Among these are an impressive variety of didactic poems, or cpāp’ (chbap), short, aphoristic verse compositions that were traditionally studied, copied, and recited by children studying at Khmer Buddhist temples.

To give a precise account of how the living complexity of Pali unfolds, the findings in this article are based on the phonetic transcription and analysis of fifteen multimedia recordings of Pali liturgical chants in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Cambodia. The range of major and minor variations in Pali pronunciation witnessed during this period, and the contentious debates behind these divergencies, open new paths for understanding the past and present of Pali as a Buddhist language.

Wars of the heart always take longer to cool than the barrel of a gun… we must heal through love… and we must go slowly, step by step…

A brief but touching biography of the Cambodian Saṅgharāja during and immediately after the Khmer Rouge era whose “peace walks” (Dhammayietra) helped to restore hope to his embattled people.

The Angkor Borei images of Buddha indicate that after the late seventh century, there is a hiatus of nearly 400 years before Buddhist imagery re-appears in the late twelfth to thirteenth century.

a set of correspondences between his/her 32 bodily formations, the 32 consonants of the Pāli syllabary giving origin to those bodily formations, the 32 contemplative mūlakammaṭṭhāna and the 32 marks of a Buddha’s body. The key factor linking those correspondences is mūla-kammaṭṭhāna

How Tantric elements came to inform a premodern, Cambodian meditation practice.

I intend that this offering will, however imperfect, stand as a memorial to the many Cambodian Buddhist monks and laypeople, both named and unknown, who lost their lives or had their futures traumatically altered by the tragedy that overwhelmed their country in the 1970s.

Despite the decimation of traditional culture during the Khmer Rouge period (1975–1979), Dharma songs remain an integral facet of Buddhist life among Khmers in Cambodia and in diaspora.

This article examines the role of Dharma songs in contemporary Cambodia, highlighting how their texts, melodies, and performances evoke the aesthetic experiences of saṃvega and pasāda, central to Buddhist art and practice. It emphasizes the significance of music in expressing and living Buddhism within the Khmer tradition.

Theravāda Buddhism, once it had anchored itself in Cambodian soil, possessed a remarkable facility for assimilation and accretion.

An introductory overview of the history of Buddhism in Cambodia, from the earliest archeological evidence in 5th c. Funan to its tentative reemergence in the 1980s and ’90s.

Notice, in particular, the formal and ideological similarities to Thai Buddhism on display here.

“We’re on the way to enlightenment”, he said. “And on this way, what should we do?”

This article presents the phenomenon of TikTok monks in Cambodia and the question of whether it’s appropriate to use social media to preach the dharma.

The new digital resource will not only help preserve a priceless record of Cambodian society and history, but it will also provide modern readers access to a trove of Cambodian Buddhist literature, and bring the texts to the world by making new translations possible.

This article describes the history of Wat Phum Thmei Serey Mongkol’s library, which houses thousands of manuscripts of Buddhist scripture. The article further details the temple’s recent work in preserving and digitizing these valuable materials, making them accessible to the whole world.

Even after leaving the forest, one man explained, Khmer tradition held that if one failed to make an offering of thanks, the spirits would seize and kill the ungrateful person.

Who can be held accountable for violence if everyone is, at once, perpetrator and victim? Given this mode of being-in-the-world, how do people find resilience in the face of past trauma?

This critique, most commonly expressed as criticism of “rich” temples and monks, juxtaposes an idealised Buddhist monastery against the increasing influence of political groups and [wealthy] individuals within local wats.

the inscriptions of the past refer often to a corpus of women as “nuns”. What are we to make of this?

The Theravada modification is a hundred years prior to the conventional 16th century estimation and is not associated with renewed use of Angkor. Instead it relates to the Ayutthayan occupation of Angkor in the 1430s and 40s during a major period of climatic instability.

In Southern California, some Theravāda temples have taken up the practice of granting temporary novice ordinations to Cambodian American gang members, with the hope of reorienting the youth toward their families’ religion and culture.

Cambodia is strewn with places of national, local or, most frequently, village importance, considered as potent places, that is to say, places that are said to have agency and a positive or negative power of interaction with human beings. This paper emphasises the constituent principles of potency using case studies based on ethnographic research conducted between 2007 and 2015 in Pursat province, western Cambodia.

Beginning with the analysis of the sanctuary of a powerful land guardian spirit called Khleang Muang, the author progressively guides the reader to all the potent places that form a network which spatially tells the legend of the sixteenth-century Khmer King Ang Chan who passed by Pursat, coming from Angkor and settled in Lovek (south of Tonle Sap Lake). Violent death and sacrifices, rituals, spiritual energy called paramī, old buildings, monasteries, precious tableware kept in the soil, trees, stones, termite mounds … all those constituents of the potency of the places are analysed. The author’s discussion of the core of potency (pāramī) enables her to show how Buddhism and land guardian spirit cults are entangled in a single still hierarchical religious system.

The monks themselves play an integral part in the social and moral education and support the social development of the village people of northern Cambodia.

A very brief introduction to the sociology of contemporary Cambodian Buddhism.

In this essay, I examine the intertwining concepts of merit, power, Buddhist virtue, and the moral rendering of the physical universe apparent in late nineteenth-century Khmer vernacular texts.

This article looks at Buddhist literature in nineteenth-century Khmer. It argues that the literature of this period was a direct response to French colonialism, and though modern Cambodians questioned religious traditions and cosmologies, the law of karma and the framework of a moral universe persisted.

Please, O Lord, may all the boons
for which I fervently pray
come true at once and come to be
from now until nirvana’s time!

… highlights of the Cambodian Dharma song tradition. Many of the most popular songs are included, along with others of exceptional interest or literary merit. All of the major themes of the genre are covered: the life of the Buddha, gratitude to parents, the impermanence of the body, and [the] aspiration for nirvana.

Listen to an interview with the author on the New Books Network or hear him perform a few of the songs from this book on Shambhala’s website. And for the author’s previous translations and performances, see his open-access album “Stirring and Stilling” (2011).

The book also contains a number of original essays on the history of Cambodian Buddhism and its poetry, alongside a thorough bibliography for the author’s sources.

On the pyre the fire burns bright
Setting alight this searing pain
With only my fate to blame
For the fierce flame that brands me.

… learn about—and listen to—the Cambodian Dharma song tradition

In Khmer and English translation.

The relationship between Cambodians and Angkor still persists as a place of ancestors, worship, and religious rituals. We believe that Angkor is the most sacred place in Cambodia.

We have been through such hardship and danger together. Now we must love one another.

Over 15,000 photographs of Buddhist archeological sites, pilgrimage centres, and temples in SE Asia, as well as Videos, Maps, Posters, etc.

Notice in particular how the looting was worse during the Cold War than during the colonial period, with American-backed militias instrumental in the efforts on both sides of the border.