Tradition
Boak cham bab
បោកចំបាប់
Boak cham bab (បោកចំបាប់), often shortened to cham bab, is Khmer folk wrestling. It is the oldest form of wrestling in Cambodia and the only Khmer fighting form that includes dance.[1][2] Drums set the pace of each bout, and the wrestlers dance before, during and after the grappling.[1]
The bout
The rules are close to those of freestyle wrestling at the Olympic Games. A match has three rounds, and a wrestler wins by putting the opponent on his back in two of them.[1][2] Wrestlers wear a kben, the Khmer loincloth,[1] and may use only their arms and legs.[3] After each round, the loser is asked whether he wants to go on.[3]
The music comes from two drums, a male and a female.[2][3] One beat calls the fighters to grapple and another sends them back to dancing.[1] The dance honors the wrestlers' teachers, and it is also meant to tease and unsettle the opponent. In a 2017 bout in Kampong Chhnang province, one wrestler danced as a monkey while the other opened his long arms like a crocodile's jaws. The two shook hands and danced again for about half a minute after the match. Master Som Vankin of Kampong Chhnang says the dancing after a match stands for sportsmanship and friendship.[1]
Women also wrestle, and have done so in the past.[1][2]
History
Hok Chheangkim, a martial arts researcher and a co-founder of the Wrestling Federation of Cambodia, says the earliest Khmer wrestling was maloyuth, created in 788 by a Brahmin named Timu. By his account it became cham bab at the end of the Chenla period, in the 8th century. Maloyuth allowed deadly holds such as chokeholds, while cham bab bans moves that put a life at risk.[1] Wrestling is carved on the bas-reliefs of Banteay Srei and the Baphuon[1] and of Angkor Wat.[2]
Tournaments were held to celebrate the harvest and around Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben, and wrestling was part of military training, a way to choose military leaders.[1] Elders taught the village youths on the full-moon night after the harvest, in a rice paddy outside the village.[3] Som Vankin remembers an annual tournament hosted by the king, to which each region sent its champion.[1]
The sport nearly disappeared under the Khmer Rouge, and many of its coaches and masters were among the regime's victims.[1] Hok Chheangkim says it was then banned under the Vietnamese occupation, and surviving masters taught it in secret at home until the Wrestling Federation of Cambodia was founded in 1997.[1] In the 1990s the National Olympic Committee chose martial artists to take up wrestling and revive it. By 2007 the national team was training in the traditional Khmer style with music as well as freestyle and Greco-Roman.[4]
Today
A Wrestling Federation of Cambodia report for 2013 to 2016 counted eight wrestling clubs in the country. Most taught freestyle and Greco-Roman, and only the clubs in Pursat and Kampong Chhnang taught the traditional form.[1] UNESCO ICM lists associations practicing it in Pursat, Kampong Chhnang, Kandal, Prey Veng, Takeo and Battambang provinces.[2]
Som Vankin, a 70-year-old master in 2017, trained his 20 students for free in the yard of his home. He feared that the dance and drumming would be lost. "In many places, Cham Bab is contested without the music, though it is the most important part," he said.[1]
Bouts are still staged at festivals. At Vihear Suor Pagoda in Kandal province, traditional wrestling is one of the events held with the buffalo races that close Pchum Ben.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Phnom Penh Post, The Kingdom's oldest wrestling form grapples with fading interest (April 7, 2017)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 UNESCO ICM, Bok Cham Bab (undated)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 IntoCambodia.org, Khmer Wrestling (Boak Cham Bab) (undated)
- ↑ The Cambodia Daily, Cambodia's Wrestlers Dreaming of a Bigger Stage (March 23, 2007)
- ↑ Cambodianess (Xinhua), Century-old Buffalo Race in Cambodia Attracts Crowds of Spectators (October 3, 2024)