Siem Reap, Cambodia

The Center for Khmer Studies

Centre for Khmer Studies library
Centre for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

COURTESY OF PHILIPPE PEYCAM

Since its formal establishment less than a year-and-a-half ago, the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS) has become an independent, international institution contributing to the rebirth of Cambodia's cultural, intellectual, and artistic life. Its focus is mainly academic. Being based in Cambodia, the CKS has a specific interest in helping to involve Cambodian scholars and in fostering cultural and intellectual activities in Cambodia, but also aims to act as a catalyst for the development of Khmer Studies worldwide.

* By PHILIPPE PEYCAM

Because of Cambodia's unique situation marked by suffering decades of severe damage to its intellectual and cultural life, the CKS combines cultural and humanitarian concerns. Its programmes reflect this approach by associating research activities with those of teaching and the dissemination of knowledge to the public (often described as 'public service'). As understood by its founders, the CKS focuses its attention on the arts, the social sciences, and the humanities, and directs its work so as to place Cambodia in a regional context. It is not engaged in research concerned with present-day politics or issues of development.

The CKS is registered in Cambodia as a non-governmental, educational organization and it is funded by international foundations and private donors. Once a year, a Board of Directors meets in Siem Reap; the present Board of Directors is made up of scholars and committed benefactors. The Center's director, Philippe Peycam, a historian specializing in Southeast Asia, is ably assisted by a Khmer and international staff, including Beng Hong Khmero (Phnom Penh Programme Coordinator), John Weeks (CKS Directorial Assistant), Nop Sovanna (Office Manager), and Alessandra Kim (International Liaison). Furthermore, the Center has a team of Cambodian and international staff in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, and in New York City.

The CKS hopes to act as a vital coordinating body for a network of universities in Cambodia and overseas that share a strong interest in Khmer Studies. The consortium, which includes the IIAS, will act as the overarching academic constituent of the Center. Its members will help shape and direct CKS's programme activities. In accomplishing this task, the Center is honoured to have the distinguished historian David Chandler in the capacity of Senior Advisor. Professor Chandler provides advice for the Center's academic programmes (see adjoining article). He is aided in his task by the CKS Advisory Committee, made up of Cambodian and international scholars and artists, which he chairs.

One of the Center's great strengths lies in its ability to draw on a large pool of Cambodian scholars, many of them young and promising. The CKS involves Cambodian scholars at all levels in its projects, and all its projects, in turn, are established with the participation of young Khmers in mind. Cambodians will be intimately involved with the research projects already funded by major international foundations.

A physical and logistical base

The CKS facilities are located in Vat Damnak, a Buddhist monastery situated in the centre of Siem Reap, Cambodia. In line with educational and intellectual traditions of Buddhist monasteries in Cambodia, two abandoned and derelict buildings within the Vat have been renovated, providing the Center with adequate spaces for a conference hall, a library, and offices. A third building to house administration facilities will be erected nearby to the first two.

The CKS library has been open since 15 January 2001. Under its dynamic librarians, Chheng Pharin and Um Daraneth, the CKS library has become the first academic public library on Cambodia and Khmer civilization serving the community outside the capital, Phnom Penh. This library is intended to operate as a specialized, interdisciplinary facility that can reflect the Center's mission to bring together various fields of investigation in the social sciences, the arts, and the humanities as they define Khmer culture and civilization. It will serve as a documentation resource facility for its various programmes accessible to teaching staff, students, CKS fellows, artists, scholars in residence, and to the public at large. Readers will be able to access a wide range of documents in Khmer and in foreign languages that are otherwise unavailable in Siem Reap and, in some cases, in the whole of Cambodia.

The bilingual, bi-annual newsletter, Siksacacr, is the CKS's other important project. Edited from Siem Reap, the Center's newsletter aims to be a 'link' between representatives of the community of scholars as represented by the CKS consortium. Siksacacr not only helps promote the work of young Cambodian and foreign scholars, but it also provides a forum for academic debates among Cambodians.

A CKS website has recently been designed to complement Siksacacr. It is presently still under development, and we hope to make it into a pro-active medium for disseminating ideas and a forum for researchers on Khmer Studies. *

Dr Philippe Peycam is a historian specializing in Southeast Asia and Director of the Center for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

E-mail: cks@camintel.com

CKS Academic Programmes

The year 2001 has seen an extraordinary surge of growth for the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS). A workshop convened at Wat Damnak in January 2001 initiated a flood of valuable suggestions for research, produced openings for teaching, and suggested avenues that the Center might pursue in the field of public service. These proposals constitute a charter that will guide the Center's activities over the next few years.

* By DAVID CHANDLER

Representatives from several foundations and local NGOs who attended the workshop were enthusiastic about what they saw and heard. In the first few months of the year, CKS obtained support for its activities from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Van Waveren Foundation, and the Sainsbury Trust in the UK. Negotiations are now underway with several other funding bodies. A three-year grant from the Rockefeller Foundation will fund CKS-sponsored research in pre-Angkorean Studies, vernacular architecture, and urban anthropology. A programme on translating academic books into Khmer has been launched, with assistance from the Van Waveren Foundation, while the Sainsbury Trust will sponsor a three-year training programme for students engaged with Cambodia in the field of cultural preservation.

The January workshop also invigorated the consortium of universities and academic institutions, in Cambodia and overseas (including the IIAS), which have demonstrated an active interest in Khmer Studies. Over the next few years, CKS hopes to embark on a range of programmes which reflect the strengths, needs, and interests of consortium members and which will strengthen the field of Khmer Studies both in Cambodia and overseas. *