Dharma & Renewal in Cambodia

Newsletter of the Khmer-Buddhist Educational Assistance Project (KEAP), No. 3, 2009

Dear friends, supporters, concerned parties,

Let me start this update with a general remark about the situation of Buddhism in Cambodia today.

During the decade of the 1990s, when I lived and worked in the country, it was heartening to witness how Buddhism revived to once again become the social glue that kept the society together. “To be Khmer is to be Buddhist” is an old saying that regained currency after the sinister ideological experiments of the 1970s and into the 1980s. Yet renewing the standards of the Sangha remains a long-term challenge, and a seemingly elusive task. We can point to weak leadership; lax discipline among many monks (with flagrant cases reported in the media), an inability to adequately address the downsides of “development” and the consumer culture revolution sweeping the country, problems of politicization, and the invasion of sincere but frequently naïve and misguided foreign missionary activity. The list is not exhaustive. I have found many people shake their heads and proceed to turn their backs on the need to strengthen Buddhism in Cambodia. For them, including those in the international aid community trying to help the people, seeing the Dharma as a force for positive, people-centered change in the country is not an option. For me, KEAP, and preciously few others, the enormous problems we see should no be grounds for despair, but rather the very reason for seeking to help in this domain. All we really need to do is recognize, or remind ourselves, that the people of Cambodia, 80 to 85 percent of whom are villagers, nearly all Buddhists, depend on the Sangha for their spiritual, psychic, cultural, and even material well being. The Buddhist wat (temple-monastery) remains the physical and symbolic center of their lives. In a small way, we foster that well being in part by letting them know that other Buddhists and people of other spiritual traditions abroad are concerned and thinking about their needs.

KEAP remains since its founding an “international friends of Buddhism in Cambodia” educational-humanitarian organization that supports local Dharma-rooted education projects. Both in Cambodia and our home base in Crestone, Colorado, we continue to operate on a small scale as volunteers with very few overhead expenses. I want to take this opporunity to thank all donors and volunteers, past, present, future, for your material and moral help.

We’re pleased and fortunate to have two new members join our board of directors: Ven. Santidhammo, an American Theravadin monk based in Seattle, Washington, who ordained in and has visited Cambodia many times over the years and is revising/expanding a book he as written on Venerable Maha Ghosananda; and Steve Haines, a life-long, deep-knowing spiritual seeker and poet based in Crestone, Colorado.

KEAP in 2008-09 continued with its commitment to programs of support for monk education in Phnom Penh, a nun’s center in Battambang, and an informal school for vulnerable children in Siemreap. Please read on below.

 Metta,

Peter Gyallay-Pap,

Founder & executive director

Home office: P.O. Box 657, Crestone, Colorado 81131/USA  ◌ 505 986-9677 ◌ peter@keap-net.org ◌ www.keap-net.org

MONK EDUCATION

Sixteen monk student scholarships for 2008-09 academic year

We were able to support a record sixteen monk students at the Preah Sihanouk Raj Buddhist University in Phnom Penh this past academic year. Second, third, and fourth-year monks with demonstrated academic achievement, a commitment to the monastic life, and who are in financial need are selected from a pool of applicants. The scholarship consists of a modest monthly stipend to defray each recipient’s learning and living expenses. Monk sponsorships were provided, apart from a number of individual, by the Zen Community of Oregon (USA), the Dragon Mountain Zen Center in Crestone, Colorado, and the Banda Utama Buddhist Society, a Theravada Buddhist group of dedicated laypersons in Malaysia.

 In front of the Buddhist University with KEAP scholarship recipients and a university official in January 2009

The scholarship program continues to be ably administered by the Buddhist Association of Cambodia (BAC), KEAP’s local implementing partner. The cost of an annual scholarship is $275, consisting of monthly stipends of $25 over ten months (May through February), and an administrative and facilitation fee of ten percent ($25) divided equally between BAC and KEAP.  Scholarship recipients are matched with and write an acknowledgment and report to their sponsors.

Post-graduate monastic scholarships

No possibilities exist in Cambodia for Khmer monk university graduates to study the Buddhadhamma beyond the first degree. In 2006, KEAP began a collaboration with the Buddhist Khyentse Foundation, based in San Francisco, to provide qualified graduates with scholarships to study for an M.A. degree in Buddhist Studies at monastic institutions of higher learning in the region. In 2008, Vens. Hour Sarridh and Nhep Seou received MAs in Buddhist Studies from Kelaniya University’s Post-Graduate Institute for Buddhist and Pali Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ven. Hour is presently teaching Buddhist philosophy at the Preah Sihanouk Buddhist University and Ven. Nhep runs the high school for Buddhist monks in Kampong Cham province. Later in 2008, we selected a monk to study at Bangkok’s Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University, but he returned from Thailand for personal reasons just as the term was about to begin. In 2009, we look forward to selecting two monks for studies at Kelaniya University.

 Ven. Hour Sarridh, left, at his kuti in Phnom Penh’s Wat Lanka in January 2009.

THE NUN’S CENTER IN WAT POVEAL, BATTAMBANG

Dun jīs, or lay devotee nuns, are among the unsung heroes and hidden treasures of Cambodian society with their knowledge, maturity, and unwavering devotion and commitment to the Dharma. Since 1992, for example, they have been the backbone of the annual cross country Dhammayietra walks for peace and reconciliation started and led by the former spiritual leader of Khmer Buddhism, the late Ven. Maha Ghosananda, KEAP’s honorary founding patron.

In collaboration with the Dhammyietra Center, KEAP recently started a program of support for the nuns in the northwestern provincial capital of Battambang. The nun’s center is at Wat Poveal, one Cambodia’s important learning center wats. Before the country erupted in civil war in 1970, the center had for decades been a thriving mecca for nuns in the northwest. The nun’s center reopened in 1995, and has been a pale imitation of its former self. The program to assist the center has received generous support from the Buddhist Firefly Mission in Singapore and the World Charity Foundation in Denver, Colorado. We are working closely with head nun Sa VY, a master meditation teacher, to upgrade the facility as a basis for strengthening the center for meditation and learning, including as a community resource counseling women and children suffering from trauma, domestic violence, or other forms of abuse. The center houses and provides for four orphans.

 The main residence and meditation facility with head nun Sa Vy, upper left, at the time piped water was installed.

We helped upgrade the electricity in 2008 and, in January 2009, to connect the main building, both a residence and meditation center, to the municipal water supply. By the end of the year, the center hopes to complete installation of a metal roof (with drainpipe & gutters) in order to prevent further water damage to the structure as well as to harvest water for gardening needs. A next task is to repair and paint the building as a step toward helping strengthen the center’s capacity to serve the Dharma through meditation and learning, and by addressing social needs of the wider community through the Middle Way.

THE AMNOY TEAN (DANA OFFERING) SCHOOL FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN