This Pilgrimage, Like The Best, Leads Back To Yourself

December 21, 2007
By Perry Garfinkel
The Huffington Post (USA)

Pilgrimage is the time-honored journey to places sacred. Of course, the earnest pilgrim who wisely follows his or her intuitive spiritual compass always arrives at the most sacred of places: one's self. The ultimate pilgrimage, for those willing to leave their personal baggage behind as they travel, is a rite of passage as much as a passage through time and space.

Pilgrimages take many forms and many faces. Going home for the holidays is a pilgrimage. Thoreau took a pilgrimage by the side of a pond. The Buddha took a pilgrimage by the side of a tree and journeyed into the back recesses of his mind, where he came upon a path that leads to happiness.

I took a journey last night in front of my television, watching a trilogy of documentary films by an old friend, John Bush. John is a visionary in the truest sense: he uses his visions and images for the purpose of transformation. In an earlier incarnation, his claim to cultural fame in the transformational times of the mid-1970s was to have started a company called Illuminations with his then wife Mirabai Bush. They silk-screened images of the Buddha and simple Tibetan mandalas onto transparent plastic that could be stuck onto any surface. They called them Dharma Seals. Soon those Buddhas and their most successful product, a rainbow, were ubiquitous -- on the rear windows of VWs, on dormitory billboards, even on the windows of John and Yoko's apartment at the Dakota in Manhattan (I saw them). After he and Mirabai split up, John went on to become a filmmaker.

On an extended pilgrimage throughout Southeast Asia, he traveled with a Sony digital video camera recording his impressions of the iconic Buddhist centers in Laos, Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), Bali, Cambodia, Java and Central Tibet. He calls the resulting three films he made Journey into Buddhism: The Yatra Trilogy; yatra is the Sanskrit word for pilgrimage.

When I came back from my own first spiritual pilgrimage to India in 1974, only one film I found came anywhere near close to evoking the feeling of being there. It was director Louis Malle's 1968 Phantom India, a black-and-white documentary so realistic you could almost smell the Indian beedie cigarettes in the movie theater. Until seeing John's Yatra Trilogy, it remained, to my mind and my eyes, the only film that captured the attraction-repulsion, the frustration-exhilaration, the enigma-revelation of India or anywhere
else in Asia.

Last night John took me back, back to Asia, back to my own recent pilgrimage in the footsteps of the Buddha for my book Buddha or Bust, back to that place in myself where I know the search for truth, meaning and happiness gratefully will continue.

With unblinking patience, John draws the viewer into his journey. His slow pans across a landscape such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia test our own patience, conditioned as we are to fast cuts and instant gratification. His use of ambient sounds throughout all the films give a sense of presence, of immediacy, and in such a subtle manner as to go almost unnoticed. Almost. At Borobudur Temple, the 9th century mandala monument in Java, the sounds of birds and flies and chanting in your ears bring to life ancient rumblings of spirituality. I knew this was where a vibrant spiritual community existed. John's film reminded me this is where it's still happening for those still enough -- or for a camera quiet enough -- to witness it.

For John, the six years it took to create The Yatra Trilogy was the "realization of a long deferred dream."

"I had always made my living in the more commercial arena," he said. "Now I had the opportunity to take a risk creatively in a medium that had always drawn me. This project allowed me to stretch as an artist and interestingly the art became my spiritual practice in a way it hadn't before."

Along with the personal reward simply of taking the journey, he now is enjoying sharing it with others. It had its American premiere in 2005 at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan. It has since shown in more than 50 cities, including coinciding with His Holiness the Dalai Lama's American itinerary in the fall of 2006. The films are currently screening at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and at the Museum of Asian Civilizations in Singapore. In February the trilogy will have its Australian premiere at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and screenings at the Seattle Art Museum. And just recently John teamed up with WGBH Boston, the premiere producer of programming for PBS, which is distributing nationally a special boxed 3-DVD collection, entitled Journey Into Buddhism : The Yatra Trilogy, available for $34.95 (a 10 percent holiday discount).

