Tradition · Khmer court dance-drama
Royal Ballet of Cambodia
Also known as Khmer classical dance, Cambodian court dance, Robam Preah Reach Trop, Lakhon Luong, របាំព្រះរាជទ្រព្យ
Cambodia's classical court dance, performed for coronations, royal weddings and funerals, whose repertoire has the Reamker as a mainstay. Inscriptions record temple dancers from the seventh century onward, but the tradition nearly ended under the Khmer Rouge, when an estimated nine in ten Cambodian classical artists died. Survivors rebuilt it in refugee camps in Thailand and at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Cambodia; UNESCO proclaimed it in 2003.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
A favourite Reamker episode on its stage is one the standard Khmer text lacks: Hanuman's love affair with the mermaid Sovanna Maccha, who has been stealing the stones of Rama's causeway.
The ninety per cent figure is a scholarly estimate (Rogers 2020, as cited by Wikipedia), not a census.
Connections (2)
- Ramayana traditionReamker
The Reamker is a mainstay of the royal ballet's repertoire, and the ballet keeps episodes the written epic does not. The meeting of Hanuman and the mermaid Sovanna Maccha, a favourite of Cambodian audiences, is absent from the standard written Reamker, in which Rama simply forces the ocean god to cooperate, but it appears on the royal ballet stage and in the Thai Ramakien, and probably came from folk tellings or from Thailand.
- Historical linkAngkor Wat, Cambodia
The modern court dance has been staged against Angkor since the colonial period. In the early 1920s a troupe performed at Angkor Wat, and French authorities later funded one troupe, deemed the true Khmer dancers, and allowed it alone to dance there for tourists and official visitors. The court dance had been tied to the temples long before: Angkorian inscriptions record dancers offered to temples and performing divine rites.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, "Royal Ballet of Cambodia" and "Reamker". Amanda Rogers, Cultural Geographies 27:4 (2020); Paul Cravath, Earth in Flower, as cited there.
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