The situation in Cambodia (with special reference to Pali studies)

[I provide the following with a minimum of novelistic description, as
I know it is not appreciated by some on the list, and report on the
state of the libraries, etc., as salient for Pali studies in the
area.]

I proceeded south from Vientiane along the Mekong, by bus and such,
crossing the border at Voeng Kham.

Both the towns of Stung Treng and Kratche (also writ /Kratie/) would
be suitable bases of operation for a scholar --in that they neither
have the impediments nor the opportunities presented by Phnom Penh.  I
could quite understand a scholar taking either of these (depopulated)
cities as a base of operations for their research; generally, Cambodia
East of the Mekong is more depopulated and dis-aggregated than
Cambodia to the West (the East was formerly "Codename: Freedom Deal",
and suffered the worst of the U.S. bombing).

Although Laos is poor, even the poor do not eat broken rice; at
relatively lucrative road-side restaurants in Cambodia's North-East,
the people are still eating short-grain, broken rice.  This is a
subtle but telling clue as to how deep the poverty runs here, in
contrast even to a very poor neighbour like Laos; it was also telling
to see the paucity of fruit and vegetables on sale at the markets --in
contrast to Laos or even adjacent parts of the same country.

Overland transit remains exhausting, but, sadly, water transport has
ceased to be an option along this stretch of the Mekong.  Five years
ago, a boat could be taken from the Lao border south to Stung Treng
for $5; today, the same ride will cost you $50, and a slightly longer
jaunt from Kratche to Phnom Penh will cost you $100 or more.  The
reason is economic: improvements to the roads have drawn away the
low-end customers, and the effects of supply and demand have driven up
the price per boat (and the number of boats plying the trade has
fallen exponentially).

The Buddhist Institute (B.I.) in Phnom Penh is set out on a hexagonal
floorplan, with architecture devised to announce its ambitions to the
world; it is, on the whole, much more gaudy than the calm (modernist)
exterior of the casino next door --and with good reason, I suppose, as
it has a harder time attracting business.

The library at the B.I. was the only truly hopeful sight of the trip;
it is well organised, well equipped, and truly provides both a space
where a scholar can work long hours, and a significant range of books
to work upon.  They have many donations from Sri Lanka and the
Taiwanese _Corporate Body..._ foundation --generally, it is a sound
and extensive collection of materials in English and French (comparing
favourably to any University I've seen in Asia --although not to major
Universities in the West), that are well presented, and (unlike
Bangkok) free from the predations of insects and mice.  They still
lack the Buddha Jayanti edition, but have the rest of the range of
major Tipitakas (PTS, Burmese, the Indian Devanagari edition, the
various Thai edition, and the Khmer edition itself, of course).  As
part of their mandate, they have everything ever printed on Buddhism
in the Khmer language --but I cannot evaluate this side of their work
at all.

The B.I. has two "Pali specialists" (although others told me there was
only one who could read Pali --and these are not mutually-exclusive
possibilities) who were decidedly not happy to see me --quite possibly
because of prior experiences with outside specialists.  They had been
told of my coming (and my "credentials", such as they are) long in
advance, and knew that I would be visiting their department that day,
so this was not a spontaneous display on their part; the "Cultural
Specialist" was also aloof, but Pali is tertiary among her abilities,
so this may have come more naturally to her.

The director and administrator were extremely happy to see me, and we
discussed various possible modes of co-operation, current and future
research proejcts, at length, with the administrator serving as an
interpreter.  It is obvious to me that what they really need is a very
elementary, trilingual textbook for Pali --and I can easily provide
two-thirds of this from materials already on my hard-drive.  However,
I would need to work closely with at least one capable (or
enthusiastic) translator to render the English instruction into Khmer
(the task would be simple enough that enthusiasm would be a substitute
for capability to a significant extent; however, they do not seem to
have anyone who could volunteer).

I separately met with Bhante Sovan-Ratana, who is clearly capable of
becoming a towering figure in monastic scholarship in the near future;
he received his first PhD in Sri Lanka (and became fluent in English
there) and is now moving on to a second in the U.S.A., it seems. He
was hoping to lead a revival of Pali/Theravada scholarship at the
Buddhist University in Phnom Penh, but "political changes" in the
administration have made this impossible, and stymied his ambitions
for various improvements and reforms; thus, his hopes to contribute to
scholarship in his native land seem to have come to a halt, at least
for the time being, and he is pursuing another PhD (apparently)
because his talents will be wasted if he remains at home in the
current situation.  While I sympathize with his situation, the fact
that the University cannot retain him (viz., an unsalaried monk whose
first language is Khmer) made it seem all the more unlikely that they
could retain me in any capacity whatsoever; the salary for a full
professor there was reported to me as $2 per hour (or less, depending
upon experience).

I also met with Dr. Penny Edwards, who is currently coming to the end
of a long period of research and activity in Phnom Penh.

I was assured that the national archives do not hold Pali MS (and I
was given prior warning as to what to expect from the MS from
Filliozat, so did not inquire overmuch) but, all the same, I should
mention that the archives are in a beautiful building, with a small,
beautiful garden, with the added bonus (or source of public revenue
collection) that you can buy any of the plants in the garden to carry
home with you.  However, the archives are not so comfortable a place
to pass long periods of time in study.

The B.I. and the archives both have bookshops that are not
particularly useful for the members of this list; Pali resources are
more easily found at temple bookshops (even though they are printed by
the B.I. in most cases) where they are largely limited to (1) a Khmer
Pali primer, (2) a Khmer-Pali dictionary, and (3) a Khmer and Pali
edition of the Patimokkha.  I bought only the latter (does Nyanatusita
have a copy of the Khmer version of this yet?).

The supposed rivalry between the Mahanikaya and the Dhammayut has been
"reconstructed" quite recently in Cambodia --with the most easily
perceptible difference between them being the pronunciation of Pali in
chanting.  I heard some excellent chanting around Cambodia --that is,
excellent in aesthetic terms-- none of it comprehensible to my
untrained ear (or, my Laotian-trained ear).

Battambang now has a veneer of wealth that was lacking in earlier
descriptions of the town, and they have invested in a series of
beautifications that truly make the downtown (riverside) area of the
town quite charming.  Again, with the selection of desolate colonial
and "Art Deco" buildings to choose from, I could easily understand a
scholar taking Battambang as a base of operations (viz., avoiding the
menace and expense of Phnom Penh); however, with the sunset, the
beggars and amputees take to the streets, and demonstrate that while
Battambang has its veneer intact, the legacy of war remains the
substratum beneath.

E.M.