Festivals can span the range of human experience. For Cambodians there’s Pchum Ben, a celebration that the Southeast Asian country’s embassy says “is a time when the spirits of…dead ancestors walk the earth.” That wandering can be eased, the path made a bit better “by offering them food to eat.”
Pchum Ben is proceeding nicely just now in Cambodia, a country whose wounds of war have been salved somewhat by the influx of tourists. The festival runs through Oct. 16.
Buddhists believe the best way to purvey food for the departed is to take it to seven pagodas. One of the favored foods is Num Korm, steamed cakes wrapped in banana leaves. Cambodians hold that the souls of the dead head to these pagodas, this in hopes of getting offerings from relative. The prayers of Buddhist monks paves the way for the transfer.
Those monks are serious about prayer recitation. They chant in the Pali language, and so continuously overnight, without taking a break to sleep. The Cambodian embassy says the country’s people believe the souls of their departed ancestors make their way to the pagodas “hoping to receive offerings from their relatives or descendants,” this via the prayers of the monks.
During Pchum Ben people also construct mountains of sand. This represents the release of sins they’ve have accumulated up over the years. Expiation of sin is another one of those threads that connects religious believers the world over, another common touchstone you’ll find in this in a far-off land.
There is no nonstop air service from the United States to Cambodia. But there’s ample regional lift to the capital city of Phnom Penh from such hubs as Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore. All of those cities are well connected to the U.S.
