Rare Chants, and the Fear They May Disappear

Trent Walker is an American PhD student at the University of Berkeley, who has spent years studying this and other forms. (Photo: Courtesy of trentwalker.org)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1QF1kV0ZA

Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer | Washington, D.C

“Smot is not only for funerals, but also other occasions, such as Pchum Ben, the birthday of the king or queen and other religious ceremonies.”

Sixty-year-old Koet Ran was born in a village in Kampong Speu province. Blinded in a farming accident in 1990, she has begun teaching students at an arts organization the tradition of “smot,” a form of Buddhist chanting.

Smot is performed at funerals, she told “Hello VOA” on Monday, “to prompt people to think about the meaning of their lives.”

“Smot is not only for funerals, but also other occasions, such as Pchum Ben, the birthday of the king or queen and other religious ceremonies,” she said.

Koet Ran teaches the chants to around 30 students at Cambodia Living Arts, an NGO established to foster Cambodian art forms.

Pchum Ben ceremony at Wat Khemara Rangsey, San Jose, California

Student gives voice to Cambodian melodic chants

04/16/2009
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

Khmer Arts Salon Series - Smot: Songs of Healing

• When: 7 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Khmer Arts Academy, 1364 Obispo Ave., Long Beach.
• Admission: Free.
• Information: 562-472-0090, www.khmerarts.org.

In Cambodia, the music of smot, or dharma songs, is most often heard at funerals and only rarely is it performed live.

The ancient melodic chanting was one of the many oral traditions passed from master to student that was very nearly extinguished during the Khmer Rouge reign of the late 1970s.

Trent Walker, a student at Stanford University believed to be the only Westerner to train with Cambodian masters in the form, will help ring in the Cambodian New Year when he performs and discusses the art in the fourth installment of the Khmer Arts Salon Series in Long Beach.

And if you take anything away from the show, Walker would like it to be an understanding that smot isn't just funereal.

"I plan to show how it can be used to convey a broad emotional range," said Walker. "The gift or magic of it comes in its emotional expressiveness."

Walker says in addition to funerals, smot can be chanted at ceremonies of giving, healing and the consecration of religious images.

As an art form, smot is a complex and demanding way of melodically reciting Khmer and Pali literature that came out of the Buddhist temples. However, whereas the chanting of monks is typically monotone, smot songs require melodic dexterity, vibrato and range.

Walker began studying smot chanting in 2005 in Kompong Speu, Cambodia, under the tutelage of achar Prum Ut, one of the most renowned, revered and accomplished chanters in Cambodia. Walker also studied under neak kru Koet Ran and Royal University of Fine Arts professor Yan Borin.

The student, who is also one of just a few doing academic work in the field, comes to smot from a musical perspective as a jazz trumpeter, composer and Chinese erhu player.

He continues to study Pali, Sanskrit and Buddhist texts and has translated many Khmer smot chants into English.

Through his work with Cambodian Living Arts, a project of World Education, Walker has digitally archived more than 400 smot chants.

The Khmer Arts Academy Salon Series consists of performance/lectures on the third Saturday of each month that focus on Southern and Southeastern Asian art forms. Past performances have featured Cambodian dance and Balinese puppetry, and classical Indian music is scheduled in May.

The series is curated by Prumsodun Ok, a dancer, filmmaker and teacher at the Khmer Arts Academy.

On Saturday, in addition to performing chants, Walker will talk about the history and background of smot and there will be a discussion session.

At a time when tribunals are being held in Cambodia to prosecute surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, Walker's performance is a reminder of something that was almost lost and reinforces the importance of keeping traditions and stories alive.

By sharing his art, Walker says, he hopes to do that.

"Each of us has our own story to share and stories in our religious traditions that touch our hearts," he says. "I will be sharing that. It is my wish and (my teachers') wish that this tradition be shared with the world."

Walker says he hopes it will "inspire (others) to tell their own stories."

Greg Mellen 562-499-1291 greg.mellen@presstelegram.com