Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Khmer and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Greetings, cherished viewers, and welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. On today’s episode, we have the honor of visiting the magnificent Kingdom of Cambodia, and exploring the performing arts, which have had a particularly important position in the rich and glorious cultural tradition of the nation.

We have three kinds of (art) forms in Cambodia: classical, or traditional form, and we have a folk form, and we have a popular form. Classical traditional form is a kind of art form to represent religious legends.

For example, like the Apsara dance. It is a kind of classical form. But the folk, form usually tells about the daily activities of Cambodia. For example, like, coconut dance. That’s a kind of dance (where) they use coconuts shells, and they have pairs between boy and girl, usually they perform it after harvesting. So, this is (to) tell about the happiness that they got from their rice crops.

And about the popular form, it is a kind of form that every Cambodian knows how to do. Yes, for example like, we call “ram vong,” it is a kind of dance that everyone knows how to dance.

Today, Mr. Song Seng, Project Coordinator of Cambodian Living Arts, will share with us about the dedicated efforts of this charitable organization in revitalizing the traditional performing arts of Cambodia.

Thank you very much for coming and wanting to know more about Cambodian Living Arts. Cambodian Living Arts is an organization that is working its best in Cambodia to support the Cambodian traditional performing arts.

Our mission is to support the revival of Cambodian traditional performing arts and to inspire contemporary artistic expressions.

The organization was established at a time when conservational efforts were urgently needed to ensure the continuation of time-honored art forms.

The young generation can forget their culture and arts. That’s why we have to immediately help promote our arts.

So I hope after we educate them about the arts, in the future if they’ve not become professional artists, but when they do something they will remember the arts that they have learned.

We have been working to support the arts for 10 years. We still have a project to look for any art forms that can disappear any time.

The Cambodian Living Arts was founded by a Cambodian-born musician, Mr. Arn Chorn-Pond, whose visit to his birth country more than 10 years ago introduced a new meaning into his life.

This organization was established in 1998 by Arn Chorn-Pond. At that time he came back from the US to meet his music teacher and he could survive because (of) the music that he learnt from that master. That’s why he just wanted to come back and find out about that master, and just would like to say thank you (to) that master.

But the year that he was in Cambodia and met that master, that master stopped doing his profession as a musician. So that’s why Arn Chorn-Pond worried very much about the Khmer arts culture, that (it) could disappear. So this is the reason why Arn and his friends in the US and in Cambodia tried to make up this organization.

Mr. Chorn-Pond’s life-changing Cambodian trip was the main theme of the Emmy-nominated movie, “The Flute Player.” Since its establishment, Cambodian Living Arts has provided financial and administrative support to traditional Khmer artists like Mr. Chorn-Pond’s own music teacher to enable them to pass their priceless knowledge to the young generation.

Some children look at our project, our dance class, and then they just come in, and do something with the master. But later on, they're very interested in doing that by themselves. I think the kids really like to see something beautiful on the stage, when they saw our performers on the stage with beautiful costumes. After the show, the kids around there just always come to me and come to the master, and ask, “Where could I learn this dance or music? It's beautiful! I want to be on the stage, like you,” or something like that. So this is one thing that we can attract the children to come to learn with us.

I just want to show you about the Cambodian Youth Arts Festival that we are planning to do in August. This is one thing that we want all the young generations to come together from different places, different art organizations and share what they have learned during the year, and show also what they have learned doing their performance during the festival. We’re going to bring them together and perform together and work in the workshop together about the arts.

So this is important about the art. The art is like to bring them together to be friends, and to help them think of new strategies for their lives in the future as well. The music instruments also can generate income to support their lives as well. But we have to find a way to offer a very professional, very valuable performance to the people. That’s why the people will also value the arts.

Cambodian Living Arts currently supports 16 master artisans and nearly 300 art students from all over Cambodia. Four core programs are being conducted to coach young art-loving Cambodians, with the goal of each student developing a career by which to earn her or his livelihood and at the same time, become a leader in preserving the national heritage.

The teaching program is a program to invite the elder masters to come back and teach the next generation what they have learned. And then we have a performing program to encourage our students who have learned for a while with the masters to have a chance to show what they’ve learned on the stage to the public.

And also the time that they can make some profits from their performance. This is the thing that, “Oh, I have never made any money before, and now I made it. So it is a very good skill, that I could learn. And I know more about my culture and also I have a chance to make money.” Something like that.

And then we have a recording program. We created a studio to record all the ancient songs from the elder masters, as most of them are very old now. And we take immediate actions to record those songs from the masters, some masters already passed away, and all the songs, all their knowledge just went with them. That's why we created this, and we recorded all the traditional songs, music from all those masters, and we keep that as an archive for our future use.

And then, we have new commission, a program that we support even contemporary, which has grown out of the traditional art forms.

The top priority of Cambodian Living Arts is its teaching program. Mr. Seng kindly explains in more details.

Among four programs that we are having: teaching, performing, recording and new commission, the teaching program is the major program that we have to work, as we believe that only the teaching program can bring back all the traditional art forms that have been embedded for a long time in the past or that almost disappeared from this world.

We have masters that we found so far since we started this program. We have 16 masters and we try to encourage them to come back to teach, to pass on what they have learned to the next generation. And we have about 250 students with around 10 staff to work in reviving the Cambodian traditional performing arts.

And in the teaching program, we have 16 classes of arts education. We opened the class at the place where the master is living because we try to give honor and respect to the masters, to revive and to support the traditional arts.

And another thing, in the teaching program, we give some stipend to the master, but not only the master, even the students, we help them (with) some small stipend as an encouragement for them to come to learn with us. And then, now we just have a new program to integrate the arts education in public schools. And we support all the teachers' fee and we just offer for free the arts lessons to public schools. So, this is what we're doing.

In addition to music, timeless traditional virtues and respected customs are also imparted to the students.

Every performance in Cambodia, before they perform, usually they do the blessing ceremony or we call it “Pithy Sampeah Krou,” it means the “praying to the teacher” ceremony.

It's a kind of blessing ceremony, and this ceremony is usually performed at the beginning of the performance, to pay their respect to the teachers who paved the way for the artists. And also it conveys the profound respect to the teachers, like to emphasize the important relationship between teachers and students in Cambodian arts and culture.

Through these integrative programs, the intangible assets of traditional Khmer music and dances are more and more appreciated by Cambodia’s young generation.

So lastly, I just want to say thank you very much, Supreme Master Television, for granting me an interview, as well as giving me a chance to tell the world about Cambodian traditional performing arts, and we hope that in the future the world comes to learn about our Cambodian arts culture.

Our sincere thankfulness, Mr. Arn Chorn-Pond, for founding such a wonderful organization, and Mr. Song Seng, for sharing with us the crucial efforts of Cambodian Living Arts to revitalize the precious cultural heritages of your beautiful nation. We wish your dedicated endeavors be graced with great success. May Buddha evermore bless the gentle Cambodian people.

For more details on Cambodian Living Arts, please visit

Caring viewers, thank you for sharing a fantastic time with us today on A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Up next on Supreme Master Television is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. May your journey on Earth be illuminated with Divine wisdom and compassion.

Thank you for watching Supreme Master Television. Up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. Farewell.