The Oldest Verse Inscription in Khmer
by Trent Walker
The Oldest Verse Inscription in Khmer សិលាចារឹកភាសាខ្មែរចាស់ជាងគេដែលសរេសរជាពាក្យកាព្យ
Published: 2016
Author: Trent Walker
Language : Khmer
Public lecture in Khmer, with English summary, delivered on 5 August, 2016, for Yosothor, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Full title: “សិលាចារឹកភាសាខ្មែរចាស់ជាងគេដែលសរេសរជាពាក្យកាព្យ ៖ ទិន្នន័យថ្មីបានមកពីក្រាំងនិងសាស្ត្រាស្លឹករឹត The Oldest Verse Inscription in Khmer: New Evidence from Leporello and Palm-Leaf Manuscripts.”
Includes samples of religious poetry recitation (smot).
Slides available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k-5U…
More on Yosothor ar https://www.yosothor.org.
More on Trent Walker’s research available at https://www.trentwalker.org.
Listen a collection of smot chanting by women singers from 2018.
Tags: inscriptions, Old Khmer, Sanskrit, music, khmer rituals
About the Author
Trent Walker
Lecturer in religious studies at Stanford University with a PhD in Buddhist — Studies (University of California-Berkeley), Trent Walker is currently Director of Preservation and Lead Scholar of the Khmer Manuscript Heritage Project, Buddhist Digital Resource Center, aimed at digitizing over 10,000 palm-leaf and bark-paper manuscripts from Cambodia in Khmer, Pali, and Thai.
With a solid knowledge in Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Pali, Sanskrit, Siamese languagees, Trent Walker has published numerous essays on Theravada Buddhism and liturgical traditions of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, in particular the adaptations of Tipitaka, the corpus of Pali canon.
In 2022, Trent Walker published Until Nirvana’s Time: Buddhist Songs from Cambodia, the first collection of traditional Cambodian Buddhist poetry available in English, original translations of forty-five texts along with extensive notes and essays. “Sung in daily prayers or all-night rituals of healing, mourning, and consecration, these Dharma songs have guided Khmer-speaking communities in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam for generations,” he remarked in his book launch announcement. The collection reflects the author’s experience when, in 2005, he went to In 2005, Kampong Speu province to study under the Cambodian Dharma song masters Prum Ut and Koet Ran. You can the video presentation here.
