Khmer New Year!!!

Temple moat in full bloom

As you may know, April is a very special and important month in Cambodia. It is the celebration of the Khmer New Year. This holiday is enjoyed throughout Southeast Asia, though it has different meanings and festivities in other countries. In Thailand, it is called Songkran and involves a lot of water throwing. More information on the Cambodian new year can be found at Choul Chhnam Khmer.

In Banteay Chhmar, it was quite a week’s worth of celebrating. This year’s fun seemed bigger and happier than the previous few years. There was a full five days of eating, drinking, dancing and celebrating with family and friends.

Rean Te Veda offering

Happy New Year!

Friends in the temple

Happy friends

Plenty of food and drink

Coming to the party by kuyon

Here’s looking at you!

Khmer dancing

Temple picnic

Rean Te Veda offering

Water and powder time

Unfortunate News

Despite all the fun and festivities this month, we do have some unfortunate news to share. A section of the north gallery collapsed at the end of March. It is very sad to see the irreplaceable bas-reliefs that have been damaged.

Northern gallery collapse