សភានិស្សិតខ្មែរ Cambodian Students Council

We, as Cambodian Students Council members have the aim of providing resources vital for all Cambodians to reach their highest potential to be successful. We will establish educational progression, community service and cultural awareness. We will unite and provide educational resources to the community and raise awareness of social issues within the Cambodian communities. We are of firm will and commitment to jointly establishing the Cambodian Students Council, to untiringly serve and abide by the charter hereinafter:

1. To promote, support, and heighten the education of students in term of providing them with study programs, motivations and scholarship.

2. To hold seminars and provide information on study skills, scholarship, employment and general knowledge.

3. To maintain and protect Cambodian culture which is valuable to Cambodian heritage.

4. To cooperate and maintain good relationships between students and students’ organization in the United States, Cambodia and other countries.

http://cambodianstudentscouncil.blogspot.com/

Khmer Loeur

Khmer Loeu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Khmer Loeu are the non-Khmer highland tribes in Cambodia. Although the origins of this group are not clear, some believe that the Mon-Khmer-speaking tribes were part of the long migration of these people from the northwest. The Austronesian-speaking groups, Rade and Jarai, apparently came to coastal Vietnam and then moved west, forming wedges among some of the Mon-Khmer groups. The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, and Mondulkiri. The Cambodian government coined the word Khmer Loeu--literally "Highland Khmer"--in the 1960s in order to create a feeling of unity between the highland tribal groups and the ruling lowland ethnic Khmer. Traditionally the Khmer have referred to these groups as phnong and samre, both of which have pejorative meanings. Some of the highland groups, in fact, are related in language to the Khmer, but others are from a very different linguistic and cultural background.

History

Khmer Loeu form the majority population in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, and they also are present in substantial numbers in Kratié Province and Stung Treng provinces. Their total population in 1969 was estimated at 90,000 people. In 1971 the number of Khmer Loeu was estimated variously between 40,000 and 100,000 people. Population figures were unavailable in 1987, but the total probably was nearly 100,000 people.

Most Khmer Loeu live in scattered temporary villages that have only a few hundred inhabitants. These villages usually are governed by a council of local elders or by a village headman.

The Khmer Loeu cultivate a wide variety of plants, but the main crop is dry or upland rice grown by the slash-and-burn method. Hunting, fishing, and gathering supplement the cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet. Houses vary from huge multifamily longhouses to small single-family structures. They may be built close to the ground or on stilts.

During the period of the French Protectorate, the French did not interfere in the affairs of the Khmer Loeu. Reportedly, French army commanders considered the Khmer Loeu as an excellent source of personnel for army outposts, and they recruited large numbers to serve with the French forces. Many Khmer Loeu continued this tradition by enlisting in the Cambodian army.

In the 1960s, the Cambodian government carried out a broad civic action program--for which the army had responsibility--among the Khmer Loeu in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, and Koh Kong provinces. The goals of this program were to educate the Khmer Loeu, to teach them Khmer, and eventually to assimilate them into the mainstream of Cambodian society. There was some effort at resettlement; in other cases, civil servants went out to live with individual Khmer Loeu groups to teach their members Khmer ways. Schools were provided for some Khmer Loeu communities, and in each large village a resident government representative disseminated information and encouraged the Khmer Loeu to learn the lowland Khmer way of life. Civil servants sent to work among the Khmer Loeu often viewed the assignment as a kind of punishment.

In the late 1960s, an estimated 5,000 Khmer Loeu in eastern Cambodia rose in rebellion against the government and demanded self-determination and independence. The government press reported that local leaders loyal to the government had been assassinated. Following the rebellion, the hill people's widespread resentment of ethnic Khmer settlers caused them to refuse to cooperate with the Cambodian army in its suppression of rural unrest. Both the Khmer and the Vietnamese communists took advantage of this disaffection, and they actively recruited Khmer Loeu into their ranks. In late 1970, the government forces withdrew from Rstanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces and abandoned the area to the rapidly growing Khmer communist insurgent force, the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea, and to its Vietnamese mentors. There is some evidence that in the 1960s and in the 1970s the Front Uni pour la Libération des Races Opprimés (FULRO--United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races) united tribes in the mountainous areas of southern Vietnam and had members from Khmer Loeu groups as well as from the Cham in Cambodia.

In the early 1980s, Khmer Rouge propaganda teams infiltrated the northeastern provinces and encouraged rebellion against the central government. In 1981 the government structure included four Khmer Loeu province chiefs, all reportedly from the Brao group, in the northeastern provinces of Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, and Preah Vihear. According to a 1984 resolution of the PRK National Cadres Conference entitled "Policy Toward Ethnic Minorities," the minorities were considered an integral part of the Cambodian nation, and they were to be encouraged to participate in collectivization. Government policy aimed to transform minority groups into modern Cambodians. The same resolution called for the elimination of illiteracy, with the stipulations that minority languages be respected and that each tribe be allowed to write, speak, and teach in its own language.

