Cambodian Dance Culture Tries To Rebuild
The murderous Pol Pot actively tried to erase Cambodian culture. "One cultural sphere that suffered particularly badly was Cambodia's 1,000-year-old dance tradition. Before the rise of the Khmer Rouge, there were about 30 troupes performing Lakhaon Kaol, the intricate, masked, all-male sacred form that boasts 4,000 gestures in its movement vocabulary. It was a tradition that existed exclusively in the minds and muscles of the masters who practised it - and thus was almost entirely obliterated during the Pol Pot genocide." The Guardian (UK) 03/26/07

Posted March 26, 2007 07:24 PM