Page 38 - Seniorstoday December 2023 Issue
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has some stunningly executed carvings At one time Cambodia was considered
and sculptures of the subject depicting 88 an island. That was because for a large
asuras and 92 devas with crested helmets. part of the year after the monsoon, the
mighty Mekong River remains flooded
and many areas are water logged for long
periods. This keeps the land very fertile
and productive. Rice and lotus are the
main plantations here. Most people in one
district have their houses on stilts. We saw
many such houses, where the living area
is upstairs and instead of cars, they have
small boats or rafts ‘parked’ outside their
houses.
Mekong is sacred and important to the
Cambodians. In a way it is their lifeline.
They consider it as a mother…. Like we
also say Ganga Maiya. Mother or “MA” is
a prefix for all good things. They have a
queen mother, who is very old now, but her
son, the king who is 70, is not married yet.
Theirs is a matriarchal society. Mother and
women are highly respected. There exists
a system of monogamy since ancient times.
Krishna is a very common name even At the time of marriage the boy’s family has
now. There are other common names to give like a dowry as assurance that he
like Sukh and the word means the same will respect and look after his wife. Thus
as for us - the opposite of dukh. Aroon the women have a strong hold on the family
meaning the Sun and the Chand meaning and social system. They also work hard and
Moon of course, are also very popular control the economy to a great extent.
names. Actually our guide’s name was
Chandraseng (read Singh). Most of these
words like for us, come from Sanskrit and
were adapted and adapted permanently
into the language of the Khmer. Shiv,
Mahesh, Sujit, Surya, Maneka, Apsara
are all popular names in Cambodia. We
found many common words which we use
in our daily language they may probably
be pronounced a little differently but the
meaning is the same. We discovered even
their numbers sound like ours…. IK = one,
TOH = two, TRE = three, CHAKTO = four, The presence of India is seen in other
PANCHA = five and so on! modern ways too. On the roads you come
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