The major Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are the Kuy, Mnong, Stieng, Brao, Tampuan, Pear, Jarai, and Rade. All but the last two speak Mon-Khmer languages.

In the late 1980s, about 160,000 Kuy lived in the northern Cambodian provinces of Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, and Stung Treng as well as in adjacent Thailand. (Approximately 70,000 Kuy had been reported in Cambodia itself in 1978.) Most of the Kuy have been assimilated into the predominant culture of the country in which they live. Many are Buddhists, and the majority practice wet-rice cultivation. They have the reputation of being skilled blacksmiths.

The Brao, Kreung, and Kavet inhabit the northeastern Cambodian province of Ratanakiri and adjacent Laos. All three speak different, though mutually intelligible, dialects of the same language. They share a very similar culture, with matrilineal descent. In 1962 the Brao population in Laos was estimated at about 9,000. In 1984 it was reported that the total Brao population was between 10,000 and 15,000. About 3,000 Brao reportedly moved into Cambodia from Laos in the 1920s. The Brao live in large villages centered on a communal house. They cultivate dry-rice and produce some pottery. They appear to have a bilateral kinship system.

Kreung village near Ban Lung

Meeting house

sacred grove of the banana spirit

cabins for unmarried youth

The Tampuan number about 25,000, according to a 1998 census. They have a Mon-Khmer language, and practice a form of animism. They have matrilineal descent.

A total of 23,000 Mnong were thought to be living in Cambodia and in Vietnam in the early 1980s. In Cambodia the Mnong are found in Mondulkiri, Kratié, and Kampong Cham provinces in villages consisting of several longhouses each of which is divided into compartments that can house nuclear families. The Mnong practice dry-rice farming, and some also cultivate a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and other useful plants as secondary crops. Some subgroups weave cloth. At least two of the Mnong subgroups have matrilineal descent. Monogamy is the predominant form of marriage, and residence is usually matrilocal. Wealth distinctions are measured by the number of buffalo that a notable person sacrifices on a funereal or ceremonial occasion as a mark of status and as a means of eliciting social approval. Slavery is known to have existed in the past, but the system allowed a slave to gain freedom. The Stieng are closely related to the Mnong. Both groups straddle the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, and their languages belong to the same subfamily of Mon-Khmer. In 1978 the Cambodian Stieng numbered about 20,000 in all. The Stieng cultivate dry-field rice. Their society is apparently patriarchal, residence after marriage and is patrilocal if a bride-price was paid. The groups have a very loose political organization; each village has its own leaders and tribunals.

Several small groups, perhaps totalling no more than 10,000 people in Cambodia and southeastern Thailand, make up the Pearic group. The main members are the Pear in Battambang, Pursat, and Kampong Thom provinces; the Chong in Thailand and Battambang Province; the Saoch in Kampot Province; the Samre in what was formerly Siem Reap Province; and the Suoi in Kampong Chhnang Province. Some believe that this group constitutes the remnant of the pre-Khmer population of Cambodia. Many members of the Pearic group grow dry-field rice, which they supplement by hunting and by gathering. They have totemic clans, each headed by a chief who inherited his office patrilineally. Marriage occurs at an early age; there is a small bride-price. Residence may be matrilocal until the birth of the first child, or it may be patrilocal as it is among the Saoch. The village headman is the highest political leader. The Saoch have a council of elders who judge infractions of traditional law. Two chief sorcerers, whose main function is to control the weather, play a major role in Pearic religion. Among the Saoch, a corpse is buried instead of being burned as among the Khmer.

The Austronesian groups of Jarai and Rade form two of the largest ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Both groups spill over into northeastern Cambodia, and they share many cultural similarities. The total Jarai population stands at about 200,000; the Rade number about 120,000. According to 1978 population figures, there were 10,000 Jarai and 15,000 Rade in Cambodia in the late 1970s. They live in longhouses containing several compartments occupied by matrilineally linked nuclear families. There may be twenty to sixty longhouses in one village. The Rade and Jarai cultivate dry-field rice and secondary crops such as maize. Both groups have exogamous matrilineal descent groups (consanguineous kin groups that acknowledge a traditional bond of common descent in the maternal line and within which they do not marry). Women initiate marriage negotiations and residence is matrilocal. Each village has its own political hierarchy and is governed by an oligarchy of the leading families. In the past, sorcerers known as the "kings of fire and water" exerted political power that extended beyond an individual village. The Rade and the Jarai have been involved intimately in the FULRO movement, and many of the leaders in the movement are from these two groups.

