Cries and clamors

Last update: December 6, 2023

It's worth noting that the Khmers possess a repertoire of រនាស់ shouts and clamors that we know of no equivalent in other Southeast Asian countries.

There are even semi-professional shouters who put their talent at the service of the community.

A "clamor" is a set of simultaneous cries that can express a range of feelings, from joy to despair. Each clamor is characterized by a dominant vowel and by its scalar evolution: rising, falling or both successively in various orders. Here's a non-exhaustive list of occasions identified by Sounds of Angkor when Khmers shout and clamor:

• Coordination of tug-of-war
• Coordination of rowers during pirogue regattas
• Ploughmen's cries
• Kathina festivals (កឋិន)
• Recalling souls - hau pralung (ហៅព្រលឹង)
• Raising bamboo poles
• Funeral - pithibon sap (ពិធីបុណ្យសព)

In 2005, tug-of-war rituals and games in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Republic of Korea and the Philippines were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. According to the organization, "Rituals and games of tug-of-war in the rice-growing cultures of East and Southeast Asia are practiced within communities to ensure abundant harvests and prosperity. They promote social solidarity and entertainment, and mark the beginning of a new agricultural cycle. Many rituals and games also have deep religious significance. Most variants involve two teams, each holding the end of a rope and trying to pull it over to the other side. The intentionally non-competitive nature of the event removes the emphasis on winning or losing, asserting that these traditions are performed to promote the well-being of communities, and reminding members of the importance of cooperation. Many tug-of-war games bear the traces of agricultural rituals, symbolizing the power of natural elements such as sun and rain, while also associating mythological elements or purification rites. Rituals and games of tug-of-war are often held in front of the village house or shrine, preceded by commemorative rites in honour of local deities. The village elders play an active role in guiding and organizing the younger players, and in carrying out the accompanying rituals. Rituals and tug-of-war games also serve to reinforce unity and solidarity, as well as a sense of belonging and identity among community members."

In Cambodia, this ritual activity takes place on the afternoon of the last day of the year in an open village space or the enclosure of a Buddhist monastery.

In the past, at the end of the confrontation, the rope was cut by a monk, but today, due to financial costs, this practice has become obsolete.Cutting the rope symbolized the closing of the past year, the opening of the new one, and a temporal renewal for rice farmers.

In the case of this practice, Khmers shout both to coordinate their action and to raise energy. Some researchers make a link between the churning of the Ocean of Milk depicted in Hindu temples from the Angkorian period and this ritual practised during the Khmer New Year. One should be cautious about this connection, as many countries around the world, neither Hindu nor Buddhist in culture, practice tug-of-war. 

On April 14, 2017, in front of Angkor Wat temple, an unusual tug-of-war took place. The video below takes into account, despite what we've just said and on an anecdotal basis, the legendary link between tug-of-war and the churning of the Ocean of Milk.

During kathina festivals (កឋិន), semi-professional shouters perform their art during the procession and circumambulation around the Buddhist temple.

Today, they use mobile amplifiers. The sound is a mixture of shouting and clamoring, in the manner of a respond between the soloist and the participants.

A special page has been devoted to this ritual on this site. The cries of the women calling back the souls can be heard in the videos.

On going redaction.

The earliest evidence of cries raised by the inhabitants of Tchin-la / Chenla during funerals dates back to the year 617, according to a Chinese text translated by Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat:

"In the thirteenth year of Taï-nie (617), the country of Tchin-la sent ambassadors who paid tribute. (...) Funerals are held in this way: children of both sexes spend seven days without eating or shaving their hair, and raise loud cries.

The relatives assemble with the priests of Fo, the priestesses or the bonzes of Tao, and lead the dead away, singing and playing musical instruments. The body is burned on a pyre made of all kinds of aromatic wood, and the ashes are preserved in a gold or silver urn. When the urn is full, it is carried to the middle of a large river. The poor use a terracotta urn painted in different colors. Often they don't burn the body, but carry it to the middle of the mountains, and leave it to the wild beasts to devour."

Today, during funerals, not only do the Khmers shout, but depending on their means, they also involve traditional artificers who generate artificial cries using bamboo and black powder; these devices are called "animal cries".

We believe, however, that this is rather a form of delegation of the funeral lamentations that persist among certain animist populations on the forested fringes of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. We have devoted a page to this subject.