KHMER-BUDDHIST EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT (KEAP)

 

Crestone, Colorado, December 2000

 

Dear friend of Buddhism in Cambodia,

 

            This is KEAP’s second email update of the year for those of you who have asked to be kept informed of our work and the situation of Buddhism in Cambodia. E-mail us for your questions and comments or if you wish to be removed from this mailing list.

 

            News from Cambodia. Cambodia at the end of the year 2000 appears on the threshold of an era of peace and stability for the first time since civil war broke out in 1970. The Khmer Rouge, whose radical communist revolution upended the entire society between 1975 and 1978, has finally disappeared as a threat. The country continues to struggle from its communist past to become a democracy and open society. Given its turbulent recent past and opportunity for a new start, the way Cambodia chooses to rebuild and develop will be interesting to watch.

            What role has Buddhism been playing in this process? In a country that is more than 90 percent Buddhist, a Buddhist revival has taken place since the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in early 1979 and, in particular, since the lifting of restrictions on Buddhist practice in 1988-89. This revival has been spearheaded by villagers, who comprise 85 percent of the population. They have rebuilt their temples, ordained their sons, and taken the lead in restoring the Buddhist ceremonies and way of life. The élites who run the country, however, pay as a rule little more than lip-service to Buddhism as a meaningful source for renewal, including much-needed moral renewal. For them, the western (luxury lifestyle) consumer model holds sway, not unlike élites other countries in the region and beyond.

            Of the nearly 10 billion dollars spent by the international community since the early 1990s to help Cambodia get back on its feet, precious little has been awarded to help with the Buddhist education and development needs of the people. The new generation of monks, laypersons, and children are not receiving the moral and spiritual training necessary to develop their society as a moral community at a time when this has become possible. The Ministry of Religious Affairs remains perhaps the most under-funded agency in the government and the few local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with Buddhist education and development objectives have not fared much better.

As a “friends of Buddhism in Cambodia” initiative, KEAP has sought for more than a decade to redress this imbalance, appealing to the worldwide Buddhist and inter-religious community for help. We are happy to report that promising news now appears to be on the horizon. We have learned that last month, at the second World Buddhist Summit at Budhamonton, Thailand, the delegates agreed to award priority assistance to Cambodia. Sixteen Buddhist countries have pledged to seek ways to support Buddhism in Cambodia and the third Summit has been scheduled for Phnom Penh. Let’s hope this represents a turning point in the development of a truly renewed Cambodia after a long trail of immense suffering and tears.

 

The home for homeless children in Wat Kok Chahk. Of the dozen Cambodian Buddhist education projects listed on KEAP’s website (www.keap.org), we have placed much emphasis on helping a local Buddhist volunteer group establish a home for 30 homeless children in a Buddhist wat just outside the provincial capital of Siemreap. Wat Kok Chahk has donated land for this initiative and the resident monks and nuns will help, for no pay, to provide the morally- and community-based care for the children to be able to attend the nearby local school and lead a more hopeful life. What makes this project particularly interesting is the prospect of its replicability in other wats in the country if this initiative proves to be the success that is anticipated by all involved. Homeless or “street” children are a major social problem in the country. A few state orphanages and foreign organizations are addressing the problem, but this “home” is the only initiative we know of that works in a local Buddhist community context. Please send a tax-deductible (in the USA and elsewhere where allowed) donation, large or small, for this worthwhile humanitarian cause. Amnoy Tien (Dana Offering), the local NGO, will acknowledge your donation and keep you informed of progress. I want to help.

 

            Cambodia’s Neediest: Flood Victims. If emerging out of nearly 30 years of civil war and social upheaval was not enough, Cambodia was beset in 2000 by the worst floods to hit the country in more than 40 years. Three hundred forty-seven people died, most of them unsuspecting children swept away by the raging waters. Roads and bridges were washed away and approximately three million people (of a population of 11 million) living in 11 of the 19 provinces and the city of Phnom Penh were affected. The flooded rice fields destroyed much of this season’s crop. Damages were estimated at $300 million.

