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After the troupe of young boys had performed the Monkey Dance, and a
group of Apsara dancers had left the stage, 67-year-old Royal University
of Fine Arts professor Proeung Chhieng stepped up, shoulders hunched,
to the microphone to address the several hundred mourners. Behind him,
at the top of an elaborate funeral pyre set up in a field at the
Secondary School of Fine Arts, was the body of his friend and teacher,
Yit Sarin, who passed away at 91 on Saturday night.
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“Today, at his funeral, I am so sad to lose someone so valuable for the country,” Chhieng told Post Weekend
at the funeral on Monday. “However, I am also happy to see his
students, for whom he devoted great effort in teaching, at his funeral …
We are preparing to carry on his legacy and complete his unfinished
mission.”
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Born on July 1, 1925, Sarin is renowned for being the first male
dancer in Cambodia’s Royal Ballet and was the last surviving custodian
of the knowledge, history and practice of the Khmer masked theatre dance
known as Lakhon Khol. With his death, many fear an irreplaceable loss to the Kingdom’s cultural heritage.
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Practitioners of the masked dance, relatives, and Minister of Culture
and Fine Arts Phuong Sakonga paid their respects at the funeral
service, but the overwhelming majority of those present were students at
the Secondary School of Fine Arts, where Yit Sarin’s cremation was
held.
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All recalled Yit Sarin as a uniquely powerful teacher, dedicated to preserving and passing on the knowledge of Lakhon Khol.
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“To be honest, we could not afford such a big funeral, but his
students, who adore him, have put together the money to make it happen,”
his 62-year-old daughter Kao Amry told Post Weekend.
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“He was both a family man and a great artist,” said cousin Sith Sothea, 50.
Sothea’s orphaned father was raised by Yit Sarin during the post
independence Sangkum period, she said, and after the Pol Pot regime,
when Sothea and her brother were orphaned, Yit Sarin took them in as
well. “He adored his family and relatives, as much as he adored Lakhon Khol.”
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His only surviving son, 19-year-old Sarin Vathanak, recalled the
utter devotion his father had for passing on the knowledge of the art
form, even at the end of his life.
“My father had taught
Lakhon Khol all his life until he was
bedridden in 2015,” he said, weak from emotion. “I am grief-stricken to
lose my father, but also proud of him.”
Grandpa White
Born “Keo Sar”, Sarin changed his name during the Khmer Rouge regime,
although he later became known simply as Lok Ta Sar (Grandpa White) – a
nod to his signature role: the Hindu deity Hanuman, who is represented
as a white monkey.
The dramatic pre-Angkorian dance form involves masked characters
performing episodes of the Reamker – the Khmer version of the Hindu epic
Ramayana – while a director, speaking and singing in three distinct
“voices”, narrates the play over music.
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According to Professor Aok Bunthoeun, vice dean of the Faculty of
Choreographic Arts at the Royal University of Fine Arts, the theatre was
practiced in palaces and pagodas for centuries, but only by one gender.
“In the Royal Palace, it was said that officials would be jealous if
male dancers were next to female dancers, so the male dancers of Lakhon
Khol were relegated to pagodas,” he said.
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But this all changed in 1940 when Queen Sisowath Kossamak called Yit
Sarin and three other boys from the Wat Svay Andet pagoda in Kandal to
perform the Monkey Dance for three days at the Royal Palace. Delighted
with the performance, she put the four under the tutelage of Royal
Ballet master Mam Yan. However, all but Yit Sarin grew homesick and left
the palace.
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From that “revolutionary” moment, Bunthoeun said, the Royal Ballet became the first Lakhon Khol
troupe with both men and women on stage, although the roles of men
would be limited to monkey characters and “the hermit” in the Reamker.
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Beyond establishing himself as a master of the art, teaching
subsequent generations of dancers, Yit Sarin served as King Norodom
Sihanouk’s personal assistant (or his Moha Tlik) during his quest for independence, for which he received several Royal Honours.
