| The 1362nd meeting of the Connecticut
Academy of Arts and Sciences was held on Tuesday, November 2nd,
2005 at 4.30p.m. in the Alumni Lounge in the Mather Campus Center
of Trinity College, Hartford. Some 40 people attended the lecture
and some 15 members and their guests gathered for dinner afterwards.
The President of the Academy, Ernest Kohorn, welcomed the audience
and thanked the Vice President of CAAS, Professor Borden Painter,
for hosting the meeting. Professor Painter then introduced the speaker of the evening, Michael Lestz, Associate Professor of History at Trinity College. Professor Lestz's talk was entitled, "Daily Life in Angkorean Cambodia Through Chinese Eyes: A Thirteenth Century Chinese Traveler's Account." In 1296 China was ruled by the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Under the leadership of Kublai Khan and later Temur, the Mongol armies gained control of all of China, Mongolia, Korea, most of Central Asia, parts of Russia and the Middle East. In Southeast Asia, however, the Mongol invasion stalled and their armies never controlled Vietnam or Cambodia. It was in this context that Zhou Daguan traveled to Angkor in Cambodia as an official of the Yuan State to facilitate trade. Unofficially he became the recorder of the geography, history, and culture of the ancient Khmer people when Angkor was a thriving city. His account showed a civilization with much in common with the Cambodia of today. Professor Lestz's talk focused on the content of Zhou Daguan's writings published in 13th century literary Chinese as "A Record of the Customs of Cambodia" and translated by Dr. Lestz himself. This text was also anthologized in a massive literary compendium assembled between 1772 and 1790 entitled "The Complete Works of the Four Treasuries". The whole work contained eight hundred million Chinese characters! Dr. Lestz noted that for enthusiasts 3600 compilers have put the entire text on line. Angkor was a vast holy city, pervaded both with a sense of religious devotion and the oppressive aristocratic prerogatives that brought its reservoirs, palaces, temples and towers into being. It was a landscape designed to remind those that inhabited it of an imperishable empyrean realm and its direct attachment to the god kings who rule Cambodia. Dr. Lestz said that Zhou Daguan was a powerful writer who cast light not only on Angkor but also on China and the way in which 13th century Chinese apprehended the world beyond their borders. His account is a record replete with images and descriptions of Khmer folkways that can be seen in Cambodia today. Dr Lestz read from the text a description of utensils and how they were used for serving stew and soup-"in a Chinese porcelain bowl, they use a tree leaf to make a little bowl and jiao leaves to make a little spoon to take the broth to their mouths. When they have finished using these things they throw them away." On a recent visit to Cambodia Dr. Lestz ordered some stew. It was served in a porcelain dish and was served in a soup bowl made of leaves! Zhou Daguan obtained his information from Chinese expatriots, some of them sailors who had run away, who settled in Cambodia because life was easier than in China. On arrival the first thing they had to do was to acquire a wife because it was the women who managed trade. Trade and barter was carried out on reed mats in market places that looked like many country markets in Cambodia today. His view of Cambodians was that they were akin to "barbarians", namely other than Chinese. He wrote about sexual matters and although he describes practices such as incest, homosexuality and premarital sex his allusions to them bear the stamp of his Confucian reticence and he exclaims "How shameful; how abominable!" Dr. Lestz commented that when the 19th century French translator of Zhou's text came to this part he wrote it in Latin! Zhou provided important information regarding hierarchy and subordination and described how wealthy households owned hundred of slaves who came from the mountains and were poorly treated. Dr. Lestz noted that these themes of subordination were praised as the cornerstone of the glories of Angkor by four generations of modern Cambodian strongmen who attempted to construct leadership cults around themselves and resulted in failures in social order and cruelties to the population. He concluded with the thought that Zhou Daguan's text provided an approach that could still be used as modern Cambodians reflect on Angkor and the creative accomplishments of ordinary Cambodians. Dr. Lestz left the audience with rich information about a little known part of the world and food for thought about the interpretations of history and the use to which it can be put. |