Khieu Kanharith to lead a Kan Ben Ceremony to Kampuchea Krom

Source: Khmer Sthapana newspaper

Reported in English by Khmerization

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith (pictured) will lead a Kan Ben Ceremony to Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda in Preah Trapeang province (Tra Vinh) in Kampuchea Krom in early September.

Kan Ben is a process where people or a group of people taking turning to offer food to the monks leading up to the Pchum Ben Ceremony, which is an important ceremony in the Cambodian ancestral tradition when surviving relatives go to the temple to pray and make food and alm offerings to their ancestors.

Mr. Kanharith told reporters on the afternoon of 28th that Kan Ben delegation will travel to Preah Trapeang province in Southern Vietnam and stay in Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda one night before returning back to Cambodia because the journey will take 10 hours each way.

Mr. Kanharith said Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda was built more than 600 years ago when Preah Trapeang province was still a Khmer territory. He said his Kan Ben to Kampuchea Krom was also to make Khmer people more aware of Kampuchea Krom territories and the Khmer Krom living there. “The majority of Khmers living here (in Cambodia) do not know much about Kampuchea Krom, so we must go there once and also because Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda is more ancient than most temples (in Kampuchea Krom)”, he said.

Mr. Kanharith said the ideas of organising a Kan Ben to Kampuchea was initiated by him in co-operation with a Buddhist Patriarch from Wat Lanka temple in Phnom Penh. He said most Buddhist monks who will accompany him to Wat Nokor Reach Borey pagoda come from Wat Lanka. He said this is the first such Kan Ben being led from Cambodia to Kampuchea Krom and he hopes to lead such a ceremony to other Buddhist temples in other parts of Kampuchea Krom in the future.

Mr. Thach Setha, ex-senator from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party and president of Kampuchea Krom Association in Phnom Penh, welcomes Mr. Kanharith’s Kan Ben to Kampuchea Krom and called for more official visits from Cambodian officials to the territories of Kampuchea Krom.