Food Fridays: Cuisine Wat Damnak in Siem Reap

A refined version of a street eat–nom banh chok–is an example of Chef Riviere’s aim to serve modernized and creative Cambodian cuisine. Kaylene Hong/The Wall Street Journal

July 27, 2012
By Kaylene Hong
The Wall Street Journal

Be prepared to be surprised at Cuisine Wat Damnak, a contemporary Cambodian restaurant in Siem Reap that has entirely transformed native dishes seen on the streets into haute cuisine.

Having earlier eaten nom banh chok—a Cambodian dish of rice noodles with a thin curry gravy ladled onto it—at a local market after trooping through muddy walkways displaying squirming, bloody fish, the nom banh chok at Cuisine Wat Damnak was almost unrecognizable.

It had a different and rather elaborate description on the menu: “Mekong langoustine in light curry and coconut broth, fresh rice vermicelli and local crudités.” Essentially it was a sophisticated version of nom banh chok—with the broth tasting richly of shrimps, and the dish topped with expertly-seared mini lobsters and a borrowed French element, crudités, or sliced raw vegetables. Decadent, but delicious.

Group Massage at Wat Damnak

Even monks can use a nice massage after a heavy lunch under a heavy tropical heat in the early afternoon before continuing on with the Courage Without Borders curriculum training at the beautiful Wat Damnak Siem Reap on this International Women's Day.  For more info and photos, please visit www.civicus-cam.org.

Center for Khmer Studies at Wat Damnak in Siem Reap on 09 March 2012

(All Photos: Courtesy of Theary Seng)

For additional information on the Center for Khmer Studies, click here.

Wat Damnak in Siem Reap on 08 March 2012, International Women's Day - Video by Theary Seng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F19gmB_scQk

CCHR Media Alert: Comm​unity Forum on Education and related issues in Siem Reap province

http://www.box.com/s/jd7qb5jhd7i19ujoiprd


http://www.box.com/s/a89ndnb85dj4o0zeyepk

Condolences from Wat Damnak Pagoda in Siem Reap

Ambitious Monk Mixes Business With Buddhism

Monk, Hoeurn Somnieng receives a degree in business management from St. Ambrose University in Iowa, USA. (Photo: Courtesy of Life and Hope Association)

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Washington, D.C Tuesday, 18 May 2010

“It was a very profound experience for me. In a period of great suffering, I was kind of not knowing what to do, and I just sat and closed my eyes and focused on my breathing.”

One determined monk says he wants to use his education and experience from the US to help fund a number of projects, including a network that helps combat child trafficking.

Hoeurn Somnieng is the deputy head of Wat Damnak pagoda in Siem Reap. He studied at St. Ambrose University in Iowa in 2008. He says now he plans to return to Cambodia with a degree in business management and ideas to help his home country.

“I want to use my education to represent people in need and to represent the poor and powerless,” Hoeurn Somnieng told VOA Khmer in a recent interview. “This education gives me a louder voice.”

Hoeurn Somnieng is the founder and executive director of a junior high school, a boarding house for girls, a vocational training program, an orphanage and the Life and Hope Association.

The Life and Hope Association is the umbrella organization for his school, partially funded by foreign aid programs in the US, Australia and Germany. The program pays for student transportation and meals and supplements salaries of government teachers.

The association also works to improve the lives of disadvantaged Cambodians, particularly children and women, through education, vocational training, and health services. Many of those students who attend the school are victims of domestic abuse, orphans or street children. Many of them live in misery; some are trapped in the sex trade.

Hoeurn Somnieng heads the NGO Network in Siem Reap, as well as the Chamber of Social Service Network Against Child Labor. He is a program director for the Salvation Center Cambodia, where he worked on HIV and AIDS, including as a provincial monk core trainer on the disease and drug prevention.

What has all this taught him?

“You can change your future,” he said. “Bring hope into your life and keep working hard. Your future will be bright.”

He’s even developed a mathematical formula. “Life plus hope equals change,” he said. “And life plus hope plus education equals a great change.”

John Hawry, who teaches at the nursing department of Black Hawk College and is a colleague of Hoeurn Somnieng, said the monk remains dedicated to his country and has as strong work ethic.

He “helped establish a small shrine for the Buddhist community that lived around us,” Hawry said. “We have many people that migrated from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos that lived in our town, so that was the first time that they had a shrine.”

Another colleague, Adam Vilmont, a graduate student at St. Ambrose, said Hoeurn Somnieng taught him meditation.

