Tradition

Lakhon Bassac

ល្ខោនបាសាក់

Lakhon Bassac (ល្ខោនបាសាក់) is a Khmer folk theater of song, speech, dance and stage combat, named for the Bassac River region where it began.[1][2][3] It is one of the most popular forms of Cambodian theater.[1] The Better Cambodia reported in 2024 that 66 troupes were registered across the capital and 14 provinces, and the form is also played among Khmer Krom communities in southern Vietnam.[4][5]

Names

The form grew from an earlier theater called Lakhon Treoung Klok. Its first troupe played on bare ground under a shelter of branches and leaves, and people named the theater after treoung klok, the trellis used to grow gourds, which the shelter resembled.[6][5] Audiences in central Cambodia later called it Lakhon Bassac, after the place where it developed.[6] Among the Khmer of Kampuchea Krom, it is known as Yu Ke or Dù Kê.[6][5] Another spelling is Lakhaon Bassac.[1]

Practice

Lakhon Bassac is spoken and sung theater. Performers deliver sung dialogue and improvise rhythmic dance gestures and poses, and the stage adds acrobatics, fighting, comic roles and giants.[2][3] Its dance and fight movements grew from Khmer martial arts and are grouped by character type.[5]

The repertory includes Jataka tales of the Buddha's past lives, local legends and Arab legends, and its stories run from romantic comedy to mythical, religious and historical drama.[3][1] Plots also draw on the Indian epics, among them the Reamker, and on Vietnamese and Chinese tales, and some plays are adapted from Chinese works.[7][5] Where audiences were mixed, performances were given in Khmer alone, in Khmer and Vietnamese, or in Khmer and Chinese.[6]

A drum, the skor bassac, and two gongs sound the action, from sword fights to thunderstorms, and their sound marks the genre.[7] The khim, the pinpeat ensemble and other Khmer instruments also play.[5] A survey counted 163 melodies and songs: 34 standard southern Khmer songs, 22 influenced by Teochew opera, 16 by European, mainly French, music and 91 by other theater forms. Borrowed tunes are reworked into a strongly Khmer style, and most songs end with the whole company singing a refrain.[5] The songs fall into five groups, for ritual ensemble singing, joy, sadness, anger and love, with separate parts for women, men and special characters such as hunters, spirits, giants and clowns.[5]

Costumes and makeup show the influence of Chinese and Vietnamese opera.[8][6] Makeup colors mark the character: pink and red for humans, red and black for magical ogres and animals, and turquoise green for supernatural beings.[5]

A traditional performance could tell one epic story over several days. Present-day performances often shorten stories into brief excerpts, and a single show in the Mekong Delta lasts about four to five hours.[9][5] Performances are usually held in the evening and at festivals and special events.[2]

Roles and training

Performers of leading roles study singing, vocal tone, rhythm and stage combat, and they are expected to hold high moral standards.[9] The Ol Sam Ang troupe's leader has said that minor roles, such as Tlok comedians and Yeak giants, are easier to cast. A lead needs a deep voice, command of the singing style and strong acting, and appearance does not matter.[3]

The giants Yak Chen, Yak Chomnab and Yak Rith are traditionally played as a group. Their actors learn performance and makeup from different teachers, and training builds a powerful voice that lasts from the start of a performance to its end.[9] One actor of Yak Chen trained by screaming underwater again and again until his voice changed.[9]

History

The form's beginnings are dated variously: to the mid-nineteenth century, to the end of the nineteenth century, to the start of the twentieth century, and to the 1920s and 1930s.[10][7][5][3] It began in Bassac district, Khleang Province, in Kampuchea Krom, across from Preah Trapeang, an area with a large Khmer population and many temples, monasteries, music ensembles and theaters. The Bassac is one of the four rivers that meet at Phnom Penh.[6] Preah Trapeang is now part of Vietnam.[8] In IntoCambodia.org's account, French colonial authorities transferred Kampuchea Krom to Vietnam on May 21, 1949.[6]

Lakhon Treoung Klok was created under Lok Kru Suo, a former abbot of Wat Khsach Kandal. After leaving the monkhood, he invited former monks, students and lay Buddhists to build the theater.[6] Its performers were known for their literary skill, poetic speech and improvisation.[6] In Cochinchina, Khmer, Vietnamese and Chinese theaters competed and borrowed from one another, and the Khmer troupes took on features of Chinese opera to reach mixed audiences.[6]

The first well-known troupe owner was Ly Suon, a merchant known as Chha Kruon.[1][6] In a Vietnamese account, as Lý Cuôn, he founded the first troupe, Tự Lập Ban, in Sóc Trăng in 1921, and it first performed in Cambodia in 1927.[5] In Cambodian accounts, he brought his troupe to Phnom Penh and the provinces in the 1930s.[1][6] On the first tour, the troupe learned mahori music and songs before going home. It returned by boat with a mobile stage that could be set up on land or on the boat itself, and this second tour drew large crowds along the rivers.[6] Other troupes then hired away Chha Kruon's artists and teachers, and by 1937 Phnom Penh had many Lakhon Bassac troupes and theaters.[6] One, the Stone Theatre, stood where the Independence Monument stands today.[6] Lakhon Treoung Klok itself was still played on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and in the countryside until about 1953.[6]

