Cambodia Religion
Hinduism
Hinduism flourished alongside Buddhism in Cambodia from the 1st century until the 14th century. In Funan and during the pre-Angkorian period, Hinduism was represented by the worship of Harihara (Shiva and Vishnu embodied in a single deity). During the time of Angkor, Shiva was the deity most in favour with the royal family, although in the 12th century he seems to have been superseded by Vishnu.
Buddhism
The majority of the people of Cambodia are followers of Theravada, or Hinayana, Buddhism. Buddhism in Cambodia was introduced to Cambodia between the 13th and 14th centuries and was the state religion until 1975. The Theravada (Teaching of the Elders) school of Buddhism is an earlier and, according to its followers, less corrupted form of Buddhism than the Mahayana schools found in east Asia or in the Himalayan lands. The Theravada school is also called the ‘southern’ school as it took the southern route from India, its place of origin, through South-East Asia – in this case Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos and Cambodia – while the ‘northern’ school proceeded north into Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam and Japan. Because the southern school tried to preserve or limit the Buddhist doctrines to only those canons codified in the early Buddhist era, the northern school gave Theravada Buddhism the name Hinayana, meaning the ‘Lesser Vehicle’. The northern school considered itself Mahayana, the ‘Great Vehicle’, because it built upon the earlier teachings, ‘expanding’ the doctrine to respond more to the needs of lay people, or so it claimed.
Theravada doctrine stresses the three principal aspects of existence: dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness, disease), anicca (impermanency, transience of all things) and anatta (nonsubstantiality or nonsensicality of reality: no permanent ‘soul’). These concepts, when ‘discovered’ by Siddhartha Gautama in the 6th century BC, were in direct contrast to the Hindu belief in an eternal, blissful Self, or Paramatrnan, hence Buddhism was originally a ‘heresy’ against India’s Brahmanic religion.
Gautama, an Indian prince turned ascetic, subjected himself to many years of severe austerities to arrive at this vision of the world and was given the title Buddha, ‘the Enlightened’ or ‘the Awakened’. Gautama Buddha spoke of four noble truths, which had the power to liberate any human being who could realise them. These four noble truths are:
– The truth of suffering – ‘Existence is suffering’.
– The truth of the cause of suffering – ‘Suffering is caused by desire’.
– The truth of the cessation of suffering – ‘Eliminate the cause of suffering (desire) and suffering will cease to arise’.
– The truth of the path – ‘The eight fold path is the way to eliminate desire/extinguish suffering’ .
The eight fold path (atthangika-magga) consists of:
– Right understanding.
– Right-mindedness (or ‘right thought’).
– Right speech.
– Right bodily conduct.
– Right livelihood.
– Right effort.
– Right attentiveness.
– Right concentration.
The eight fold path is also known as the Middle Way since it avoids both extreme austerity and extreme sensuality. The ultimate goal of Theravada Buddhism is nibbana (or in the ancient Indianlanguage Sanskrit, nirvana), which literally means the ‘blowing out’ or ‘extinction’ of all causes of dukkha. Effectively it means elimination of all desire and suffering, reaching a blessed state – the final stage of reincarnation. In reality, most Buddhists aim for rebirth in a ‘better ‘ existence rather than the supramundane goal of nibbana, which is highly misunderstood by Asians as well as westerners. Many Buddhists express the feeling that they are somehow unworthy of nibbana. By feeding monks, giving donations to temples and performing regular worship at the local wat they hope to improve their lot, acquiring enough merit to prevent or at least lessen the number of rebirths. The making of merit is an important social as well as religious activity. The concept of reincarnation is almost universally accepted by Cambodian Buddhists, and to some extent even by non-Buddhists.
The Trilatna (Triratna), or Triple Gems of Buddhism, are the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings) and the Sangha (the Buddhist Brotherhood). The Buddha in his sculptural form is found on high shelves or altars in homes and shops as well as in temples. The Dharma is chanted morning and evening in every wat. The Sangha is represented by the street presence of orange-robed monks, especially in the early morning hours when they perform their alms rounds, in what almost has become a travel-guide cliche in motion. Socially, every Buddhist male is expected to become a monk for a short period in his life, optimally between the time he finishes school and starts a career or marries. Men or boys under 20 years of age may enter the Sangha as novices and this is not unusual since a family earns great merit when one of its sons takes robe and bowl. Traditionally, the time spent in the wat is three months during the Buddhist Lent (phansaa or watsa), which begins in July and coincides with the rainy season. However, nowadays men may spend as linle as a week or 15 days to accrue merit as monks.
Monks must follow 227 vows or precepts and many monks ordain for a lifetime. Of these, a large percentage become scholars and teachers, while some specialise in healing and/or folk magic. There is no similar hermit-like order for nuns, but women are welcome to reside in temples as lay nuns, with shaved heads and white robes. The women have to follow only eight precepts. Because discipline for these ‘nuns’ is much less arduous, they don’t attain quite as high a social status as do monks. However, despite not performing ceremonies on behal f of other lay persons, they engage in the same basic religious activities (meditation and study of dharma) as monks. The reality is that wats that draw sizeable contingents of nuns are highly respected because women don’t choose temples for reasons of clerical status – when more than a few reside at one temple it’s because the teachings there are considered particularly strong.
Archaeologists have determined that before the 9th century, a period during which Sanskrit was used in ritual inscriptions, the Theravada school constituted the prevalent form of Buddhism in Cambodia. Inscriptions and images indicate that Mahayana Buddhism was in favour after the 9th century, but was replaced in the 13th century by a form of Theravada Buddhism, which arrived, along with the Pali language, from Sri Lanka via Thailand.
Between 1975 and 1979 the vast majority of Cambodia’s Buddhist monks were murdered by the Khmer Rouge and virtually all of the country’s more than 3000 wats were damaged or destroyed. In the late 1980s Buddhism was again made the state religion. At that time, Cambodia had about 6000 monks, who by law had to. be at least 60 years old. The age requirements have been relaxed and young monks are once again a normal sight.
Cambodia Islam
Cambodia’s Muslims are descendants of Chams who migrated from what is now central Vietnam after the final defeat of the kingdom of Champa by the Vietnamese in 1471. Whereas their compatriots who remained in Vietnam were only partly Islamicised, the Cambodian Chams adopted a fairly orthodox version of Sunni Islam and maintained links with other Muslim communities in the region. Like their Buddhist neighbours, however, the Cham Muslims call the faithful to prayer by banging on a drum, rather than with the call of the muezzin, as in most Muslim lands.
Today, the Muslim community of Phnom Penh includes the descendants of people who emigrated from Pakistan and Afghanistan several generations ago, and a neighbour hood near Psar Tuol Tom Pong is still known. as the Arab Village. However, there are only about halfa dozen Muslims fluent in Arabic, the language of the Koran, in all of Cambodia. In 1989, 20 Cambodian Muslims made the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. Halal meat (killed according to Islamic law) is available in Phnom Penh in the Psar 0 Russei, Psar Tuol Tom Pong and Psar Char markets.
A small heretical community known as the Zahidin follows traditions similar to those of the Muslim Chams of Vietnam, praying once a week (on Friday) and observing Ramadan (a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting) only on the first, middle and last days of the month.
The Khmer Rouge seems to have made a concerted effort to annihilate Cambodia’s Cham Muslim community.
Category: Cambodia Cultures