John next sets his sights on a visual pilgrimage of another sort. He is currently in post-production on a dance art film entitled Shimmer, shot entirely outdoors throughout New York City in collaboration with his partner, the French-born choreographer and dancer Nadine Helstroffer.

If The Yatra Trilogy is a Buddhist video pilgrimage, I am sure Shimmer will be an equally revelatory journey into the heart of a city and a woman he loves.

If I will be rewarded for my meritorious acts, I wish to be reborn in Kampuja again

Photo 1

Photo 2

By Ang Choulean
www.khmerenaissance.info
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

About 20 years ago, not too far from Nokoreach (currently occupied by Thailand), a complete stone inscription was discovered (see Photo 1). The inscription dated from the 11th century, under the reign of King Udayaditiyavarman II (Udaya Aditiya = the Rising Sun), and it was inscribed in two languages. The first 30 lines consist of a poem in Sanskrit, and the last 6 lines are in Khmer. Chirapat Prapandvidya, a professor of archeology at the Silpakorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, translated the inscription into English, and the content of the inscription was published in the Journal of the Siam Society, Vol.78, Part 2 (1990).

Those who would like to learn about the details of this inscription should refer to the published article above. My goal here is not to talk about the entire subject described by Prof. Chirapat Prapandvidya, but I just want to point out a short sentence in Sanskrit to show how much Khmer people from that era loved their Nation. Furthermore, it is not just me who was interested in this issue, I also heard the interest of Prof. Kangvol Khatshima (a Khmer language professor at the Silapakorn University) who discussed this issue during a lecture in Bangkok also. A sentence found on line 29 (see Photo 2) reads: “If I will be rewarded for my meritorious acts, I wish to be reborn in Kampuja [again]”.

Lost city of Khmer empire?

The pyramid-like hills near Tasik Chini have sparked interest in the legend of a lost civilisation.

Lost city of Khmer empire?

2007/12/10
The New Straits Times (Malaysia)

PEKAN: The existence of seven pyramid-like hills near Tasik Chini has again sparked interest in the legend of a lost civilisation in the area that could date back to the 12th century.

While there is no proof that the hills are man-made, there is a possibility that it is part of a lost city or may at least shed some light on the mystery.

It is long believed that the ancient city could only be found in the depths of the lake. This is based on a theory that the area was inundated with water after the fall of the Khmer empire, of which the city was a part of in the 15th century.

Although many people have made claims of a sunken city, little effort has been made to unravel the mystery. Based on pieces of porcelain found in the area, the city could have been built when the Khmer empire was at the height of its power.

The Khmer empire was ruled, between 802 and 1432, by a succession of "god kings" and had its capital in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where the famed Angkor Wat temple complex stands.

According to a villager, the "pyramid" was more evident when one of the unique hills in Padang Kerbau was cleared by a plantation company recently.

"Before this, all the hills looked normal. However, the way they were 'positioned' is not natural and that is quite interesting," said Ahmad Najib Mohd Don of Kampung Melayu, Chini.

Ahmad Najib, 57 and his wife, Pauziyah Abdullah, 49, later drove their pick-up truck to the hills and found that the formations stood in a swampy area.

Although she was born in Kampung Melayu, Pauziyah said she never realised the peculiar shape of the hills as they were covered by vegetation.

"The hills are also inaccessible because of the swampy land which surrounds them."

The new development has excited archaeologist, Professor Datuk, Dr Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, who was known for his leading role in the expedition to locate the lost city in 1998.

"There's a possibility as we cannot say for sure its exact location. It can be in the lake or on land," said the senior research fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia when contacted.

He said there was no conclusion during the two-week exploration nine years ago as the team had lacked funds.

"We managed to drain a small part of the lake but the compartment walls collapsed when we were about to clear a layer of mud on top of a rocky base."

