Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
particularly before the rice harvest. Spirit houses can be found all over Cambodia (and
often in the grounds of Buddhist wats), consisting of anything from simple wooden
trays with a tin can filled with incense sticks through to elaborate, wooden or stone
affairs resembling miniature temples. Offerings may also be seen laid out at particular
trees, rocks and so forth which are considered particularly auspicious either for their
beauty or their supposed magical or medicinal properties.
Respect for the
ancestors
is important to most Cambodians. In
chunchiet
culture
small wooden funerary figurines are placed on graves to protect the dead.
Buddhists
celebrate their ancestors in the three-day festival of
Bonn Pchum Ben
, in September
or October, when offerings are taken to as many as seven pagodas and family picnics
are held around the chedi. The homes of ethnic
Chinese
often have two spirit houses,
one dedicated to the house spirit, the other to the ancestors; incense is burnt daily to
assure good fortune.
Cambodians are highly
superstitious
, regularly consulting fortune-tellers, astrologers
and psychics, and even making use of sacred
tattoos
for self-protection. Fortune-tellers
are often found at the pagoda, where they give readings from numbered sticks drawn at
random or a book of fortunes. Astrologers are key to arranging a marriage and are
normally consulted early on to ensure that couples are compatible and to determine the
best day for a wedding. The Cambodians also practise a form of
feng shui
, and
practitioners are consulted particularly to assess land before purchase and advise on the
removal of trees and construction of property.
