Bon Pchum Ben

These days, the wats or temples in Cambodia are full of people honoring their dead and giving alms to the poor. Today, we are on our usual Saturday walk and cars just line up outside the temples and people dressed appropriately (women in white tops) go and pray with the monks. During these 15 days, Kam Bin, Khmers go and pray in as many pagodas as they can visit. Some go out to the far pagodas as they know many people hardly go there so the monks have very little. They make offerings of food to the spirit world and this is believed to alleviate the suffering of their dead relatives. If you fail to show up in the temple and make offerings, your dead relatives will curse you so everyone goes just even once.

Each of these 15 days is sponsored by a rich man in the village or a group of families in the case of tiny villages. These sponsors buy the food to feed everyone who come and visit the wats as well as give the alms for the needy. A good way to share blessing with everyone. Today, there are tables and chairs set up beautifully in the temple we visited as the sponsor is a Minister.

The last day, Pchum Ben, is for everyone to bring food and alms.

The rites start as early as 4 a.m. People throw pellets of sticky rice around the temple. Three times, they pace around the pagoda throwing rice balls into the fields with the Aja, the monk leading the ceremony, reciting scripts from the Dharma. This ceremony must have come from people's experience in the past when around this time, food would have almost run out.

The pagodas during this celebration are decorated with Buddhist flags which have every vibrant colour you've ever seen. Offerings fill the place. People are there preparing their offering of food. Money changers with wads of riel (Cambodian money) in 100 or 500 denominations provide the much needed service, and monks are on hand to pray with the families to make sure the message gets through to the heavenly wanderers.

Tourists are welcome to visit the pagodas at this time and if you have a good smile on your face, you'll become part of the program. It is a great experience learning about the rituals and watching how others keep peace with history and try to leverage a bit of luck for the future.

One monk we were chatting with said some tourists are hesitant to go in and peak around the corners like guilty puppies. Just follow what others do such as covering up properly as a show of respect and taking your shoes off when you go inside. The pagodas are thoroughly cleaned and matted for this occasion.

Every pagoda puts out long tables where the monks bowls are placed as surrogates for the family dead. Asians are much too smart to let gifts to the ethereal be wasted.

The worshippers come and put a spoonful of rice into each of the bowl. When they reach the last bowl, they do not use spoons but use their hands instead as this last bowl is for those whose families do not remember them, or have no families left, not unusual with this country's recent history. And because they are not family members, spectral partners might not want to use the family utensils so their rice is placed using the hands.

As this celebration is not just for the dead relations but also to demonstrate compassion for the poor, in the pagodas, there are also separate bowls for money and wads of 100 or 500 riel are distributed into these bowls as well. Boxes are there, too, for donations to specific causes such as the construction of a library, the health of the monks, the poor, and the maintenance of the pagoda. People save money for this occasion so they can perform merit by showing generosity and compassion for the less fortunate. When religions bring out the best in people, they deserve support.

On the last day of Pchum Ben, Khmer Buddhists rise very early to go to the pagoda and listen to the chanting of the monks of the Barabhava Sutta, the discourse of ruin. After this, still before sun rise, they throw Bay Ben, sticky rice, as they believe that souls are set free at this time to roam around and search for food. People come and bring offerings. For these offerings to be effective, they have to be up close and personal, with promises to practice good deeds in daily lives. The Monks have a solid role here catching the precise drone in their prayers that the ghosts can surely hear. The supplicants, dressed in their finery, sit in front of the holy men and ask them to pray for the invisible part of the family. In the temples of their gods, they pray for ashes of history.