Three simple questions: Should Tum Teav be banned from public school curriculum as well? Aren’t art and literature supposed to reflect reality? Does this scenario not happen in today’s society? See THIS and THIS. Ridiculous.
Cambodian monks have persuaded authorities to ban the country’s first rock opera, which features actors dressed as clergy who break into song and dance, saying it insults Buddhism.
In a letter sent to the ministry of cults and religion, as well as to the media, the Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks also demanded an apology from the show’s director, writer and actors.
“Where Elephants Weep”, a modern take on a traditional Cambodian love story that merges pop and rock music with more traditional and historical Cambodian tunes, played in Phnom Penh from late November through early December.
It tells the story a Cambodian-American man who returns after the demise of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime to reconnect with his roots. While he is a monk, he falls into a doomed love affair with a pop singer.
The last straw came when the show was aired by a local television station last week, prompting the monks’ council to write to complain.
Cambodia is predominantly Buddhist and monks are expected to be austere and eschew worldly pleasures such as entertainment.
“Some scenes in the story insult Buddhism,” the letter said in asking the ministry to “ban the performance and airing of the opera.”
The council objected to many scenes, including one in which the actor “left the monkhood and slept with a woman, but a moment later (he) put the robe back on to be a monk again…” said the letter, dated December 30.
The show “oppresses Cambodian Buddhist monks, causes more than 50,000 monks to loss their honour, value and to express frustration,” it added.
Source: AFP
រវល់ពេកមិនបានចូលមកលេង
Happy New Year 2009
May The Lord bless you
and always keep you
May heaven’s light shine
I wish this all and so much more
May all your dreams come true
And a Happy New Year , too ..
May you count your blessings, one by one And when totaled by the lot May you find all you’ve been given To be more than what you sought
I am certain that people especially at rural area still respect and follow monks’ advices; however, there have been many cases that monks conducted improper deeds and even committed manslaughters in recent years. Disciplines of Cambodian monks have fallen much weaker than of Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Lao or Thailand. I feel the Council of Buddhist Monks should pay more attention on monk disciplines rather than on this matter to restore the values and respect of our monks. Frankly, though I am Buddhist by origin, I am irreligionist.
[...] first rock opera was banned after monks have convinced authorities that it insults Buddhism. Posted by Mong [...]
As a Buddhist, I don’t support some Buddhist monks who violated the Buddhist Vinaya. However, I don’t support the art or literature that over reflects the reality. It is very sensitive to present the religious reality in Cambodia by using the Western approaches because Western society is more secularist. While Cambodian society is more religious and high context culture. Therefore, we need to adjust such constructive presentation and criticism in a proper manner otherwise the goal of that art or literature will be nothing much than the deconstruction of Buddhism.
This is how people’s perception comes into play. To me, even if its based on a true story, I see it as just that of a single monk whose story is told through the opera. I am well aware, though, how people tend to overgeneralize things.
Thanks for posting about this, Mongkol! Those are definitely three important questions. I found your page through Erik Davis’ blog. I think the rock opera’s adaption of Tum Teav is very transparent, and not too controversial. I noticed the reaction on Khmer blogs is very mixed. I seems as though the community isn’t aware of the aims and goals of Cambodian Livings Arts. I also wonder if មេដឹកនាំព្រះសង្ឃខ្មែរ is feeling overly defensive because of recent high-publicized misdeeds by some ill-behaved monks, and maybe in this case, he is striking out too impetuously. Thanks again for this post!
Let’s make a deal with the monks. At the same time, the show is banned from broadcast and elements of the show will be discussed to change, can the monk council make sure that there are no private TVs for monks to own? ALso, make sure monks have no handphones that are good enough to play movies and songs. And many more misdeeds to ban the monks from…
The monks care so much about being insulted, but they should pay more attention to the improper behaviors by a large number of monks.
Art is a smart weapon to criticize and when it touches you, you start to yell at people. That is because you have that problem. Walk around on the street if something like that happens in the pagoda, you will discover the true answer.
When you have the wound, the thing to clean it is the alcohol. Of course we know the alcohol really makes it hurt so much, but it cures well. That is also true to our life. The show is like the alcohol. The wound is the improper behaviours done by the monks.
[...] whole affair is, as Mongkol says, ridiculous. “Where Elephants Weep” is an operatic interpretation of the classic [...]
A bit late to comment in here but decided to have a go anyhow.
I am not being unreasonable in anyway about religious [of course Buddisht is our state religion and by all means we shall preserve it that way], literature and art.
The problem is that one thing is banned because of one felt that it shall be banned and not because it is subject of broadly and throughoutly and properly investigation whether the entire context of complaint is having any impact on real life issue.
[...] Cambodian monks force nation’s first rock opera off air « MONGKOL [...]
I don’t want to pissed my mouth but the monks society are really making the most nonsense criticism ever in the criticism history. They actually didn’t inspect all of the areas nor all of the story details prior to comments on this. I attended the premier day and what I see is a perfect set of stories and performances.
I am so sad that the monks are making something naive out of their calm mind. I wish that they should have listen first.
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