Inspiring story: Arn Chorn Pond. Sunday, Jan 07, 2007
V.R. DEVIKA
The Hindu (India)
A survivor of the killing fields, Arn Chorn Pond is trying to revive Cambodia's traditional arts.
"I LOVED the beautiful girls of Kalakshetra," said Arn Chorn-Pond with a broad smile. The way his smile lit up his face gave an impression of a carefree young man in love with his surroundings. But Arn Chorn Pond is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide and an internationally recognised human rights leader, speaker and trainer. Currently, as founder of the Cambodian Master Performers Programme, Arn is working to save and revitalise the traditional arts of Khmer.
In Chennai recently, Arn went back to the roots of Cambodia-India relationship from the 8th century. The highlight of his visit came at the Vaikunta Perumal temple in Kancheepuram, where he discovered the Kse Diev, an instrument important to Cambodian music.
Arn is the recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Anne Frank Memorial Award, and the Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize. He is also an accomplished musician, recording artist and actor who has travelled around the world meeting with young people from war zones.
His film "The Flute player" has inspired comments like "A story as inspiring as it is painful... " Arn spent four years in a child labour camp in Cambodia, and was witness to the murder of thousands of children by the Khmer Rouge. When he was 14, Pond escaped into the jungle, and was later adopted by an American missionary in Thailand. Arn began to share his story and has since spoken at the United Nations, and across the world.
Encounters with masters
The Cambodian Living Arts of World Education, Boston, formerly known as the Cambodian Master Performers Programme, grew out of Arn's encounters with elderly masters while working in his homeland in 1994-95. He located performers who had been household names before the Khmer Rouge years but now lived in poverty on the streets.
Most of Cambodia's great artists had died in the previous two decades, as many as 90 per cent according to some estimates. Arn knew that if these few survivors died, his country's musical heritage would disappear forever.
Arn was born in a family of performers and musicians. His grandfather and father ran an opera in Cambodia's second largest city, Battambang, and travelled around the country with the show. The Khmer Rouge killed all the members of his family for being artists.
Music saved Arn's life in the Khmer Rouge's killing fields. Yeoun Mek, who now teaches for Cambodian Living Arts, credits Arn with saving his life in the prison camp. Mek was a young master of traditional instruments when the Khmer Rouge took over. Mek remembers Arn sneaking out after dark to steal food for him, a crime punishable by immediate death. The two did not see each other again until 1996, when Mek was one of Cambodia's most accomplished instrumentalists.
When Arn came to the U.S. as a teenage refugee, music was no longer part of his daily life. The transition from work-camp slave and jungle fighter to ninth grade student was difficult, to say the least. Arn emerged as a crusader for world peace and children's rights. He received numerous awards for his work, and spoke on behalf of Amnesty International. Without access to other traditional Khmer instruments, Arn concentrated on the flute and ended each speech with a solo.
Traditional music
His natural musical talents began to revive in the 1990s when he returned to Cambodia to work on humanitarian programmes. This was also the time when he learnt that some great masters of his youth had somehow survived Pol Pot's madness. In the crushed economy and oppressive regime since the Khmer Rouge defeat, traditional performers could not revive their art. When he located Chek Mach (a leading singer of the 1950s and 1960s) living in poverty Arn decided to act. He assembled masters for recordings, and started the teaching programme that brings students and masters together in the traditional manner.
"I began to see that all our suffering had given us this special destiny, a special understanding... I began to think maybe our suffering could help to change, to heal, and make a new life. Finally, more recently over the past month, I have come to realise that I am alive — not because a bullet failed to reach my brain and kill me. I am alive because, finally and painfully, I know that I can love and trust again. I can feel the suffering of others, not just my own. I can feel the pain, the loneliness of children and people everywhere who have endured and who are enduring the violence of a human's worst qualities. I can suffer not just for the Cambodians, but also for the millions who suffer today. And I can cry again."
Arn Chorn Pond remembers encounters with artists in Tamil Nadu — be it Kalakshetra, a jamming session with ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram and family, the koothu artists in Kancheepuram... "It has brought a new hope and a new horizon."
"I LOVED the beautiful girls of Kalakshetra," said Arn Chorn-Pond with a broad smile. The way his smile lit up his face gave an impression of a carefree young man in love with his surroundings. But Arn Chorn Pond is a survivor of the Cambodian genocide and an internationally recognised human rights leader, speaker and trainer. Currently, as founder of the Cambodian Master Performers Programme, Arn is working to save and revitalise the traditional arts of Khmer.
In Chennai recently, Arn went back to the roots of Cambodia-India relationship from the 8th century. The highlight of his visit came at the Vaikunta Perumal temple in Kancheepuram, where he discovered the Kse Diev, an instrument important to Cambodian music.
Arn is the recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award, the Anne Frank Memorial Award, and the Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize. He is also an accomplished musician, recording artist and actor who has travelled around the world meeting with young people from war zones.
His film "The Flute player" has inspired comments like "A story as inspiring as it is painful... " Arn spent four years in a child labour camp in Cambodia, and was witness to the murder of thousands of children by the Khmer Rouge. When he was 14, Pond escaped into the jungle, and was later adopted by an American missionary in Thailand. Arn began to share his story and has since spoken at the United Nations, and across the world.
Encounters with masters
The Cambodian Living Arts of World Education, Boston, formerly known as the Cambodian Master Performers Programme, grew out of Arn's encounters with elderly masters while working in his homeland in 1994-95. He located performers who had been household names before the Khmer Rouge years but now lived in poverty on the streets.
Most of Cambodia's great artists had died in the previous two decades, as many as 90 per cent according to some estimates. Arn knew that if these few survivors died, his country's musical heritage would disappear forever.
Arn was born in a family of performers and musicians. His grandfather and father ran an opera in Cambodia's second largest city, Battambang, and travelled around the country with the show. The Khmer Rouge killed all the members of his family for being artists.
Music saved Arn's life in the Khmer Rouge's killing fields. Yeoun Mek, who now teaches for Cambodian Living Arts, credits Arn with saving his life in the prison camp. Mek was a young master of traditional instruments when the Khmer Rouge took over. Mek remembers Arn sneaking out after dark to steal food for him, a crime punishable by immediate death. The two did not see each other again until 1996, when Mek was one of Cambodia's most accomplished instrumentalists.
When Arn came to the U.S. as a teenage refugee, music was no longer part of his daily life. The transition from work-camp slave and jungle fighter to ninth grade student was difficult, to say the least. Arn emerged as a crusader for world peace and children's rights. He received numerous awards for his work, and spoke on behalf of Amnesty International. Without access to other traditional Khmer instruments, Arn concentrated on the flute and ended each speech with a solo.
Traditional music
His natural musical talents began to revive in the 1990s when he returned to Cambodia to work on humanitarian programmes. This was also the time when he learnt that some great masters of his youth had somehow survived Pol Pot's madness. In the crushed economy and oppressive regime since the Khmer Rouge defeat, traditional performers could not revive their art. When he located Chek Mach (a leading singer of the 1950s and 1960s) living in poverty Arn decided to act. He assembled masters for recordings, and started the teaching programme that brings students and masters together in the traditional manner.
"I began to see that all our suffering had given us this special destiny, a special understanding... I began to think maybe our suffering could help to change, to heal, and make a new life. Finally, more recently over the past month, I have come to realise that I am alive — not because a bullet failed to reach my brain and kill me. I am alive because, finally and painfully, I know that I can love and trust again. I can feel the suffering of others, not just my own. I can feel the pain, the loneliness of children and people everywhere who have endured and who are enduring the violence of a human's worst qualities. I can suffer not just for the Cambodians, but also for the millions who suffer today. And I can cry again."
Arn Chorn Pond remembers encounters with artists in Tamil Nadu — be it Kalakshetra, a jamming session with ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram and family, the koothu artists in Kancheepuram... "It has brought a new hope and a new horizon."
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