ពិព័រណ៍ ស្ដីពីល្ខោនខោលនិងខ្មុកខ្មែរ | Lakhon Khol Masks and Lacquer Exhibition Catalog

by Daravuth Ly & Ingrid Muan & Chanmara Preap

An exhibition of masks and lacquer artefacts related to lakhon khol, the ancient Cambodian dance form.

Lakhon Khol Reyum

Type: paperback

Publisher: Reyum Publishing, Phnom Penh

Edition: ADB Library Reference: DAN9

Published: 1999

Authors: Daravuth Ly, Ingrid Muan & Chanmara Preap

Pages: 44

Languages : English, Khmer

Lakhon Khol (“dance of the monkeys”, according to some etymologists) was originally a Cambodian Royal Court dance form in the 19th century, inspired by similar Thai and Laotian performances. 

The 1999 exhibition, however, focused on the dance as it was (and still is) performed in Cambodian villages, in this instance at Vat Svay Andet (Kandal province), exploring its magical significance and its relation to popular traditions linked to Reamker (or Ramakerti), the Cambodian Ramayana.

The making of masks and the ancestral lacquer process are detailed and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue. 

Tags: dance, masks, lacquer

About the Editors

Ly Daravuth

Daravuth Ly

Ly Daravuth is a Cambodian art historian and publicist who co-founded (with Ingrid Muan) in December 1998 Reyum Publishing, a Phnom Penh publishing house part of the Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture.

Many reference and art books have been issued under the Reyum label until 2009.

Ingrid Muan

Ingrid Muan

Ingrid Muan (1964, Virginia, USA — 30 Jan. 2005, Phnom Penh) was a Doctor in Art History, an art teacher, and a passionate researcher on Cambodian traditional and modern arts since 1994, when she moved to Cambodia. Her PhD dissertation is Citing Angkor: The Cambodian Arts” in the Age of Restoration 19182000,” (Columbia University, 2001).

Teaching at the the Royal Uni­ver­sity of Fine Arts (RUFA), and co-founding the Reyum Foundation with friend and partner Ly Daravuth in 1998, she authored several books related to Cambodian arts, architecture and material culture, and directed an art school for poor children.

Her book on Cambodian art of ornementation, Kbach, remains a major reference study on the subject.

Kbach_cover-ingrid-muan.jpg#asset:5670

Read Ingrid Muan’s paper, Playing With Powers: The Politics of Art in Newly Independent Cambodia”, presented posthumously in Feb. 2005 after her premature passing (From Udaya, vol.6)

Preap Chanmara Portrait

Chanmara Preap

Preap Chanmara is a Cambodian art historian and a professor at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA).

He has particularly studied the influence of Reamker in Khmer culture and society (watch his 2019 conference at Bophana Center — in Khmer).