Traveling troupes sailed up and down the Bassac, or Hau Giang, River in large boats and played the main towns, and the form spread from the waterways to the rest of the country.[10] In its mid-twentieth-century heyday it was one of Cambodia's most popular entertainments, above all in the countryside, where villagers hired troupes for special occasions and religious festivals.[3] In the 1960s, Sang Sarun and Chek Mach, regarded by many Cambodians as legendary performers, strongly promoted the form.[1]

Its decline began with the unrest of the early 1970s.[3] Accounts of the Khmer Rouge years differ. One states that the Khmer Rouge adopted Lakhon Bassac as a propaganda tool to spread party policy, and that the form survived the regime.[8] Another states that it was entirely suppressed, that artists were murdered and that theater not approved by the state was banned.[3] A third states that executions killed many performers and badly damaged the form, but that it survived.[10]

After the Khmer Rouge fell in 1979, the government of the State of Cambodia heavily subsidized the theater. Performers could again earn a living, and the nearly lost repertory was pieced back together.[10] In 1982 Lakhon Bassac was revived with other Cambodian performing arts, after many artists had died, and it quickly spread across the country. Outdoor night performances have drawn thousands of people from every level of society.[1] In 1993, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts named Chek Mach Virak Selapakarini, Grand Master of Artist.[1] By 2002, television, video and karaoke had drawn audiences away, and only one student applied to study Bassac at the Royal University of Fine Arts that year.[10]

Community

Only a few troupes survive, and they struggle to make a living from performing.[3][11] The Phnom Penh-based Ol Sam Ang troupe plays outdoors by moonlight on handmade, spotlit wooden stages. Its leader began performing in the early 2000s, founded his own theater house in 2007 and later split the troupe into three groups to meet demand in the cities and the provinces.[3] He has said that Cambodians of all ages still come in large crowds, but that little media coverage and airtime make it hard to win over the young.[3] Audiences still gather in the cities, in the rural provinces and at religious festivals, but the tradition has trouble finding performers for the lead roles.[3]

In October 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts held a national Lakhon Bassac festival to renew interest in the form, with five troupes from across Cambodia in the finals in Phnom Penh. The Kampong Cham troupe of Sieng Sophal, known as Ta Pangpos, who had performed for more than 41 years, placed second, and the Phnom Penh troupe that includes Ol Sam Ang placed third. The ministry planned to hold the festival every year.[9]

Students at the Secondary School of Fine Arts usually train for about a year before they perform. On December 31, 2024, 160 children and young adults performed Lakhon Bassac at the Celebrating Cambodia event in Phnom Penh, playing through the countdown to 2025.[2] At the 12th Khmer Culture Festival in 2026, CamEd Business School students and performers from Krom Kmeng Khol staged Lakhon Bassac under the direction of Jek Sang Thorn.[12][13] The Sovanna Phum Art Association, founded in 1994, offered Bassac theater in its early days.[14]

In southern Vietnam, the form grew strongest in Cần Thơ, where many troupes played for Khmer communities. It reached a peak between 1936 and 1942. Tự Lập Ban and other troupes had disbanded by 1972, and after 1975 professional Khmer art troupes in the Mekong Delta restored the form. Private troupes, among them Ánh Bình Minh, Ron Ron and Tân Nguyệt Quang, formed in Sóc Trăng in the 1980s.[5] Troupes play at Khmer temples during Khmer New Year (Chol Chnam Thmay), Sen Dolta and Ok Om Bok. Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism added Dù Kê theater to the national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2014.[5]

Meaning and significance

The scripts are meant to teach. They promote compassion, love of homeland, moral conduct, opposition to wrongdoing and resistance to injustice.[5] The Center for Khmer Studies has warned that modern cultural influences put the form at risk of collapse.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Center for Khmer Studies, Lakhaon Bassac newsletter
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Cambodianess, A young student set on keeping the Lakhon Bassac theater tradition alive (January 2025)
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Phnom Penh Post, Traditional Khmer performers push back against modern entertainment
  4. ↑ The Better Cambodia, Bassac Theatre Festival to Showcase Cambodia's Cultural Heritage (July 23, 2024)
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 Sàn Kỷ Lục, Dù Kê theater in Can Tho (May 2026)
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 IntoCambodia.org, Lakhaon Bassac
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Francesca Billeri, The Cambodian Lakhon Bassac Opera on TV and Social Media, Mediascapes Journal 20 (2022)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 The Phnom Penh Post, Bou Saroeun, Last act for Khmer Bassac opera (May 11, 2001)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 EAC News, Lakhon Bassac needs your support! (October 2022)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Leisure Cambodia, All the world's a stage (2002)
  11. ↑ Phnom Penh Post, Organic Lifestyle purges plastic with bamboo (June 2025)
  12. ↑ Phnom Penh Post, Brings back the 60s: Khmer Culture Festival focuses on the Golden Age (April 2026)
  13. ↑ Phnom Penh Post, Khmer Culture Festival (April 2026)
  14. ↑ Phnom Penh Post, Curtains back up as Khmer art master eager to inspire youth (January 2025)
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This page was last edited on 9 October 2026, at 03:55.