The Ritual Origins of the Classical Dance Drama of Cambodia

Bibliographic Data

ID14806887
AuthorsPaul D Cravath (corresponding author), Paul Cravath
Year1986
Volume3
Issue2
Pages179
Publication date1986-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Theatre Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0742-5457 • E-ISSN: 1527-2109
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1124400
OpenAlexW2323347425
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited1

The court-dance tradition of Cambodia is among the oldest and most refined theatre forms in Asia. Prior to 1970 dances of extraordinary beauty were performed by a single troupe resident in the royal palace, where they were revered as a living symbol of the kingdom. Known to outsiders as the Royal Cambodian Ballet, the lakhon lueng (king's dancers) traditionally represented the earth over which the king was lord. Their performance in a ritual context was considered an offering to the spirit realm of deceased ancestors, capable of influencing monsoon rains and the land's fertility. The relationship between dancer, spirit world, and monarch in Cambodia developed from ancient indigenous roots to support the evolving needs of local kingship in the early centuries A.D. This essay examines the ways in which the ritual function of Khmer dance confirms its indigenous origin. My method will be to survey the ritual context of dance in earlier periods and to describe archaic elements still found in dance performance today, foremost of which are offertory rites honoring natural and ancestral spirits. In this continuity of ritual function we discern a structure of belief so fundamental to the Cambodian worldview that the dance which embodies it can only have originated among the Khmers themselves

Art · Dance · Drama · Literature · Visual arts · Cambodian History and Society · History · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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