituals and ceremonies, including some conducted in a Buddhist temple, Wat Kompong Tralach. This provides ethnographic data showing that during and following the destruction of Buddhism under the Khmer Rouge, and the resulting loss of monks and knowledgeable lay Buddhist specialists, Cambodians turned increasingly to older traditions such as the belief in the power and efficacy of neak ta to help fill a void. This examination of the enduring place and growing importance of beliefs such as the neak ta cult within Khmer cosmology and religious practice following decades of war and recovery deepens our understanding of the reconstruction of Buddhism in Cambodia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 25 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kammerer, Cornelia Ann, ‘Spirit cults among Akha highlanders of northern Thailand’, in Founders' cults in Southeast Asia: Ancestors, polity, and identity, ed. Tannenbaum, Nicola and Kammerer, C.A. (New Haven, CT: Yale Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), p. 50Google Scholar.

2 Lehman, F.K., ‘The relevance of the founders’ cult for understanding the political systems of the peoples of northern Southeast Asia and its Chinese borders', in Founders' cults in Southeast Asia, p. 16Google Scholar.

3 Nash, Manning, ‘Burmese Buddhism in everyday life’, American Anthropologist, New Series 65, 2 (1963): 285–95Google Scholar.

4 Ibid.: 291.

5 Evers, Hans-Dieter, ‘Buddha and the seven gods: The dual organization of a temple in central Ceylon’, Journal of Asian Studies 27, 3 (1968): 541–3Google Scholar.

6 Spiro, Melford E., Buddhism and society: A great tradition and its Burmese vicissitudes (New York: Harper and Row, 2003), pp. 12, 186Google Scholar.

7 Terwiel, B.J., ‘A model for the study of Thai Buddhism’, Journal of Asian Studies 35, 3 (1976): 403Google Scholar.

8 Kirsch, Thomas, ‘Complexity in the Thai religious system: An interpretation’, Journal of Asian Studies 36, 2 (1977): 244Google Scholar.

9 Ibrahim, Tunku Zainah Tunku, ‘The Mirek: Islamized indigenes of northwest Sarawak’, Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography 1 (1982): 17Google Scholar; Lee, Raymond L.M. and Ackerman, Susan E., ‘Ideology, authority and conflict in a Chinese religious movement in West Malaysia’, Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography 2 (1982): 132–3Google Scholar.

10 Shi-Huey, Ju, ‘Chinese spirit mediums in Singapore: An ethnographic study’, Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography 2 (1982): 3Google Scholar; Walker, Anthony R., ‘Transformations of Buddhism in the religious ideas and practices of a non-Buddhist hill people: The Lahu Nyi of northern Thailand uplands’, Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography 5 (1986): 67Google Scholar.

11 Lehman, ‘The relevance of the founders’ cult', p. 16.

12 Hjörleifur Jønsson, ‘Pedestrian politics: The social focus of founders, migration, and ritual’, in Founders' cults in Southeast Asia, p. 234.

13 Lehman, ‘The relevance of the founders’ cult', p. 33.

14 See Ba, Alice D., (Re)Negotiating East and Southeast Asia: Region, regionalism, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009), p. 33Google Scholar; de la Perrière, Bénédicte Brac, ‘An overview of the field of religion in Burmese Studies’, Special issue on Myanmar-Burmese religion, Asian Ethnology 68, 2 (2009): 290Google Scholar.

15 See, for instance, Leclère, Adhémard, Le buddhisme au Cambodge (Paris: E. Leroux, 1899)Google Scholar.

16 Porée-Maspero, Eveline, ‘Traditions orales de Pursat et de Kampot’, Artibus Asiae 24, 3/4 (1961): 394–8Google Scholar; May Ebihara, ‘Svay, a village in Cambodia’ (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1968), pp. 428–38.

17 Cravath, Paul, ‘The ritual origins of the classical dance drama of Cambodia’, Asian Theatre Journal 3, 2 (1986): 195–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Peang-Meth, Abdulgaffar, ‘Understanding the Khmer: Sociological–cultural observations’, Asian Survey 31, 5 (1991): 446Google Scholar.

19 Bertrand, Didier, ‘The names and identities of the boramey spirits possessing Cambodian mediums’, Asian Folklore Studies 60, 1 (2001): 31–47Google Scholar. See also Marston, John and Guthrie, Elizabeth, ed., History, Buddhism, and new religious movements in Cambodia (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004)Google Scholar, especially Teri Shaffer Yamada, ‘The spirit cult of Khleang Moeung in Long Beach, California’, pp. 213–25; Didier Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice and its relationship with Cambodian Buddhism’, pp. 151–2, 156–8, 166; John Marston, ‘Clay into stone: A modern day tapas’, pp. 170–2.

20 Harris, Ian, Cambodian Buddhism: History and practice (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005), pp. 33–4Google Scholar.

21 Edwards, Penny, Cambodge: The cultivation of a nation, 1860–1945 (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2007), pp. 97–104Google Scholar.

22 See Gyallay-Pap, Peter, ‘Reconstructing the Cambodian polity: Buddhism, kingship and the quest for legitimacy’, in Buddhism, power and political order, ed. Harris, Ian (London: Becket Institute, Routledge, 2007), p. 92Google Scholar; Heng Sreang, ‘The scope and limitations of political participation by Buddhist monks’, pp. 241–71, and Nissen, Christine, ‘Buddhism and corruption’, in People of virtue: Reconfiguring religion, power and moral order in Cambodia today, ed. Kent, Alexandra and Chandler, David (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2008), pp. 272–92Google Scholar.

