Cambodian Culture
When we talk about development, we often mention about changes
in people's behaviors and practice. A culture of a Nation
determines a range of people's behaviors and practice.
Cambodian culture is characterized by:
Cambodian Traditional practices
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Some observations - not
sure if they are helpful or troubles:
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The wedding ceremony is
celebrated at groom's house, and people often use half of
the road or even block the whole road to build the wedding
hall. The traffic was always terrible, caused by wedding.
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During a wedding
ceremony, loud wedding music was turned on since early
morning. The whole village can hear. This applied the same
volume for a death ceremony.
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In
the capital or in some cities, when people organize
wedding ceremony, they used to block the roads to make
space for the ceremony and to show their power and status.
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When participating in a wedding ceremony, people
especially women need many hours to make up and dress
well. Furthermore, I observed that some times one
cloth is designated to one wedding only (really waste of
money???).
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During
the wedding party, it is not uncommon that Cambodians
dress very smart, wear expense jewelry, drive very
expensive car (if available), to show their wealth and
status.
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Some key practices and patterns
Cambodians used to be polite all of the time. Challenges or
disagreements are not common behaviors. Every behavior is associated with a reason of
safety. Cambodians are not daring to do anything that leads them
to feel unsafe. This does not mean that they do not have
anything to express or to do in a certain way, but as they are
afraid of taking risks, they prefer to keep inside their heart.
People in the Cambodia society are educated to thank someone,
who have done good thing for them. Children were educated to
be grateful
to their parents as people used to articulate “mother’s goodness
is big like a mountain”. Children, who do not listen to parents
are perceived as “bad born” children.
Like other people, Cambodians are very encouraged when they are
respected and their
faces
are well maintained in the public. The top leaders do not like
criticism or negative feedback as they might feel they lose
their reputation because of such actions. Often, feedback were
seen as blames, and as anyone in the world, people don’t like
blame.
In Cambodia, usually people are classified into different
classes, the most common are three: high class (rich people),
middle class (middle), and lower class (poor people). There are
not many high and middle classes, but many poor people
especially those who live in the rural communities. The gap or
the differences between the rich and poor is so big, and
represents unfairness in income distributions. The status
underlies sources of power in it.
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“Egg should not hit with stone”
(Khmer:
Pong muan kom chul ning thmor)
Khmer saying about power
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It becomes a culture that Cambodians perceive foreigner as
source of influence. White "long nose" foreigners are
automatically associated with power what we call “Barang power”
and Cambodian behaviors are very much influenced by this, e.g. “I
am afraid of the Barang”, “Hey, Barang is coming now, let do the
work…”; “don’t worry, Barang is not here” etc. In addition to
that, many Cambodians tend to depend on foreigners.
The relationships in the family are often dominated by parents,
in which the parents make decisions on behalf of their children.
In the past culture, children had no right to debate or reject
parents’ proposal, and this culture has changed for some extend,
but still exists in some parts of the society.
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“A cake
is never bigger than its basket”.
(Khmer:
Num min thom cheang Neal)
A Khmer
old saying about parents’ control over children
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Common
Cambodian chronic social diseases
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Power
differences
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Status and
classes (rich and poor)
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FEARS (Never daring
to do something again)
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Lack of trust
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No
self-confidence
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Not able to
unlearn
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Resistance to
change
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Egoistic,
jealousy
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Short-term
thinking (not strategic)
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Expatriates
favoritism and dependency
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Not valuing
Cambodians
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Corruption
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Violence and
impunity
How can these
social diseases be cured?
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