LTO Cambodia: Greeting the Dragon at Wat Phnom

Monday, January 23, 2012

Greeting the Dragon at Wat Phnom

Ushered in the new Year of the Dragon at Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh a couple of hours ago. The crowd seemed a bit bigger than last year. I didn't see any foreigners there besides myself. Like last year, the beggars were conspicuously absent and there seemed to be fewer incense vendors. Like every year the smoke from burning incense was overwhelming and the threat of being burned or set alight by an errant joss stick was constant. Note that many people in the crowds are wearing helmets. It's not because they're all responsible motorcycle riders. It's to protect against burns. The following are a few photos from earlier this evening at Wat Phnom around midnight.

Enter the Dragon: Lunar New Year at Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

A gong rang. People looked. It was midnight (or about 12:04 by my watch.) The Year of the Dragon Enters. The gong stopped. People cheered, then the crowd made a mad rush to escape the smoke filled pavilion. Not sure if it was part of the tradition or just a desperate dash for oxygen.

Lunar New Year at Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Arriving at Wat Phnom. Incense smoke rises.

Incense vendor.

Crowd, Lunar New Year at Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Overlooking the pavilion madness, a churning mass of people packed sardine tight, covered in a thick cloud of incense smoke.

Jostling at incense urn, Lunar New Year at Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

At midnight people jostle aggressively to get their personal joss stick in the pagoda incense pot at the most auspicious moment. Afterward they take the joss stick and burn it at home.

Pavilion crowd.

Woman. Lunar New Year at Wat Phnom, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Offerings

The crowd on the pavilion.

Lady Penh Shrine at Wat Phnom, Lunar New Year, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Lady Penh Shrine. (Legendary 14th century founder of Wat Phnom. Name sake for the city.)

Smoke

1 comment:

AnonymousJanuary 28, 2012 at 8:15 PM
Great photos, Casey. I look forward to reading more of your posts. I am in Takeo, where New Years was quiet. http://gailincambodia.blogspot.com
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Cambodia

Cambodia is Srok Khmer, the 'Land of the Khmer,' the primary ethnic group in the area since at least the Neolithic and an Indian influenced civilization with origins near 2000 years old. Centered on the lower Mekong and tributaries the Khmer people have dominated the region for millennia. From 2nd century AD Khmer kingdoms rose and fell, culminating in unification and the 500 year reign of the Angkorian Empire, the builders of the temples of Angkor near Siem Reap. The Empire stretched from Burma to the ocean. But by the 1400s Cambodia fell to centuries of change and decline squeezed between the expanding Siam and Vietnam. Colonized and by the French in the 1860s, independence 90 years later in 1954, a brief post-colonial 'golden period' under Sihanouk, coup in 70, civil war, fall to the communist Khmer Rouge in 75, 3 years 8 months 20 days of madness, Vietnamese rescue in 1979, occupation, low level war and international sanctions in the 80s, the UN, ostensive democracy and an adventure party destination in the 90s and now mainstreaming, tourism, rapid development, rapacious capitalism and NGOs, missionaries and other international busybodies aplenty.

Southeast Asia

As the term implies, Southeast Asia encompasses the southeastern corner of the Asian continent, loosely speaking, the area between India, China and Australia. It is made up of two distinct regions: the mainland zone, a bulbous peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, bounded by China to the north and India to the west; and the insular (island) zone in the Pacific Ocean. The name 'Southeast Asia' is a comparatively recent invention, first coming into use into the 20th century and still a bit indefinite in definition. Mainland Southeast Asia is generally considered to include Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and peninsular Malaysia. The mainland is sometimes referred to as Indo-China though Indochina (Indochine) also designates the 19th/20th century French colonial conglomerate of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sitting south of the Tropic of Cancer, most of mainland Southeast Asia lies in the hot, humid tropics and sub-tropics with a climate dominated by a monsoon cycle which divides the year into two distinct seasons: a dry season and an extremely wet monsoon season. Much of the mainland is mountainous and thickly jungled, with large river systems and wide, low-lying, flood-prone plains, much of which is, in modern times, deforested and blanketed with geometrical rice paddies. Several major river valleys including the Mekong River, the Red, Ma and Ka rivers and the group of rivers draining to the Chao Praya Delta played host to the rise of early civilization in the area. The Mekong River is one of the world's greatest rivers, the seventh largest on the planet, and since pre-history has been closely associated with the land of the Khmer.