Cambodia Celebrates Visakha Bochea Ceremony

Udong Mountain

Cambodia Celebrates Visakha Bochea Ceremony
BY BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA

About 50,000 Cambodians including Buddhist monks, nuns and laymen who proclaim Buddhism have attended celebrations for Visakha Bochea Day, May 8 at the Udong Mountain, known as “Phnom Addharus”. According to tradition, the Buddha’s ashes were located in Ponhear Leu district, in Kandal province.

Besides regular worshippers, senators, Members of the National Assembly and other government officials participated in this religious ceremony.

This annual ceremony is arranged by the National Committee for Organizing National and International Festivals (NCONIF) and is presided over by Samdech Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly. The ceremony implores the Lord Buddha to provide grace and merit upon the faithful.

Chea Kean, Deputy General Director of NCONIF said that this year of Visakha Bochea marks the Buddhist calendar year 2553.

Chea Kean said that as over 90 percent of Cambodians are Buddhists, Visakha Bochea or Buddha Day is a very important day in the life of the nation.

The Deputy General Director pointed out that Visakha Bochea is celebrated to mark the Buddha’s birthday, to commemorate the Buddha’s enlightenment, and to mark the death of the Buddha, taken to have occurred during the first full moon day in May.

He said that given the importance of the day, the United Nations (UN) has recognized Visakha Bochea as an international holiday and celebrates this religious ceremony at UN Head Quarters every year.

Um Sok, Chief of the Kraing Thnong Pagoda, said that Visakha Bochea is very important for Cambodian people. Its main purpose is to encourage the people to be nicer to each other, to meditate and to adhere to the moral principles of Dharma, the source of the advice and teaching of the Buddha.

Um Sok said that the religious ceremony underpinned by good commitments, sincerity, solidarity, peace and morality for the people of Cambodia.

“I think that Visakha Bochea Day underlines the fact that the Buddha is the most enlightened and, in my opinion, the most important person in the world. Thus, as followers of Buddha, we should celebrate it and follow His advice and teaching,” he told The Cambodia Weekly during a personal interview on May 7.

He said for Buddhist monks, nuns or laymen who obeyed the Buddha’s advice and teaching, a world of real peace of mind awaited them.

He called on Cambodian people, especially youths to do good works, to avoid acts of violence, robbery, adultery and drug abuse so that they might teach others by example.

Hok Somaly, 56, a businessperson in Phnom Penh who attended the Visakha Bochea Day celebrations in Udong Mountain, said that she was happy to attend.

Somaly said that she has been participating for five years now.

“As a Buddhist, I think that Visakha Bochea Day is very important for me and my family. To mark the Lord Buddha’s grace and merit, I think my family and I will celebrate it for as long as we live,” she told the Cambodia Weekly. ////

VISAKHA PUJA DAY: THE INTERNATIOAL DAY OF VESAK AT UNITED NATIONS

VISAKHA PUJA DAY: THE INTERNATIOAL DAY OF
VESAK AT UNITED NATIONS

Visakha Puja Day is one of the greatest Buddhist holidays which falls on the 15th day of the new moon in the 6th lunar month that is the month of May, in the year with extra eighth lunar month; the Visakha Puja Day will fall on 15th day of the new moon in the 7th lunar moth.
Visakha Puja Day is regarded as an important Buddhist holiday, because it is connected with three important events in the life of the Buddha i.e. birth, enlightenment and death ; these three days fall on the same day miraculously. It is the most sacred day in the Buddhist calendar, when the day has come; both monks and lay people specially perform ceremonies recollecting the wisdom, purity and the great compassion of the Buddha.

BIRTH OF THE BUDDHA

The Buddha was the king by birth, Gotama by lineage and Sakya by race, born in 80 years before the Buddhist Era in the middle country at Lumbini park (Lumpini, nowadays, is Lumminde in Nepal) between Kapilavasthu of Sakya and Devadaha of the Koliya region, which is on the full Moon in the month of May in 625 B.C.. Buddha’s father was Suddhodana, his mother was Mahâmâyâ who wanted to go to Devadaha, her native place, when she was far- gone in pregnancy, in the morning of Visâkha Punnami Day, came over the beautiful Lummbi Grove on the way to Devadaha, had a break of her traveling under the shade of a flowering Sal tree; but that was not to be, then she gave birth to her child. When the news was heard, the King of Sakya and the King of Koliya were very pleased. Mahâmâyâ and her son were brought to Kapilavasthu.

HIS ENLIGHTENMENT

The prince Siddhattha had been taken care and instructed well since he was a child until he was a young, married with Yasodharâ, the princess of Devadaha, had a son called “Rahula”. With the advance of age and maturity, the prince began to glimpse the woes of the world. He renounced his wife and a child as well as a crown that held the promise of power and glory, became a monk on the bank of the Anomâ River, and then he sought guidance from the famous sages who would teach him all they knew, being led he practiced concentration reached the highest meditative attainments possible thereby, but it was not satisfied with anything for attaining Supreme Enlightenment, left them in search of the still unknown. In his wanderings he finally reached Uruvelâ of Magadha (in Bodhgaya, Bihar state, India), practiced alone until attained the Enlightenment on the Full-Moon Day of the 6th lunar month in 45 years before the Buddhist Era.

