Gaithersburg resident Linda Chan (left) helps her 2-year-old son, Robert Heng, hand money to a monk at Vatt Buddhikarama’s celebration of the Buddhist New Year. Cambodian New Year celebration honors elders, monks (Photo: David S. Spence⁄The Gazette)Wednesday, April 19, 2006
By Benjamin Hu, Staff Writer
Gazette.Net (Maryland, USA)
Surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Huav Chhith rested beneath the trees at the Cambodian Temple in Silver Spring during Sunday’s celebrations for the Buddhist New Year.
Sounds of the celebration — singing, dances and religious chants — carried on in the distance, but she had no reason to feel left out. After all, she had spent most of the previous two weeks at the temple, helping to prepare for this event.
"She spends maybe 75 percent of her time here," said Vilady Prum, Chhith’s youngest daughter and a Falls Church, Va., resident. "Volunteering is a full-time job for her."
Prum and her seven siblings take turns bringing their mother to the New Hampshire Avenue temple, where she helps cook, clean and organize donations for the nuns and monks who call the Vatt Buddhikarama home.
For Chhith, 82, it is a natural progression, and most of the temple’s most frequent volunteers are senior citizens, Prum said.
Children have school and adults have careers, she said, but "for my mother, it is almost like her job to work here, so she can do good things and go to heaven," she said. "She knows there is work to do, and she just goes to do it."
Chhith’s devotion, and that of other elders in the Cambodian community, serve as support for the temple’s monks and religious operations. The temple does not allow the temple to charge for its services and also forbids monks from holding day jobs.
In Cambodia, that would not be a problem, as monks beg humbly for their food from door to door. However, in America, where no such custom exists, a temple of the Vatt Buddhikarama’s size needs dedicated volunteers. Contributions range from regular donations to simply cooking food, according to Sambo Teng, a son-in-law to Chhith.
"The family all got together [Friday night], brothers and sisters and young ones, to make egg rolls," he said. "We started as soon as we got home from work, and we didn’t finish until 2:30 in the morning." All told, the family had rolled 2,000 egg rolls to give away at the festival.
The temple’s support is strong enough that it offers services for free, including professional musicians playing the traditional xylophone and zither. However, that does not deter visitors from making donations and contributions, said Polly Neou, also a daughter of Chhith.
"People come here on New Year’s Day knowing they do good things ... if somebody is sick at home and can’t come, they will do something good in their name," she said. Her stall, near the entrance of the temple, featured many of the religious symbols of Buddhism: colored ribbons and incense for praying, as well as wrapped gift bundles of tea, robes and sugar to present to the monks. Visitors gave donations to the temple in exchange.
This year, the Buddhist New Year fell on Thursday, and indeed some traditional families came to pay their respects to the monks that day — even without the three-day holiday they would normally get in Cambodia.
However, for most guests, the day to celebrate was Sunday, when the religious services were accompanied by entertainment, and visitors came from as far away as Ohio, New York and New Jersey.
Just before lunch, the Vatt’s eight monks held chants to pray for the ancestors of those present. Guests brought rice and other dishes as gifts for the monks — typically, the monks might take only a spoonful as a blessing, according to Kyra Chin, a Colesville resident.
"The monks pray so that the spirit of the food can go to feed our ancestors’ spirits," she said, with occasional questions in Khmer, the Cambodian tongue, to her mother, Mouyoop Thy Chin. "We bring them food, and they can eat meat, as long as it’s before noon."
Outside of special events, community members still support their temple and the monks. Chin knows friends and family members who volunteer their cooking at the temple, but it’s "usually the older generations" who help, she said.
The temple’s new year services have expanded over the years. Chin recalled attending her first service in 1990, when the festival was a much smaller affair, and had almost no entertainment component. Now the event is much more of a social highlight, as children outside chase each other in the heat with water pistols. Even as the monks chant, worshippers stop to chat quietly or to take photographs, without drawing protest.
The entertainment serves to get younger generations involved in the native culture. As the afternoon progressed, the traditional music gave way to more contemporary tunes, with singers matching Cambodian lyrics to rock guitars and drums. Boys and girls divided into groups, and threw a ribboned ball at those they liked in the opposite group.
Saren Ky, an Ohio resident, said traditions like dances help bring young men and women into the temple’s life without necessarily making them Buddhists.
