People & Culture - Cambodia - page 659

One form of music unique to Cambodia is chapaye, a sort of Cambodian blues sung to
the accompaniment of a two-stringed wooden instrument similar in sound to a bass guitar
played without an amplifier. There are few old masters, such as Kong Nay (the Ray
Charles of Cambodia), left alive, but chapaye is still often shown on late-night Cambodian
TV before transmission ends. Kong Nay has toured internationally in countries such as
Australia and the US, and has even appeared with Peter Gabriel at the WOMAD music
festival in the UK.
For more on Cambodian music, pick up a copy of Dontrey: The Music of Cambodia
(2011), published by the Department of Media and Communication at the Royal
University of Cambodia.
One of the greatest '70s legends to seek out is Nuon Sarath, the Jimi Hendrix of Cambodia,
with his screaming vocals and wah-wah pedals. His most famous song, 'Chi Cyclo', is an ab-
solute classic.
Sculpture
The Khmer empire of the Angkor period produced some of the most exquisite carved
sculptures found anywhere on earth. Even in the pre-Angkorian era, the periods generally
referred to as Funan and Chenla, the people of Cambodia were producing masterfully sen-
suous sculpture that was more than just a copy of the Indian forms on which it was mod-
elled. Some scholars maintain that the Cambodian forms are unrivalled, even in India it-
self.
The earliest surviving Cambodian sculpture dates from the 6th century AD. Most of it
depicts Vishnu with four or eight arms. A large eight-armed Vishnu from this period is
displayed at the National Museum in Phnom Penh.
Also on display at the National Museum is a statue of Harihara from the end of the 7th
century, a divinity who combines aspects of both Vishnu and Shiva but looks more than a
little Egyptian with his pencil moustache and long, thin nose - a reminder that Indian
sculpture drew from the Greeks, who in turn were influenced by the Pharaohs.
Innovations of the early Angkorian era include freestanding sculpture that dispenses
with the stone aureole that in earlier works supported the multiple arms of Hindu deities.
The faces assume an air of tranquility, and the overall effect is less animated.
The Banteay Srei style of the late 10th century is commonly regarded as a high point in
the evolution of Southeast Asian art. The National Museum has a splendid piece from this