23 See Kent and Chandler, People of virtue: Judy Ledgerwood, ‘Buddhist practice in rural Kandal Province, 1960 and 2003’, pp. 147–68; Kobayashi Satoru, ‘Reconstructing Buddhist temple buildings: An analysis of village Buddhism after the era of turmoil’, pp. 169–94.

24 Zucker, Eve, ‘The absence of elders: Chaos and moral order in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge’, in People of virtue, pp. 195–212Google Scholar.

25 Thompson, Ashley, ‘Performative realities: Nobody's possession’, in At the edge of the forest, ed. Hansen, Anne Ruth and Ledgerwood, Judy (Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asian Program Publications, Cornell University, 2008), pp. 93–119Google Scholar; Marston, John, ‘Wat Preah Thammalanka and the legend of Lok To Nen’, in People of virtue, pp. 85–108Google Scholar; Davis, Erik W., ‘Weaving life out of death: The craft of the rag robe in Cambodian ritual technology’, in Buddhist funeral cultures of Southeast Asia and China, ed. Williams, Paul and Ladwig, Patrice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 59–78Google Scholar.

26 Davis, Erik W., ‘Between forests and families: A remembered past life’, in People of virtue, p. 135Google Scholar.

27 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, pp. 151–69.

28 Gyallay-Pap, ‘Reconstructing the Cambodian polity’, p. 92; Marston, ‘Wat Preah Thammalanka’, pp. 85–108.

29 Kalab, Malada, ‘Monastic education, social mobility and village structure in Cambodia’, in Changing identities in modern Southeast Asia, ed. Banks, D.J. (Paris: Mouton, 1976), p. 165Google Scholar.

30 Ledgerwood, ‘Buddhist practice in rural Kandal Province’, p. 158.

31 Throop, C. Jason and Murphy, Keith M., ‘Bourdieu and phenomenology’, Anthropological Theory 2, 2 (2002): 185–8Google Scholar.

32 Chouléan, Ang, ‘The place of animism within popular Buddhism in Cambodia’, Asian Folklore Studies 47, 1 (1988): 36Google Scholar.

33 Ibid.: 36–7.

34 Edwards, Cambodge, p. 97.

35 Ibid.

36 Gaudes, Rüdiger, ‘Kaundinya, Preah Thaong, and the “Nāgī Somā”: Some aspects of a Cambodian legend’, Asian Folklore Studies 52, 2 (1993): 348Google Scholar.

37 Chandler, David, Brother Number One: A political biography of Pol Pot (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999), p. 96Google Scholar.

38 Kent, Alexandra, ‘Recovery of the king’, in People of virtue, pp. 116–23Google Scholar.

39 Gaudes, ‘Kaundinya, Preah Thaong, and the “Nāgī Somā”’: 334–8.

40 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, p. 151.

41 Ibid., pp. 151–2.

42 Ibid., p. 160.

43 Ibid., pp. 156–8.

44 Guthrie, Elizabeth, ‘Buddhist temples and Cambodian politics’, in People and the 1998 national elections in Cambodia, ed. Vijghen, John (Phnom Penh: Experts for Community Research, 2002), p. 68Google Scholar.

45 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, p. 166.

46 Bertrand, ‘The names and identities of the boramey spirits’: 42.

47 Ibid.: 38.

48 Thompson, Performative realities, p. 105.

49 Yamada, ‘The spirit cult of Khleang Moeung in Long Beach’, pp. 213–25; Harris, Cambodian Buddhism, pp. 33–4.

50 Davis, ‘Weaving life out of death’, p. 61.

51 Ibid., pp. 65–7.

52 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, p. 159.

53 Kitiarsa, Pattana, ‘Beyond syncretism: Hybridization of popular religion in contemporary Thailand’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 36, 3 (2005): 484CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 de Mersan, Alexandra, ‘A new palace for Mra Swan Dewi: Changes in spirit cults in Arakan (Rakhine) state’, Asian Ethnology 68, 2 (2009): 312Google Scholar.

55 Marston, ‘Wat Preah Thammalanka’, p. 88.

56 Harris, Cambodian Buddhism, p. 176.

57 Davis, ‘Weaving life out of death’, p. 135.

58 Ang, ‘The place of animism within popular Buddhism in Cambodia’: 38; Davis, ‘Weaving life out of death’: 68.

59 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, p. 159, citing Alain Forest, Le culte des génies protecteurs au Cambodge: Analyse et traduction d'un corpus de textes sur les ‘Neak Ta’ (Paris: L'Harmattan), p. 212.

60 Ibid.

61 See Ju, ‘Chinese spirit mediums in Singapore’: 3; Walker, ‘Transformations of Buddhism’: 67; Appell, George N., ‘The ecological and social consequences of conversion to Christianity among the Rungus of Sabah, Malaysia’, Contributions to Southeast Asian Ethnography 11 (1997): 71, 90Google Scholar; de la Perrière, ‘An overview of the field of religion in Burmese Studies’: 199–200.

62 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, p. 159.

63 Keyes, Charles, ‘Communist revolution and the Buddhist past in Cambodia’, in Asian visions of authority: Religion and the modern states of East and Southeast Asia, ed. Keyes, Charles, Kendall, Laurel, and Hardacre, Helen (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), p. 61Google Scholar.

64 Ledgerwood, ‘Buddhist practice in rural Kandal Province’, p. 149.

65 Bertrand, ‘A medium possession practice’, p. 159.

66 Edwards, Cambodge, p. 98.

67 Ibid., p. 116.