The Tales in Moni Crystal Ball
By Venghour Than
Robam Kbach Boran, or the Art of Khmer Classical Dance, has existed for more than a millennium in which dancers are designated as the living bridges between heaven and earth. Through their curvilinear movements, which embody the serpentine impression, the dancers bring the prayer from the Khmer people in the land to the Tevoda or the sacred deity, who resides in heaven. The prayer, which reached the divinity of the deity, then returns the people of the land by the dancers. In an agricultural society like Cambodia, reliance on water is vital. Therefore, the dancers’ “primary responsibilities were to perform sacred choreographies believed to invoke the fall of life-giving rains, thus ensuring the fertility and prosperity of the land and the people,” as stated by Prumsodun Ok in The Serpent’s Tails.Robam Kbach Boran is a sacred art form that is heavily influenced by a mythical dragon or a serpent known as a naga. It is artistically crucial that the dancers aesthetically embody the various features of the naga. In doing so, the dancers are involved in the bending of their bodies. Specifically, the back is arched. The knees bend. The toes curl up. The fingers flex backward, and the elbows flex up. With these characteristics, the dancers move in space, mimicking the fluidity of water and the serpentine impression of the naga. It is as if they are the celestial nymph swimming in the deep ocean. In particular to the naga, this revered creature is narrated in the mythology of Cambodia, “Suvarnabhumi (Khmer: Sovannaphum) or the land of gold” (Ok 32). Every Khmer person believes everyone in the golden land of Cambodia is the descendant of the naga. The myth tells Neang Neak, the daughter of the king of the Naga, married to Preah Thong, who “is none other than a colloquial name for Kaundinya—a brahmin who is the father of the Khmer lunar dynasty” (Ok 23). After their marriage, the naga king presents the couple with a fertile land as a gift for them to commence their lineage and to rule, which is Kampuchea or Cambodia.
In addition to the purpose of Khmer Classical Dance as a motivation for rains to prosper the crops in the country, there is a ubiquitous rain dance called Moni Mekhala Ream Eyso. The dance is deemed as Robam Buong Suong or the offering dance since its identity is to invoke rainfalls. Moni Mekhala Ream Eyso is a dance drama, a dance battle, and a mythological narrative that unveils the birth of rain, lightning, and thunder. It expresses a significant connection between rainfalls and the agriculture of harvesting rice, the main staple for Khmer people, in Cambodia. Additionally, as stated by Ok, Moni Mekhala Ream Eyso is the manifestation of a “cosmological thought” in which “[a]ctions or objects in the profane, physical world are thought to influence the invisible, transcendent world when they imitate its structure” (20).
In the story, three students finished their studies from a highly-respected hermit named Lok Ta Moni Eisey. However, the hermit announces the contest among the three students, mandating them to fill the morning dew in a glass for him. The three students enter the forest to complete their mission of collecting the dew into their glass. Unlike the other two students, Vorachhun (The Earthly Prince) and Ream Eyso (The Storm Demon), who gather the morning dew, drop by drop, from each leaf of every tree in the forest, Moni Mekhala, known as the Goddess of the Ocean, leaves her sbai--a piece of cloth--on the tree’s branch overnight. By the morning, the sbai soaks the dew. Moni Mekhala wrings the piece of cloth, and the liquid fills the glass. Thereby, with her ingenuity, she is the first one who presents a glass of dew to Lok Ta Moni Eisey.
Lok Ta Moni Eisey is satisfied and proud of his three students. He presents each of them a gift by transforming their three glasses of dew into three different objects. “Vorachhun is given a magic dagger, Ream Eyso a diamond ax, and Mekhala a diamond [or crystal] ball that radiates a brilliant light when she holds it” (Ok 20). Because of his burning jealousy, Ream Eyso decides to steal the crystal ball from Moni Mekhala. He first killed Vorachhun, intentionally eliminating his competitor. Moni Mekhala and Ream Eyso commence a colossal battle in the sky. Moni Mekhala throws her crystal ball up to space of sky, emitting dazzling strikes of lightning. Ream Eyso attempts to kill Moni Mekhala by throwing his diamond ax, which cuts through the sky, creating a loud noise of thunder. The unleashed power from lightning strikes and the thunder then forms rains, which fall to the earthly surface, flourishing the rice in Cambodia and reviving the Earthly Prince Vorachhun. After his revival, Vorrachhun joins Moni Mekhala and the other gods and goddesses--the Tevoda. With delight, they form the makara or makar (in Khmer), which is a creature “like crocodiles,” as stated by Steven Darian in The Other Face of the Makara.
Moni Mekhala Ream Eyso dance drama is also an embodiment of feminine and masculine energy. Furthermore, the dance “counter[s] a perceived...a clash between good and evil, honesty and greed,” as stated by Toni Shapiro-Phim in Seasons of Migration. The sacred dance drama presents its story as the mythology of rain, lightning, and thunder, which are vital elements to the prosperity and fertility of Cambodia. In a wider application, the dance is the core of the world’s appearance, showcasing between good and evil. Besides, it communicates the vivid connection between humans and nature and how it plays a role in educating our society.
Bibliography
Ok, Prumsodun. “The Serpent's Tail.” serpentstail.info, 2018.Darian, Steven. “The Other Face of the Makara.”ArtibusAsiae, vol. 38, no. 1, 1976, pp. 29–36.JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3250095. Accessed 26 Mar.2021.
Shapiro-Phim, Toni. “Cambodia's ‘Seasons of Migration.’” Dance Research Journal, vol. 40, no. 2, 2008, pp. 56–73. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20527609. Accessed 26 Mar. 2021.