Cambodia: off the beaten track

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Cambodia: off the beaten track

The temples of Angkor Wat are still one of the wonders of the world, despite the tourist crowds

03/12/2007
The Telegraph (UK)

Revisiting a much-changed Cambodia, Philip Sherwell explores the glories waiting to be discovered away from the tourist track.

The temple complex of Angkor and the nearby town of Siem Reap were very different places the last time I visited. That was in 1996 on assignment for The Sunday Telegraph to cover the kidnapping of a Briton by the Khmer Rouge, the murderous Maoist movement that had inflicted the horrors of the Killing Fields on Cambodia. Sadly but predictably, Christopher Howes, who had been working with a British organisation clearing landmines, was murdered by his captors.

Siem Reap in those days was a dusty backwater, its potholed streets best negotiated on the back of spluttering motorbike taxis that rarely got up enough speed to pose any danger of bodily harm.

Angkor was being rediscovered by the first intrepid visitors after nearly two decades in Khmer Rouge hands. By early 1996, the main cluster of temples was safe, but outlying sites remained off-limits unless one wanted to risk being blown up by mines or suffering the sad fate of Mr Howes.

In delightful solitude one early morning, I set off to explore the remarkable main temple of Angkor Wat, followed by the glorious bas-reliefs of Bayon and the barely touched remains of Ta Prohm, then the ultimate in Indiana Jones adventures.

How things change. Siem Reap is now a boisterous hive of activity, while the marvels of Angkor are thoroughly on the tourist track. The temples are still one of the wonders of the world, no less stunning for the crowds, but I hankered after the glorious loneliness of my previous visit.

So I headed 50 miles north, past paddy fields and villages of wooden huts on stilts little changed by the rapid development that has swept Siem Reap. Eleven years ago, this would have been a suicidal journey into Khmer Rouge territory, but my return offered new possibilities: outlying temples, cut off back then by minefields, were now accessible.

My destination was Beng Melea, a 12th-century temple built to the same design as Angkor Wat. For visitors disappointed by the busloads of camera-toting tourists at Ta Prohm, these largely undiscovered jungle ruins are a treat.

With the help of a young guide, I scrambled through the site to the chirupping chorus of cicadas in the same stunned reverie I felt when I first wandered around Angkor Wat.

First he showed me a sign on a mound next to the overgrown moat enumerating the 21,000-plus mines cleared from this site alone.

Inside the compound, thick, gnarled trunks and roots thrust through the masonry with such abandon that the stone and wood seemed indivisible; branches and vines stretched, embraced and bent around the ancient masonry like tentacles.

Back in Siem Reap, I found another compelling reason to embrace rather than bemoan the changes of the past 11 years - the award-winning glories of the chic new Hôtel de la Paix. Its art deco façade - think South Beach Miami transported to South-East Asia - graced the cover of Architectural Digest magazine last year.

The original hotel served as a rice storage depot during the era of genocidal communist purdah under Pol Pot. The elegant new structure is a mix of traditional Khmer, art deco and contemporary influences. The rooms have polished Makha-wood floors, woven rugs, platform beds and terrazzo tubs. Fountains and ponds fill the open spaces.

But although La Paix is an enticing oasis, the last thing the hotel wants is for you to insulate yourself from your surroundings.

It offers guests the chance to support community-based activities and good causes and the revival of Cambodian arts and culture. Options include a sewing training centre, rice sponsorship, educational support, hospitals and children's centres.

As the recipients of the book, bikes and other items from the hotel scheme can vouch, progress is not all bad.