“It was a very profound experience for me,” he said. “In a period of great suffering, I was kind of not knowing what to do, and I just sat and closed my eyes and focused on my breathing.”

Another support of the monk’s work, Vivian Norton, said she organized a fundraiser for enough money to purchase 12 tons of rice—about a year’s supply—for the Life and Hope Association.

“I went to Cambodia three and a half years ago at a volunteer center that Venerable Somnieng established for young girls,” Norton said. “I met him at the sewing center and saw he had a project that worked and found him to be a very effective administrator for the project. But at the same time he certainly stands by Buddhist principles, and he is very devoted to his project and to his people.”

Call to help Cambodian girls get university education

Thursday 29th January 2009
By Lizzie Anderson
The Westmorland Gazette (UK)

A TEENAGER who has spent three months volunteering in Cambodia is appealing to local people to give young Cambodian women the chance of a university education.

Sally Murray, 18, of Wray, near Lancaster, has recently returned from a voluntary placement in the Far East, organised through the Life and Hope Foundation -a Cambodian charity that works to improve the lives and prospects of orphans, vulnerable children and disadvantaged people.

“I lived with 14 wonderful but very poor girls, who were being supported through high school by the charity, but have no chance of getting through university without external financial help,” she explained. “They are the kind of girls who will always work for society, not just themselves and Cambodia needs people like that. However, to serve society most effectively these young women need a higher education.”

Miss Murray explained how the girls all dreamed of becoming teachers, doctors and managers, adding: “This cause is especially important in Cambodia, where a whole generation of educated people were killed by the Khmer Rouge genocide just 30 years ago.”

The cost of providing a university education is around £600, which can be paid over three years in monthly installments.

Anyone who would like to get involved can visit www.watdamnak.org/lha/ or contact Miss Murray on caniseethemenu@yahoo.co.uk.

Students have opportunity to meet a monk

By Cynthia Beaudette
of the Muscatine Journal (Iowa, USA)

MUSCATINE, Iowa — The joyful smile and thoughtful words of Hoeurn Somnieng triggered more of the same Wednesday at the Tantra Thai restaurant in downtown Muscatine.

Hoeurn, a Buddhist monk from Cambodia, visited with third-graders from Jefferson Elementary School as they ate lunch at the restaurant.

Teacher Deb Wieskamp said the trip to the restaurant and meeting with Hoeurn were part of a Junior Achievement field trip, coordinated by Tammy Rominger.

Rominger works at the Muscatine Heart Study office which, like Tantra Thai, is located in the former Hotel Muscatine. Restaurant owner Kevin Zhang agreed to be part of the field trip that coincided with Hoeurn’s visit to Iowa.

Hoeurn, 27, is participating in an exchange program with St. Ambrose University in Davenport. Zhang, who is Hoeurn’s friend, invited him to meet with the children.

When Hoeurn asked the students if they knew where Cambodia is, third-grader Ernesto Lujan quickly answered “Asia.”

Later, Lujan explained that he is interested in maps and globes and studies them for fun.

Hoeurn is the executive director of the Life and Hope Association in Cambodia, which includes an orphanage with 45 children. Life and Hope sends those children to school, but the families of most Cambodian children cannot afford to do the same, he said.

Lack of food is another hardship in Cambodia, where the average wage is less than $1 a day, said Hoeurn.

Hoeurn told the children some facts about his faith. He said the bright orange material he draped around his shoulders is a symbol of peace in Buddhism.

“If you want it to be a peaceful day, you can choose this color,” he said.

Hoeurn also discussed the virtues of Buddhism; loving kindness, compassion, peace, happiness and wisdom.

“Be good to everyone and make sure your goodness comes from the heart,” said Hoeurn.

In an earlier interview, Hoeurn, who attends a Buddhist University in Cambodia, said he came from a poor family, but his education in the Buddhist faith provided him with life-changing experiences.

In 2002, he began working regularly with people infected with the HIV virus.

In 2005, Hoeurn and his fellow monks of Wat Damnk established the non-profit Life and Hope Association.

This is Hoeurn’s third visit to the United States, where he is learning more about establishing a viable public education system in his own country.

“Buddha said ignorance is the root of suffering,” said Hoeurn.

Hoeurn said his own mother, Savon, had a difficult time managing a family with little education and earning potential.

Savon is a Buddhist nun now and lives very happily he said, but he wants his students to have a stronger start in life.

The Life and Hope Association also conducts a junior high and a six-month vocational training program for older students.

Hoeurn said his goal is to help the girls who attend his program to have control over their own lives before they marry and have children.

He also hopes the students he meets and works with today will grasp his vision for future generations.

