Today I made my first trip to the Cambodian countryside to visit two smoat masters in Konpong Speu province. Smoat is a very soulful style of singing, almost chant-like, that is used in Buddhist funeral ceremonies. The songs are often poetic retelling of Buddhist stories, and usually are morally or spiritually didactic. A common subject of smoat music is jataka, Buddhist stories, either canonical or apocryphal and unique to Khmer culture, that recount the Buddha's previous lives before he attained enlightenment. There are over 547 jataka in the Pali Canon, and many more have circulated in Cambodia, and most of them recount the lives of virtuous animals and have a very playful character, although they generally end with the main character dying. The most commonly heard are the last ten lives of the Buddha, and even more so the Buddha's final life before he was born as the Indian prince Siddartha Gautama. In his next-to-last rebirth, the Buddha took the form of Prince Vessantara, who represents the perfection of generousity by giving away his possesions, his land, his country, his wife, his children, etc., until he literally gives away his heart. It's a remarkable little story with lots of delicious details, including a greedy old man who eats too much and, just like you or I would in a similar situation, explodes. But getting back to the music at hand, smoat is particularly beautiful style of singing, with long phrases and characteristic ornamentation.
Sambor and I drove for about an hour and a half to reach the masters, after making it through some muddy roads and several detours. The countryside, filled with rice paddies of a brilliant green color and tall, slender palm trees, is beautiful. It was so refreshing to be out of the city, where the pollution makes it difficult to breathe, and be closer to nature. The poverty is also more apparent, but in a different, and less jarring, way than in the city. We finally arrived at where the smoat class was being held, at a house, on stilts to avert flood damage, in a small village. We were greeted by one of the masters and some of the students, who led us up the stairs and into the house, where there were about twenty students sitting on the floor. After traditional greetings, we all took a seat and introduced each other.
The two masters, one man and one woman, have very fine voices and it was great to meet them in person after listening to their recordings. The man began his study of smoat when he was fifteen years old and a novice monk at a Buddhist wat. He is now considered one of the foremost masters of the art. The woman was a bit younger, and is believed to suffer from hysterical blindness, a psycho-somatic illness that afflicts a certain number of older Cambodian women who were forced to watch the execution of their husbands during the Khmer Rouge era. They are both very kind teachers, and I feel fortunate to have had the chance to meet them.
We all talked for a couple hours about smoat, and I learned a lot from the exchange. Several of the students, who had remarkable voices, also shared some of their skills. They were interested in opera, but through some confusion in translation, I thought they meant throatsinging, so I shared some of that before I sang some of the very limited German opera I know. All things considered, it did feel a little weird for me to be the only medium through which they had ever heard Tuvan throatsinging or German arias. But the sense of exchange was powerful for both me and them, and they repeated that I would be very welcome to stay in their community, perhaps at the local wat, and study smoat. I don't know if will decide to live in Konpong Speu and study this wonderful form of music, but I am very happy to have this experience and to meet such welcoming people.
Sambor and I then went to visit the local wat, which sits on top of the only hill for miles. As such, it has a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside. After two weeks in crowded, congested cities, the pure air and the peacefulness were a welcome relief. The wat was very simple, but the trees and majestic silence were duly inspiring. I hope very mcuh that I will return. Here's a picture of the view from the top:
Below is another image of the view:
After I captured this image, it realized that the view really reminded me of a series of paintings by Cezanne of Mont St. Victoire.
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