Cultural ties between India and Cambodia

Cultural ties between India and Cambodia

Sunday, December 02, 2007
Dr Sarharuddin Ahmed
The Assam Tribune (India)

Dr R Das Gupta while making a serious and systematic study of the sculptures of Mediaeval Assam remarked, “The Ahom temple reliefs are framed in rectangular panels with foiled arches for the top. The arches multiply when the number of figures is more two.... The human figures have the feet in said view, the body in front view and the faces usually in profile. Sometimes front faces are large, a local ethnic characteristic feature as we also see in the Khmer reliefs from Angkor in Cambodia. Such similarity raises the question of some real artistic connection between the stone carver’s technique and ideals for figures between Assam and Angkorian Cambodia. But history is silent about any such connections” (The Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol. xxvii, 1983). Dr. Das Gupta made his observations about 25 years ago. Sunanda K Dattta-Ray, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of South Indian Studies, Singapore who has visited Assam very recently as a State Guest stressed on the old connection between India and Kambujadesa - ancient Cambodia in his article “India’s Look East Policy should include a revival of cultural ties” (The Telegraph, 20.10.07). While making some observations on the cultural ties between India and Cambodia, Datta-Ray concludes, “The past that lives on, sublimely perhaps, deserves to be nurtured, not in India alone but throughout Southeast Asia with museums, language instruction, research centers and educational tours and exchanges. An Association of Southeast Asian Nations project perhaps financed by the Asian Development Bank, to trace, establish and strengthen cultural links between the Asean and Asean’s most important dialogue partner”.

Indeed, both the aforesaid observations deserve rapt attention for lightening the cultural ties between India and Southeast Asia more specifically Cambodia. It is gathered from the inscriptions of Kambujadesa or ancient Cambodia that many places and many of the useful public institutions bore Sanskrit names. There were many towns, such as Tamrapura, Adhyapura, Dhruvapura, Jyesthapura, Vikramapura, Bhavapura, Insanapura etc. Public institutions carried Sanskrit names like- Viprasala (learned Assembly), Sarasvati (Public School), Pustaka Asrama (Library), Satra (Guest House), Arogyasala (Hospital) and Vahnigriha (a temple where the sacrificial fire is regularly maintained). Further, the kings, queens, nobles and priests etc. had Sanskrit names. Even the female servants had the name of Sanskrit origin, e.g. Devadasi.

The asramas were the centres of culture and learning. The gurus taught their pupils in the asramas in the traditional Indian manner. Reference to fourteen sciences (four Vedas – Rig, Yaur, Sama and Atharva; Six Vedangas namely – Siksa, Kalpa, Nirukta, Vyakarana, Chanda and Yotisa; Dharma-Sastra and Puranas; and finally two Indian law books - Manusmrti and Yagyavalka Smrti) is severally found in the ancient Cambodian inscriptions (RC Majumdar’s Inscriptions of Kambuja, Pre Rup Stele Inscriptions of Rajendravarman, verse 135). Moreover, in the inscriptions of ancient Cambodia, references are made to Indian epic characters with the same degree of reverence or contempt. This leads us to conjecture that the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were highly practised by the learned circle of ancient Cambodia. Apart from the two epics, there are also references to Panini, Vatsyayana, Visalaksa, Pravarasena, Mayura, Gunadhya and Susruta together with their work are mentioned. In may be presumed that the scholars had the intimate knowledge of the works of Kalidasa.

The most important point to be noted here is that the inscriptions are written in beautiful Kavya-style. The composers of the Prasasties exhibited a thorough acquaintance with the most developed rules and conventions of Sanskrit rhetoric and prosody.

It is not only the external form of India’s traditional life that was prevalent in ancient Cambodia, but even the very view of life has been shaped by the Indian ideas of ethics and morality. In the concluding part of the royal charters, sometimes it is found that imprecatory verses are usually quoted in order to show the merits and good results derived from honouring the grant and that hell and suffering coming out of violating the same. These verses are usually the sayings of a sage or sages or quoted from the Dharmasastras.