What is enlightened are the four Noble truths:-
1. Dukkha is unsatisfactionariness, physical and mental suffering.
2. Samudaya is cause of suffering.
3. Nirodha is cessation of suffering.
4. Magga is the path leading to cessation of suffering.
These four are the truth which is called “Ariyasacca” that is discovered by the Buddha,
and more sublime than common reality.

HIS PARINIBBANA (DEATH)

The Buddha, after his Enlightenment, had done daily routine, taught the persons who could be instructed until they have attained the Eye of Truth, sent his disciples to villages, districts and capital cities to introduce his teachings until Buddhism has been established and wide-spread. He attained Nibbana on Tuesday 15th day of the new moon in the 6th lunar month in the year of the small snake at Sal Grove in Kusinagar of Malla, Uttra Pradesh, India when he was 80 year old.

On the occasion of the Visakha Day, a grand religious ceremony has been continuously held in Jambudipa or India where it is the land of Buddhism; since Buddhism has spreaded into Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, and other countries around the world, the religious ceremony of Visakha Day has been performed still now.

In Thailand, the religious ceremony of Visakha Day has been commenced in Sukhothai period, because in those days, Thailand had closely religious relationship with Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan monks came to Thailand for introducing Buddhism. Some of them had been honored as the chief monk; even Thai monks went to Sri Lanka had done the same. The ceremony of Visakha Day is believed that it was brought to Thailand by Sri Lankan monks.

In Phraraj-pidhî-sibsong-duen written by the King Chulalongkorn, Rama 5 it is said that the religious ceremony of Visakha Day was restored in Bangkok period in 1817 B.E. that was the reign of Rama 2 who was advised by the supreme patriarch (Mee) to cerebrate the Visakha Day.

There was publication of programme of the ceremony of Visakha Day that the Rama 2 observed the observance of eight precepts by abstaining from making harm to living beings and from drinking intoxicants for three days. There was decoration of the oil lamps, arranging flowers, incenses and candles as the offering worship to the Trible Gem as well as lighting fireworks for three days.

ACTIVITIES ON VISAKHA PUJA DAY

1. Offer alms to monks and pour the water for dedicating the merit to all beings and
departed ones.
2. Practice meditation and listen to the Dhamma preaching.
3. Observe five precepts or eight precepts and abstain from the causes of bad bodily and
verbal deeds.
4. Perform the candle procession around the respected place of worship, and participate in
the activities of the Visakha Puja Day.
5. Arrange an exhibition of Visahka Day.
6. Hoist the flags at the houses, monasteries and government offices.
However, accomplishment of charity, morality and practicing meditation are more important
than others.

THE INERNATIONAL DAY OF VISAKHA AT UNITED NATIONS

In the year of 1999, as the United Nations is the world organization that people around the world have recognized its activities, consented to announce the Visakha Day as the international important day of the world on December 15, 1999 that has been encouraged by Buddhist organizations from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Lao, South Korea, Vietnam, Bhutan, Indonesia, Nepal, Cambodia, India, Pakistan; and Thailand agreed to present to the United Nations in Bangkok in order to do official announcement on 25th April 2000. It has brought about delight to Thai Buddhist people as well as Thai government. The activities of the promotion of Buddhism are held by Thai Sangha and people in the Visakha Festival all over Thailand.

Buddha's Teaching Can Help Global Peace - UN Sec Gen

Buddha's Teaching Can Help Global Peace - UN Sec Gen
Courtesy The Buddhist Channel May 8, 2009

<< Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General

United Nations, New York -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his message delivered to the world communities on Wednesday that the Buddha's teaching could help the world become peaceful.

"All of us can learn from the Buddha's spirit of compassion. His timeless teachings can help us to navigate the many global problems we face today," said Ban Ki-moon in his message.

His message came ahead of the Buddha's birthday, traditionally known as Vesak or Visakah, a full-moon which this year fell on 9 May, 2009.

Vesak is the name of the month of the Buddha's birth in the Indian lunar calendar. Buddhist communities around the world celebrate the full-moon day with great reverence and piety as the day synchronized the birth, enlightenment, and passing of the Buddha.

"The need for global solidarity may seem like a modern concept, but it is not. More than 2,500 years ago, the Buddha taught that nothing exists in isolation, and that all phenomena are interdependent. Just as profoundly, he taught that we cannot be happy as long as others suffer, and that when we do reach out, we discover the best in ourselves," he added.

He also urged every individual to resolve to help people who are suffering, in order to secure a better future for all, in his message marking Vesak.