Tradition

Khmer Buddhist ordination

Khmer Buddhist ordination is the ceremony in which a young Cambodian man enters the monkhood, as a novice or as a monk, for a short time or for years.[1][2] It was long the custom for every young Khmer man to spend some time as a novice.[2]

Meaning

The ethnologist Ang Choulean, a professor at the Royal University of Fine Arts, said in a 2024 interview that young men entered the monkhood as much for an education as for religion. He compared ordination to the rites of chlorng vei, the "passing of age", which also include birth, wedding and funeral ceremonies. While girls stayed at home to learn housework before marriage, boys ideally spent some years in a Wat. There they learned the dhamma, self-discipline and the skills of daily life. Some stayed for many years, but most left once they were judged ready to head a family, and families with daughters looked on a young man who had served five years or more as a good match.[3]

Families see a son's ordination as a gift to his parents. The merit he gains as a monk passes to them, above all to his mother.[2] Among the Khmer Krom of the Mekong Delta, boys are sent to the Wat at puberty for one year or more, a way to repay what they owe their parents and bring blessings to their families. They may leave the monkhood afterward, marry and go back to ordinary life, and young women are said to favor men who have served.[4]

Ordinations are often held near a festival. In Cambodia the ceremony called bom bous neak is often held as the monks' rainy-season retreat begins, to ordain young men for a set time. Twenty or thirty boys from several villages may gather to prepare together, and the ceremony may last several days, starting at their homes and moving to the Wat.[3] Among the Khmer Krom they usually come before or after the Khmer New Year in mid-April.[4] In Cambodia, Wats ordain large groups of young people at Visak Bochea, which marks the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and passing.[5][6]

The neak

In Cambodia the ordination is also known as the ceremony of the neak, the Khmer word for the dragon or serpent of Buddhist legend. The name recalls a story in which a neak took human form and was ordained a monk by the Buddha. He changed back into a serpent while asleep, and so was found out.[1] Men hold this ceremony before entering the monkhood, whether they mean to stay a few years or longer.[1]

The ceremony

The rite retells the renunciation of Prince Siddhartha, who left his palace to become the Buddha. On the first day the candidate dresses as a prince. A monk shaves his head, eyebrows and beard, his first step in giving up worldly life.[7] At an ordination of nine candidates at a pagoda in the Cambodian countryside, the men wore bright sampot wraps, lace tops and jewelry, and some put on lipstick.[1] Among the Khmer Krom the boys have their heads shaved the day before. They change into a sarong and a white cloth worn across the body from the left shoulder, a sign that they are leaving their worldly ties behind.[4]

The abbot is consulted to find an auspicious day, which has to be in harmony with the candidate's stars and planets.[8] Lay people led by the achar, the senior layman who guides them in ceremonies, chant the Three Refuges and the five precepts.[9][10]

Procession

Next comes a procession. A woman carries the candidate's robes in a silver tray on her head, and the lay people hold flowers, candles and incense.[11] His friends walk at the front and, as in the story of the prince, try in fun to talk him out of leaving the world.[12] The procession circles the Wat three times, keeping it on the right, in honor of the Three Refuges.[13][1] At the countryside ordination the candidates rode decorated horses in the procession, and women carried bright boxes holding the robes.[1]

Ordination

Inside, the candidate holds his robes before the monk who will be his teacher and recites verses in Pali, the language of Theravada scripture.[14] Senior monks then ordain him.[1] The monks chant to urge a new novice to keep the ten precepts. Besides the five precepts of lay people, these forbid perfume and ornaments, a soft bed, food at the wrong hours, dancing and shows, and handling money. At the end the abbot sprinkles holy water over the lay people to share the merit with everyone there.[15] Ang Choulean described the moment of putting on the robe as the point at which the candidate officially becomes a monk.[3]

Short ordinations

Some Wats hold short group ordinations so that the young, and poor families who could not otherwise afford one, can take part. Since 2016 Wat Sorya Ream in Battambang province has ordained hundreds of young people each year at Visak Bochea. In May 2024 nearly 200 young men and women there became monks and nuns for eight days of meditation and study. The chief monk said the aim was to bring Buddhism to the young.[5]

At Wat Preah Indra Tep, near the Bayon, an ordination in May 2024 counted more than 540 participants by May 18. It was the twelfth that the monk council of Siem Reap city had organized. They were young and old, and about 60 percent of them were women. At about 4 p.m. monks shaved the heads of the male participants. The participants and their guests then went around the Bayon to chhay yam music before the ordination inside the Wat, and the new monks and white-robed nuns were taught the rules they would keep. Thoeun Vuthy, who helped found the program, said it gave young men and women a short time in the order and an introduction to Buddhist teaching for Visak Bochea.[16] The report noted that by custom a son should become a monk, for a long or short time, to repay his parents. A daughter reaching puberty went through chol mlob, a coming of age spent indoors learning manners and housework.[16]

On April 28, 2026, 328 young people had their heads shaved at the same Wat. The young men became novices and the young women took the precepts in white, for a five-day course ahead of Visak Bochea. The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts described the course as an act of gratitude to parents, the nation, religion and the King.[6]

History

For centuries monks lived in Wats in every community in Cambodia. During the war of 1970 to 1975 more than a third of the country's 3,369 Wats were destroyed, and many of its 65,000 monks and novices became refugees. An official report of 1982 counted 2,311 monks back in the order.[17]

In the United States

Cambodian communities in the United States have kept the rite. In 1987 George Chigas photographed a novice ordination at the Trairatanaram Temple in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, led by its abbot, the Venerable Sao Khon.[7][8] In 1985 in Lakewood, California, a mother carried her son's robes into the Wat sanctuary for his ordination.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Angkor Photography Tours, Monk traditional ceremony Cambodia (July 16, 2017)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Historical Society of Long Beach, Monorom Neth (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cambodianess, Ky Soklim, The Tradition behind Ordaining Young Men in Cambodia, interview with Ang Choulean (August 17, 2024)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Heritage, Vietnam Airlines magazine, The way of the monk (May 2, 2023)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Radio Free Asia, In Cambodia, 200 young men and women ordained on Buddhist holy day (May 23, 2024)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Quest for Dharma in the land of Angkor: 328 sons and daughters take part in an ordination ceremony at Wat Preah En Tep (undated, 2026)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the head is shaved during the ordination ceremony (photograph, 1987)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the monks chanting (photograph, 1987)
  9. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the achar leads the laity (photograph, 1987)
  10. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the laity chant to the three refuges (photograph, 1987)
  11. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the second day of the ordination (photograph, 1987)
  12. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the procession is ready to begin (photograph, 1987)
  13. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the procession parades around the temple (photograph, 1987)
  14. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the candidate holds his robes and stands before a monk (photograph, 1987)
  15. ↑ Southeast Asian Digital Archive, UMass Lowell, George Chigas, Ordination: the monks chant (photograph, 1987)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Cambodianess, Zul Rorvy, Mass Ordination Held at Angkor (May 21, 2024)
  17. ↑ EthnoMed, Cambodian (undated)
Retrieved from "https://khmerconnection.com/w/index.php?title=Khmer_Buddhist_ordination&oldid=14489"
This page was last edited on 17 October 2026, at 01:38.