“WHAT’S NEW” FROM KEAP, No.3

Crestone, Colorado, November-December 2001

Dear friend of Buddhist renewal in Cambodia,

This is KEAP’s third email update 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, comments, and help or if you wish to be removed from this mailing list.

News from Cambodia. We reported at the end of the year 2000 that Cambodia appeared on the threshold of an era of peace and stability for the first time since civil war broke out in 1970. We also reported that at the Second World Buddhist Summit held in Thailand in September 2000, some 16 Buddhist countries pledged to help with the rebuilding of Buddhism in Cambodia following its physical destruction in the 1970s. On the first front, the still-fragile peace and stability appears to be holding since the formation of a new coalition government in 1998. Unprecedented local (sub-district level) elections, an experiment at decentralization that has been years in the planning, are still scheduled for February 2002 following several postponements. The planned trial with United Nations participation of two apprehended Khmer Rouge leaders is marking time at this writing.

Regarding the revival of Buddhism, which directly affects the social lives of Cambodia’s large village-based population, not to mention the moral compass of the country, the trend is less certain. At this writing, it is unclear whether meaningful support from other Buddhist countries has begun to arrive in the country. Also, the commitment of the state and Sangha authorities to improving and expanding monk education remains equivocal. The monk activism protesting the results of the 1998 elections has contributed to the impasse between those in positions of power who favor improving the standards of the Sangha and those who do not. The quality and services of Cambodia’s legendary Buddhist Institute, however, continues to improve with ongoing assistance from Japanese Sotoshu Buddhists and the German Heinrich Böll Foundation. The Institute’s library has been restored and reprinted and, increasingly, original publications are being published. The Institute also organizes regular lecture and discussion sessions, radio broadcasts, and a column at the country’s largest newspaper.

While this contributes in a modest way to the quickening of moral and intellectual life in Phnom Penh and, to a lesser extent, the provincial capitals, the Buddhist revival in Cambodia since the Pol Pot period in the second half of the 1970s and the communist government in the 1980s continues to be spearheaded by villagers. Villagers regard their lives, whether personally or in their communities, as incomplete unless they have a functioning Buddhist wat (temple-monastery) at the symbolic and physical center of their lives. It was villagers who assumed the initiative in rebuilding their razed or damaged temples and ordaining their sons. But the training and education of a new, disciplined generation of monks (upwards of 90 percent of the 1970s generation of monks perished) remains an unresolved issue that will have an impact on the direction and development of the country

The homeless children’s refuge. Of the dozen Cambodian Buddhist education projects listed on KEAP’s website (www.keap.org), we have received most support for helping a local Buddhist volunteer group establish a home for 30 homeless children in a Buddhist wat just outside the provincial capital of Siemreap. Since our last update, the project has moved to Wat Thmey, a new temple that has more resources (and interest) in caring for poor and homeless children. Amnoy Tean (Dana Offering), the lay initiative behind the project, has for the past two years used the learning facilities at Wat Thmey to teach up to 60 children who are unable to attend school basic literacy, numeracy, and Buddhist morality.

In August 2001, KEAP co-sponsored a week-end insight meditation retreat in Crestone with the Taos Mountain Sangha Meditation Center to benefit the refuge project. KEAP’s honorary founding patron, Most Ven. Maha Ghosananda, the spiritual leader of Cambodian Buddhism, came for a week to preside over the event and visit the permanent spiritual retreat centers in the area. Although 88 years of age, his joy and deep spiritual presence was infectious to all who were able to listen to his Dharma talks and meet with him. The retreatants donated more than $3,000 in dana toward the building of the homeless children’s refuge in Cambodia. For more information about this project and how you can help, click here.

Monks HIV Project. Over the past five years, Cambodia has had the fastest growing HIV infection rate in Asia. In a country with only 8,500 hospital beds, there are more than 170,000 people infected with the deadly virus, which has penetrated all the way to the country’s village communities. Rural people in particular also suffer from greater ignorance about HIV and AIDS, often responding to this fear by discriminating against people afflicted with the disease. At times, families who are afraid of contracting the disease abandon family members with AIDS.

Buddhist monks and the network of wats in the country can serve as foci for community counseling and care of AIDs patients and their families. In the northwestern province of Battambang, KEAP has teamed up with a local NGO (non-governmental organization), Tean Thor, that works with monks in more than a dozen wats. In December 2000, they hosted an HIV/AIDS workshop for 52 monks in preparation for work in the present project. The monks visit nearby villages to talk to villagers about showing compassion to people with HIV/AIDS; not fearing people with HIV/AIDS; not discriminating against people with HIV/AIDS; and counseling families and persons living with the disease in spiritual matters to ease their suffering. In addition, trained nurses affiliated with Tean Thor accompany monks to distribute basic medicine, when available, to patients; give advice to families on how to care for AIDS patients; and provide information to villagers about prevention and treatment.

This new initiative has been added to the list of projects for which KEAP seeks support. An expatriate KEAP volunteer, Dr. Ray Zepp, who works as an advisor with Tean Thor, has set up an ongoing teaching program for the monks at several of the participating wats in the province. He uses a “Learning English through Buddhism” text co-published by KEAP in 1994 to teach the monks English. KEAP has also drawn on the Dharma to help Ray develop a Buddhist curriculum that responds to questions on how to deal with AIDS victims intent on suicide and the general problem of anxiety. For more information about this project, see Ray Zepp’s paper, “Cultural Aspects of the Battambang Monks/HIV Project.” If you wish to support this work, where monks serve the neediest members in their wat community, click here.

Monk sponsorship program. Thanks to Kara, a volunteer in Australia, KEAP is developing a program to provide scholarships in the form of small monthly stipends to Khmer Buddhist monks studying at the university level. Cambodian monks are studying both at the Preah Sihanouk Raj Buddhist University that recently re-opened in Phnom Penh, or at the Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University in Bangkok’s Wat Mahathat. This program, once it comes on line, will hopefully help to reverse an alarming trend of Khmer monks’ disrobing after receiving secondary and tertiary educations. Unless this trend can be slowed or reversed, the future leadership of the Cambodian Sangha will be severely compromised. The program is being modeled on programs that exist for Tibetan monk students and for which Kara, who recently returned from a visit to Cambodia, has been a donor. Please contact us if you wish to help get this project to assist Khmer monk education off the ground.

Svay Ken paintings. We have received a number on inquiries about KEAP’s collection of oil paintings by the increasingly acclaimed Cambodian folk artist Svay Ken. We have now been able to put most of this collection on our website for purchase. Forty percent of the purchase price is tax deductible, with sales benefiting KEAP’s core funding needs. For more information and a preview of this contemporary collection of naïve folk art depicting scenes from the social upheaval in the recent past and of everyday life in a more peaceful Cambodia, click here.

Please print the KEAP Contribution Form/Agreement to make a donation to the project of your choice. For donations above $100 US, fully ninety percent is forwarded to the project you wish to support, with only 10 percent deducted by KEAP to defray overhead expenses. (Only fifteen percent is deducted for donations under $100). This is only possible in truly voluntary organizations like KEAP. Thank you!

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