In the present context, the formation of the word ‘Kambuja’ is taken to be noteworthy. In many of the classical Sanskrit works the word Kamboja (not Kambuja) is referred to. Panini in his Astadhyayi mentions the word Kamboja (IV, I.175). When the word occurs in Panini, it is obvious that it should occur also in the Mahabhasya of Patanjali. While throwing light on the peculiarity of the dialect of the people of Kamboja, Yaska refers to this word (Nirukta, II.2.). It appears that the Kambojas were originally a foreign tribe as is known from the Manusmrti where their association is found with the Sakas and the Yavanas who are traditionally believed to be originally Ksatriya but gradually degraded to the ranks of sudras (Manu.X.44). In determining the geographical boundary of the Kingdom of Raghu and also for showing his military prowess, Kalidasa mentions the word Kamboja (Raghu.iv.69). In the Mahabharata, the very peculiar characteristics of the horses of Kamboja are recorded. It is stated that when the horses of Kamboja ran, their tails and ears and eyes remained motionless (Dronaparva, ch.36. Verse.36). Moreover, this epic, in describing the different rivers, countries and Janapadas of ancient India places Kamboja in the north (Bhismaparva ch.9., verse 65).

Primarily, on the basis of the references found in the classical Sanskrit works, it is concluded that there was celebrated country called Kamboja in the Northwestern part of India. DC Sircar presumes that the name Kambuja (ancient name of Cambodia) is coined on the model of the name of the Kamboja people in North-western India (Indian Epigraphy, p.203). It is already shown that many public institutions of ancient Cambodia had the names of Indian origin. Another instance from the inscriptions of Assam is referred to here. In the Guvakuchi Copper Plate grant of Indrapala (verse 20), occurs the name of a place called Savathi which appears to be a prakritised form of Sravasti. Savathi should have been a locality around modern Rangiya junction of NF Railway some 30 km north of Guwahati. It is conjectured that this Savathi might have been modeled on Sravasti of North Kosala like Ayuthia (from Ayodhya) and also river Mekong (from Ma Ganga) of Kambuja. Hence, it is reasonable to conjecture that Kambuja which is situated to the north-eastern part of India is coined on the model of Kamboja of North-Western India. Because of philological reasons, there is scope to believe that the name Kambuja is just a corrupt form of Kamboja where the vowel O is changed to U.

At the beginning, R Das Gupta is quoted to show the resemblances of architectural designs and sculptures of Assam and Cambodia. The affinities not only confined to art and architecture, but cover the contemporary epigraphical literature also.

First, the language of the epigraphs of the early period of Assam History is Sanskrit. The language of the records of Kambuja or ancient Cambodia is mostly correct Sanskrit, irregularities and mistakes which are few, being probably due to the scribes or engravers rather than the composers.

Secondly, the inscriptions of the Mediaeval Assam (Ahom period) are written partly in Sanskrit and partly in local Tai language. Similarly, the composers of the inscriptions of Kambuja use the local Khmer language in addition to Sanskrit.

Thirdly, some of the literary texts of the copper plates of early Assam are quite long. Dubi Copper Plates of Bhaskaravarman cover altogether 76 verses. A large number of the inscriptions of Kambuja contain 50 stanzas or more, while some contain more than hundred stanzas.

Fourthly, in the inscriptions of Assam, Saka era is commonly used. This practice is noticed in the inscriptions of Cambodia also.

Fifthly, in the copper plate inscriptions of early Assam, the text of the literary portion sometimes is repeated fully in another inscription. This feature is noticed in the inscriptions of Kambuja also.

Sixthly, in the inscriptions of early Assam, the kings are described to have descended from the mythical ancestor, viz., Naraka, the son of Lord Vishnu and Bhumi (i.e., earth). The family is hence called Bhauma-Naraka family. In Kambuja inscriptions also the kings are said to have descended from the mythical couple Kambu Svayambhuva and Mera.

Lastly, the composers of the Assam inscriptions were pessimists in worldly pleasures. They consider the world to be hollow and the life of the human being is as fickle as a drop of water. The authors of the Cambodian inscriptions were also pessimists in nature.

The writer is the Director-in-Charge of the Directorate of Museums, Assam.