            On his 78th birthday October 31st , King Norodom Sihanouk appealed to the international community to provide relief. “I would like to appeal to all of you living on our globe … to share your good fortune with our people and assist them through your donations…”, he declared in a birthday message published in the Cambodia Daily newspaper. While the Red Cross is one important channel, we wondered how we could help in a meaningful, targeted way that reflected and promoted the Buddhist principle of compassion. Historically, the Buddhist temples (wats) have always served as social safety nets for the most needy and destitute. KEAP proposes to assist one or two wats in the hardest hit areas to provide relief to those rice farmers who lost their rice crop as their sole or primary means of livelihood. You can help with a year-end (tax-deductible in the USA) contribution that KEAP will directly deliver to the wat or wats in early 2001, when farmers normally sell their rice paddy to the local markets. The local currency equivalent of $20 will help a needy family to tide over until the next growing season and prevent possible famine. I want to help.

 

 

            KEAP’s Board of Directors established. Since our last update, KEAP has established a Board of Directors to conclude KEAP’s reorganization since becoming a registered non-profit corporation in the State of Colorado (USA) in October 1998 and receiving 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in January 2000. The members of the Board, all of whom live in Crestone, Colorado (KEAP’s home base) at least a major part of the year, are:

 

v     Dr. Eric Karlstrom, Chairman. A practicing Buddhist, he is a professor of geography California State University – Stanislaus.

 

v     Ms. Judie Rose, Secretary. A leading community organizer in Crestone, Judie is the outgoing president of the Crestone/Baca Library Board of Directors.

 

v     Mr. Richard B. Collier, Treasurer. An artist and Denver theater director and producer, Richard serves on the Crestone/Baca Land Trust.

 

v     Ms. Rosalyn S. Southard, Member. A former director of the Santa Fe Waldorf School in New Mexico, Rosalyn works as an educator and writer.

 

v     Dr. Peter Gyallay-Pap, Founder and Executive Director (Coordinator). An international education consultant, he serves as a non-voting ex officio member of the Board.

 

 

            Resources. 1) For those of you interested in the life and work of Most Venerable Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, the spiritual leader of Cambodian Buddhism, Nobel Peace prize nominee, and KEAP’s honorary founding patron, we refer you to a 23-minute video, “The Serene Life,” produced by Grosvernor Productions Ltd. (London) in 1996. The tape is a rarity for having captured Ven. Ghosananda’s words on peace, reconciliation, and environmental mindfulness from a Buddhist perspective – for a monk whose deep spiritual presence has always spoken louder than his words. Produced originally in Khmer for a Cambodian audience, this English-language version (KEAP’s Peter Gyallay-Pap is Maha Ghosananda’s voice-over) is available in North America from MRA Productions North America, 9071 Glenthorne Court, Richmond, B.C. V7A 2Y1, Canada; tel: (604) 275-2692, fax: (604) 275-5042, email: chartnell@cs.com. Contact them for price information or for the availability of non-NTSC versions of the video.

 

            2) Dr. Ray Zepp, a friend of KEAP currently working in northwestern Cambodia, has published a Fieldguide to Buddhist Pagodas in Siemreap with the assistance of KEAP staff in Siemreap. He is donating proceeds from the sale of the book in Siemreap to KEAP and the home for homeless children in Siemreap. For those of you outside Cambodia interested in procuring a copy, which includes color images of pagoda (wat) exteriors and interiors, we will send you a complimentary copy for a donation of $50 or more earmarked for the home for homeless children. Please be sure to request the publication on the KEAP Contribution Form/Agreement.

 

            3) Still available, for those interested in religion and ecology, is the Buddhist Institute’s Toward an Environmental Ethic in Southeast Asia, for which KEAP serves as distributor outside Asia. This is a volume of proceedings of a regional seminar of the same name organized near Phnom Penh by the Buddhist Institute in November 1977 in cooperation with the UN Development Programme and the German Heinrich Boell Foundation. Published in 1998, the price of the volume, including shipping and handling, is $25 in North America, $28 elsewhere. If you donate $100 or more to any of the Cambodian Buddhist environmental projects listed on KEAP’s website, you receive a complimentary copy of the volume. 

 

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