The Khmer Arts

Experiences of Cambodia: The Khmer Arts

Suki Li shares her thoughts and discoveries.

广告 • 旅游 // TRAVEL /

Travelling in Cambodia gives you

complex feelings. It’s a paradise island for tourists to explore and enjoy, but is arguably most famous for its heartbreaking history. Landmine victims across the country, begging for a living and struggling with their lives, are continuous reminders of a miserable past, and you can't help questioning yourself: is it wrong to pursue art and enjoyment here?

Joseph Mussomeli, the former U.S. Ambassador, once said “Be careful, because Cambodia is the most dangerous place you will ever visit. You will fall in love with it, and eventually it will break your heart." My art-filled journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was indeed a trip beginning with fantasy and ending with deep sorrow.

The sunrise and sunset in Angkor

Angkor Wat is where the heart of the great Khmer empire once beat vibrantly, and today represents both its glory and its downfall. Thousands of smiling faces can be found in the stone remains. These faces, after seeing all the blood and wars, the massacres in both the 15th and 20th centuries, continue to smile. I wondered, do they also cry? Do their smiles really indicate a kind of realisation? What is it that has given these happy faces their endurance?

You may find the answer in the sunrise. The Khmer architects knew and used sunlight expertly, seen particularly in the sunrise at Bayon, where over a hundred smiles on forty-nine pagodas appear in the dawn one after another. When the three major pagodas of Angkor Wat–which you can also find on Cambodia’s national flag–are being lit, it feels as if the Khmer empire is resurrected. They can’t have imagined that their

Photo © Suki Li

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