''Sāstrā lbaeng'' or ''lpaen'' is a genre of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Khmer literature Cambodian literature ( km, អក្សរសាស្ត្រខ្មែរ, ), also Khmer literature, has a very ancient origin. Like most Southeast Asian national literatures its traditional corpus has two distinct aspects or levels: *The ...

often made of fantastic adventure romances. They were written in verse with a rich and elaborate vocabulary and used to entertain the audience via a public reader or chanter.

Etymology

In Khmer language, ''sāstrā lbaeng'' translates as "works for pleasure".

History

According to

Ly Theam Teng Ly Theam Teng (; ) was a Sino-Khmer ''literatus'' who authored many books including novels which have become classics of Cambodian literature, before he died of exhaustion under the Khmer Rouge in 1978. Biography Ly Theam Teng was born of Khm ...

, in the

post-Angkor period The post-Angkor period of Cambodia ( km, ប្រទេសកម្ពុជាក្រោយសម័យអង្គរ), also called the Middle Period and Dark Age ( km, យុគ្គអន្ធកាល, lit=Isolationism, link=yes; ( km ...

most stories were ''sastra lbaeng'' for entertainment. The 17th century witnessed the appearance of, lengthy verse-novels which recounted the ancient Jātaka tales. The oldest extant example, ''Khyang Sang'' (The Conch Shell), dates from 1729. Portraying the Buddhist concept of ''karma'', many of the ''sāstrā lbaeng'' were used by monks as texts to teach Khmer boys to read and write. Since 1980, purely secular ''sāstrā lbaeng'' have appeared whereas in the past the Buddhist background pervaded all elements Cambodian culture. Some of these works, written on palm-leaf manuscripts, were cleaned and microfilmed with aid funding for the National Library in the early 1990s. Many of the palm leaf texts documented in these films have since been lost, because they had been stored in canisters in non-climate-controlled offices in Cambodia. The reels – the only surviving copies – are degrading and are at risk of being lost as well without proper preservation. Digitization of the manuscripts began in 2019, under the guidance of the

Buddhist Digital Resource Center The Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), formerly Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to seeking out, preserving, organizing, and disseminating Buddhist literature. Joining digital technology ...

Genre characterization

Apocryphal tales of the Buddha

The majority of ''sāstrā lbaeng'' are based around popular Buddhist tales particularly those contained in the apocryphal Jātaka collection known as

Paññāsa Jātaka The ''Paññāsa Jātaka'' ( my, ပညာသဇာတက; th, ปัญญาสชาดก), is a non-canonical collection of 50 stories of the Buddha's past lives, originating in mainland Southeast Asia. The stories were based on the style of ...

, a foremost example being the story of

Vorvong and Sorvong ''Vorvong and Sorvong'' ( km, រឿងព្រេងភ្នំវរវង្សសូរវង្ស) is a long tale of the Khmer '' sāstrā lbaeng'' tradition about two Khmer princes who fall into disgrace and, after a series of ord ...

A stereotypical structure

The literary elements of the ''sāstrā lbaeng'' include three parts: * an introduction or

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or a ...

which is found in classical Pāli literature to praise the Three Gems (Buddha, Dharma and Sańgha), while the later Khmer eulogy also request for being blessed with an auspicious. This eulogy is almost systematically closed off by the poet's excuses and disclaimer, * a body or ''Atītavatthu'', originating most often from the Jātaka literature, Mahanipata Jātaka, and its imitations, Paññāsa Jātaka, while some are purely fictional folk tales * an ending or ''Samodhāna'', which states which characters are derived from the time of Buddha.

A sentimental education through chanting

''Sāstrā lbaeng'' were used widely in the monastery-based education of the laity, and even today traditionalist monks continue to chant versified romances based around the Buddha's past lives and the like, in a spare and stylized manner known as smot.

References

Bibliography

Links

* {{Cite web, title=Entertaining verse texts - BUDA - Buddhist Digital Archives, url=http://khmer-manuscripts.bdrc.io/search?t=Work&r=bdr:PR1KDPP00&pg=1, access-date=2022-02-23, website=khmer-manuscripts.bdrc.io Cambodian literature Buddhism in Cambodia Buddhist literature Khmer folklore