"It seems like they’re really getting more into their culture," she said. "Parents really influence them a lot — they see us making sacrifices and giving," but that alone is not enough. Ky makes sure she reinforces the tie to their culture at home as well. "I don’t want them to forget, because I want to carry on my heritage," she said.
Sounds of the celebration — singing, dances and religious chants — carried on in the distance, but she had no reason to feel left out. After all, she had spent most of the previous two weeks at the temple, helping to prepare for this event.
"She spends maybe 75 percent of her time here," said Vilady Prum, Chhith’s youngest daughter and a Falls Church, Va., resident. "Volunteering is a full-time job for her."
Prum and her seven siblings take turns bringing their mother to the New Hampshire Avenue temple, where she helps cook, clean and organize donations for the nuns and monks who call the Vatt Buddhikarama home.
For Chhith, 82, it is a natural progression, and most of the temple’s most frequent volunteers are senior citizens, Prum said.
Children have school and adults have careers, she said, but "for my mother, it is almost like her job to work here, so she can do good things and go to heaven," she said. "She knows there is work to do, and she just goes to do it."
Chhith’s devotion, and that of other elders in the Cambodian community, serve as support for the temple’s monks and religious operations. The temple does not allow the temple to charge for its services and also forbids monks from holding day jobs.
In Cambodia, that would not be a problem, as monks beg humbly for their food from door to door. However, in America, where no such custom exists, a temple of the Vatt Buddhikarama’s size needs dedicated volunteers. Contributions range from regular donations to simply cooking food, according to Sambo Teng, a son-in-law to Chhith.
"The family all got together [Friday night], brothers and sisters and young ones, to make egg rolls," he said. "We started as soon as we got home from work, and we didn’t finish until 2:30 in the morning." All told, the family had rolled 2,000 egg rolls to give away at the festival.
The temple’s support is strong enough that it offers services for free, including professional musicians playing the traditional xylophone and zither. However, that does not deter visitors from making donations and contributions, said Polly Neou, also a daughter of Chhith.
"People come here on New Year’s Day knowing they do good things ... if somebody is sick at home and can’t come, they will do something good in their name," she said. Her stall, near the entrance of the temple, featured many of the religious symbols of Buddhism: colored ribbons and incense for praying, as well as wrapped gift bundles of tea, robes and sugar to present to the monks. Visitors gave donations to the temple in exchange.
This year, the Buddhist New Year fell on Thursday, and indeed some traditional families came to pay their respects to the monks that day — even without the three-day holiday they would normally get in Cambodia.
However, for most guests, the day to celebrate was Sunday, when the religious services were accompanied by entertainment, and visitors came from as far away as Ohio, New York and New Jersey.
Just before lunch, the Vatt’s eight monks held chants to pray for the ancestors of those present. Guests brought rice and other dishes as gifts for the monks — typically, the monks might take only a spoonful as a blessing, according to Kyra Chin, a Colesville resident.
"The monks pray so that the spirit of the food can go to feed our ancestors’ spirits," she said, with occasional questions in Khmer, the Cambodian tongue, to her mother, Mouyoop Thy Chin. "We bring them food, and they can eat meat, as long as it’s before noon."
Outside of special events, community members still support their temple and the monks. Chin knows friends and family members who volunteer their cooking at the temple, but it’s "usually the older generations" who help, she said.
The temple’s new year services have expanded over the years. Chin recalled attending her first service in 1990, when the festival was a much smaller affair, and had almost no entertainment component. Now the event is much more of a social highlight, as children outside chase each other in the heat with water pistols. Even as the monks chant, worshippers stop to chat quietly or to take photographs, without drawing protest.
The entertainment serves to get younger generations involved in the native culture. As the afternoon progressed, the traditional music gave way to more contemporary tunes, with singers matching Cambodian lyrics to rock guitars and drums. Boys and girls divided into groups, and threw a ribboned ball at those they liked in the opposite group.
Saren Ky, an Ohio resident, said traditions like dances help bring young men and women into the temple’s life without necessarily making them Buddhists.
"It seems like they’re really getting more into their culture," she said. "Parents really influence them a lot — they see us making sacrifices and giving," but that alone is not enough. Ky makes sure she reinforces the tie to their culture at home as well. "I don’t want them to forget, because I want to carry on my heritage," she said.
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