After listening to Hoeurn describe the difficulties the Cambodian children deal with, third-grader Carlos Yague raised his hand and said, “We could go over there and help them, then they could have a better life. That can make the world a better place.”

Hoeurn smiled warmly.

“We are ready for you,” he said.

Reporter contact information
Cynthia Beaudette 563-262-0527
cynthia.beaudette@muscatinejournal.com

Monk Brings Practices, Compassion to US

Ven. Somnieng Hoeurn talking to high school students in the US

By Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
09 April 2008

Venerable Somnieng Hoeurn, a Cambodian Buddhist monk, offers meditation practice for those who have some meditation experience.

The techniques focus on providing new awareness of the mind and body as one consciousness focused in the present moment.

Somnieng Hoeurn is the president of the "Life and Hope Association" in Siem Reap province, which partially pays for student transportation and meals and supplements the salaries of government teachers.

Somnieng Hoeurn's association is funded by foreign aid programs in the United States, Australia and Germany.

He is now in the US for a two-year program to study management and to teach meditation.

Last year Somnieng Hoeurn had a four-month tour, including a number of conferences. He visited schools and had teaching assignments in China and the US.

While in the US, he visited the states of Hawaii, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, and Iowa.

Somnieng Hoeurn, now 28, entered pagoda life at age 15. He was born into a very poor family in Cambodia. His stepfather drank, gambled and beat him.

"Life as a Buddhist monk is not easy," Somnieng Hoeurn said. "There are 227 rules monks must follow. Buddhist monks must rely on the generosity of others for everything, even food. I was determined to learn and to speak Pali and Khmer. By age 20, I had become the second deputy head of monks."

Somnieng Hoeurn took some courses at a university in Cambodia while he waited for a visa into the US.

As a monk he found himself in demand, preaching and helping people celebrate ceremonies.

He helped children hampered by poverty go to school.

One day in 2005, an American dentist, Dr. Jon Ryder, who came to Damnak Temple in Siem Reap to learn more about Buddhism met Somnieng Hoeurn, an English-speaking monk.

They became friends after Ryder underwent a three-day meditation under Somnieng Hoeurn.

"Dr. Ryder started a plan to bring me to America for an exchange of ideas and culture," Somnieng Hoeurn said.

Somnieng Hoeurn now teaches an introductory course in meditative techniques at St. Ambrose University in Iowa, and he also teaches meditation classes in his home in Davenport, every Monday and Wednesday evening.

Having been offered a scholarship by the university president Ed Rogalski, Somnieng Hoeurn came to learn English and Management at St. Ambrose University, to become a better leader for the nearly 400 children that he and his fellow monks feed, teach and love like parents in his "Life and Hope Association."

Most of the types of meditation start with practicing awareness of respiration and mind concentration.

Concentration is a help to a step leading to a higher goal: the purification of mind, eradication of all mental defilements and negativities within. Practitioners seek liberation from misery.

"Meditation is a way of self-transformation through self-observation," Somnieng Hoeurn said. "The mind and body are always connected and can be experienced directly by physical sensations. It was discovered by Buddha more than 2500 years ago and taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ills."

Sisters setting the PACE

The Venerable Somnieng, head of the Life and Hope Association in Cambodia, visited La Pietra last year and inspired middle-school girls to develop a cross-cultural exchange with girls in Cambodia. (COURTESY PHOTO)

Monday, March 17, 2008
By Maryna Feldberg and Bobbi-jo Katagiri
Seniors, La Pietra
Honolulu Star Bulletin (Hawaii, USA)

La Pietra middle-school students devoted a recent FridayFest, a school social event, to a community service activity. Working with the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, La Pietra has adopted a sister school in Cambodia through a Buddhist temple located in Siem Reap.

The connection began when La Pietra English teacher Marisa Proctor traveled to Cambodia last summer with the East-West Center's "Travel and Teach" program and volunteered at Wat Damnak, where the Venerable Somnieng, a Buddhist monk, is the head of the Life and Hope Association. LHA sponsors many community outreach programs, including the Program Advancing Children's Education, or PACE. This year, PACE has identified 13 at-risk girls in the community to live together in a boardinghouse and attend the Life & Hope Junior School.

Last October, Somnieng spoke at La Pietra while visiting Honolulu for a conference at UH. Upon arriving, his eyes lit up when he was reminded that La Pietra is an all-girls school, and it wasn't long before he suggested forging a link between the girls at his boarding house and La Pietra's middle schoolers.

