Tradition

Reamker

រាមកេរ្តិ៍

The Reamker (រាមកេរ្តិ៍) is the Khmer version of the Ramayana, the Indian epic of Prince Rama, told in Cambodian literature, dance, theater and art.[1][2] Its name means "the glory of Rama."[3] The register of the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific calls it a fundamental epic of the Khmer people, carried through theater, literature and dance across the centuries.[2]

The story

The epic follows Prince Preah Ream, his wife Neang Seda (also spelled Seyda) and the monkey general Hanuman (ហនុមាន) against the giant king Krong Reap (ក្រុងរាពណ៍).[3][4][5] Preah Leak is the Khmer name of Lakshmana,[4] Rama's brother, who fights at his side.[6] Krong Reap is the Khmer name of Ravana, the king of giants in the Ramayana.[5] In the Battle of Lanka, Preah Ream and his monkey allies win Neang Seda back from him.[6][7]

In the episode of the golden mermaid, Hanuman, a great warrior of Preah Ream's army, falls in love with the mermaid Neang Sovan Machha. The Sovanna Phum Art Association calls it one of the excerpts of the Reamker that Khmer audiences love most.[8]

Texts and recitation

The Memory of the World register dates the arrival of the Indian Ramayana in Cambodia to around the 2nd century.[2] The Khmer version took shape in the 16th and 17th centuries, and it was recited to accompany classical dance.[9] The Library of Congress holds a manuscript of the Reamker on folding leporello paper from the late 19th or early 20th century, from the library of Suzanne Karpelès.[1]

In the 1960s, storytellers recited the epic in public on request. One of them was Ta Krut, also called Neay Maha Krut, a native of Skoun, whom the Bophana Center calls the most famous storyteller in the country. A copy of a session he gave at the national radio studios around 1965 was kept by Jacques Brunet, who recorded him again in 1968, outdoors before an audience in the village of Rokakong.[10] A second telling, the version of Ta Chak, was published in writing by François Bizot in the early 1970s.[10] The written, scholarly version is studied in Cambodian high schools.[10]

The art of public storytelling nearly disappeared during the Khmer Rouge period. Ta Krut's recordings survived because researchers had taken them to France.[2] The Bophana Center restored and digitized them. The Memory of the World register dates that work to 2011,[2] and the center itself dates it to 2012.[11][10] The result is a digital file of about ten hours, assembled from incomplete tapes.[2] In 2014 the recordings, the earliest known audio record of a Khmer oral tradition, entered the regional Memory of the World register.[2][10]

Angkor Wat

Episodes of the Ramayana appear on many of the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat.[9][6] The west gallery holds the Battle of Lanka, crowded with monkeys and giants, with Rama standing on Hanuman's shoulders and the many-armed Ravana in his chariot. The southwest corner pavilion holds smaller scenes, among them Rama killing the enchanted gazelle.[6]

Dance and theater

Lakhon Khol (ល្ខោនខោល), the masked dance drama, performs only episodes of the Reamker.[12][13] Its dancers are all men and wear lacquer masks, and a pinpeat orchestra and narrators carry the story.[12] At Wat Svay Andet, the roles of Preah Ream and Preah Leak are danced without masks.[13] The narrator needs the fullest knowledge of the epic in the troupe and often directs, choosing which scenes to cut when time is short.[13] In Lakhon Khol, each character wears a set color: green for Preah Ream, yellow for Preah Leak, red for Neang Seda, white for Hanuman and brick red for Krong Reap.[4] At Wat Svay Andet in Kandal province, villagers stage the episode of Kumbhakarna blocking the water after Khmer New Year, believed to bring peace and rain for the farming season. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed this troupe's Lakhon Khol on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding on November 28, 2018.[13]

The Royal Ballet of Cambodia also dances the epic. Performances of the Reamker once lasted all night, and Queen Kossamak divided them into sequences that could be danced on their own.[5]

Sbek Thom, the Khmer shadow theater, stages scenes of the Reamker with leather puppets about two meters high, cast against a screen lit by fire or projectors. A single presentation can run several nights and use up to 160 puppets.[14][8] Many puppets were destroyed under the Khmer Rouge, and the few surviving artists have revived the form since 1979. UNESCO proclaimed Sbek Thom in 2005 and inscribed it on its Representative List in 2008.[14]

The Silver Pagoda murals

Murals of the Reamker cover the inner walls of the compound around the Silver Pagoda at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.[15][7] The galleries were first built between 1892 and 1902 under King Norodom.[15] The murals date from 1903 to 1904[15] or around 1900.[7] A team of students painted them under the artist Vichitre Chea and the architect Oknha Tep Nimit Thneak.[15] The cycle starts just past the east gate on its south side and includes the Battle of Lanka.[7] One scene shows a pinpeat orchestra of the time.[16] Parts of the murals were restored from 1985 to 1987, and some sections are worn by weather.[15] Frescoes of the Reamker also decorate the ceiling of the palace's Throne Hall.[15]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Library of Congress, Ryan Wolfson-Ford, From the Library of Suzanne Karpelès: Jewels of Early Cambodian Buddhist Printing and Modernist Khmer and Pali Manuscripts (May 27, 2024)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific, The Reamker by Takrut (2014) (November 4, 2014)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cambodianess, Lakhon Khol: Cambodia's Majestic Masked Dance Drama (August 13, 2026)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Angkor Database, lakhon, lakhoan, lokhon, l'khon, lkhon (undated)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Angkor Database, Le Ballet Royal (The Royal Ballet) (undated)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Maurice Glaize, The Angkor Guide, Angkor Wat (undated online edition)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Lonely Planet, Ramayana Mural (undated)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sovanna Phum Art Association, Learn (undated)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Music in Art, Martin Knust, Urged to Interdisciplinary Approaches: The Iconography of Music on the Reliefs of Angkor Wat (2010)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center, Reamker by Takrut (2011) (undated)
  11. ↑ Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center, Recordings of the Reamker inscribed to UNESCO's World Heritage (May 19, 2014)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cambodia (undated)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet (undated)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Sbek Thom, Khmer shadow theatre (undated)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Canby Publications, Phnom Penh: Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda (undated)
  16. ↑ Sounds of Angkor, Pin peat ensemble (undated)
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This page was last edited on 12 October 2026, at 00:22.