Later that day, when social studies teacher and Middle School Congress adviser Tom Robinson heard Somnieng speak, he knew that he had found an opportunity to build a long-term, meaningful connection for his middle-schoolers. This wouldn't be just a one-time community service project, he realized. He wanted something more lasting.

The result became Sisters Setting the PACE, an organization whose mission is to empower girls in Cambodia and Hawaii by building friendships and developing cross-cultural citizenship through support, communication, cultural exchange and lifelong education. Students will learn from and motivate one another to become responsible young women who will bring about positive change in their communities and beyond.

Mutual benefit for both parties is the main goal for this project. By creating this connection, the Cambodian girls have the opportunity to get an education, and La Pietra students get the benefit of cross-cultural communication with people from a country most Americans know little about. Both schools hope to build a solid relationship so that, within a few years, they might even get to meet. While the focus this year is mostly on raising funds to help the girls' transition into the Life & Hope Junior School, long-term plans include donating school supplies and even computer equipment to allow more frequent communication.

La Pietra middle-school students have already raised more than $2,500 and sent disposable cameras to the PACE girls, who will photograph their lives and respond in writing to a questionnaire about themselves. When they send these back, La Pietra girls will be paired up with PACE girls and return the favor with pictures and letters of their own.

La Pietra is working in cooperation with the East-West Center's Schools-Helping-Schools program to help ease the communication and fund the expenses for the exchange between schools. Originally created to aid victims of the 2005 tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Schools-Helping-Schools is now expanding out to other projects. Its involvement ensures that 100 percent of La Pietra's donations go straight to the students of PACE. The East-West Center is a nonprofit organization designed to strengthen relations and understanding among people and nations of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

Teaching from Cambodia

Venerable Hoeurn Somnieng uses Asian studies teacher, Tobey Reed to illustrate a point while addressing Reed's Asian studies class. Somnieng founded a growing collection of social and educational movements that include a sewing trades school, a foreign language academy and a junior high school in his native Cambodia. (Staff photo by MARTIN GAVIN)

Friday, September 28, 2007
BY RICK FOSTER
SUN CHRONICLE STAFF (Massachusetts, USA)

ATTLEBORO - Hoeurn Somnieng's mother sent him to live with another family as a preschooler so that he could get an education and grow up away from the abusive household into which he was born.

Somnieng studied hard, but was denied a diploma when his impoverished family couldn't spare $5 for a bribe for a good mark on a national standardized test. Unbowed, Somnieng turned to a Buddhist temple in a poor province of Cambodia - the only source of a free education unsullied by palm-greasing in a land only now recovering from the ravages of the Khmer Rouge.

Now a Buddhist monk, Somnieng has spent the past several years of his life working to bring Cambodians advantages he never had by founding a growing collection of social and educational movements that include a sewing trades school, a foreign language academy and a junior high school.

Many of those who attend the schools, run by the Life and Hope Association, are victims of domestic abuse or poor young people trapped in lives of menial labor or the sex industry.

"I wanted people to have an alternative to poverty," said Somnieng, 27, who administers the school at the Wat Damnak temple in rural Siem Reap Province. About 15 students of all ages attend.

Somnieng visited Attleboro High School Thursday as part of an exchange tour during which he is studying western educational methods and attending conferences and meeting with Cambodian-American students.

During the short visit at AHS, he answered questions from an asian studies class at the school and visited with social studies teacher Tobey Reed, whom he met while Reed was visiting Cambodia as a teacher volunteer.

"He's an extremely impressive individual," said Reed, who noted Somnieng's tour is sponsored by the East-West Center. Attleboro was put on the tour partly because of the school's significant population of students whose families came to this country from Cambodia.

For Cambodian students, the visit by the distinguished monk provided a source of inspiration.

"Because of all the things he's done, I feel so very proud of him," said Pagna Eam, a senior who emigrated with her family in 2004. "His story reminds me of what it was like in Cambodia."

The Life and Hope Association is the umbrella organization for Somnieng's school, which is partially funded by foreign aid programs in the United States, Australia and Germany, pays for student transportation and meals, as well as supplements salaries of government teachers.

The major focus is vocational training, with graduates of its sewing program receiving a sewing machine, material and a microloan to start their own businesses. Alternately, graduates can go to work for large companies or remain with the temple, which markets seamstress services.

Somnieng is currently on a four-month, whirlwind tour that includes a number of conferences, visits to schools and teaching assignments stretching from Hawaii to China. While in the United States, Somnieng will also visit Vermont, Connecticut, New York and Iowa.

For additional information about Wat Damnak, click here.