Two sisters

On our first day of temple exploration at Angkor Wat we opted to have a guide with us for the day. She had lots to tell us, and we learned many things we didn’t know about the history of the buildings and the stories behind the carvings and bas-reliefs, and the symbolism of the many motifs. However, on our second day we felt we wanted to explore on our own. We hired a tuk-tuk driver, consulted the many guide books to decide where we’d like to go, and headed off at sunrise.

We both loved the Preah Khan site. It covers a lot of ground, with a long central corridor running straight through it, but is not of the same giant height proportions of some of the other temples. As you explore, you find yourself in corridors, courtyards, galleries and sanctuaries. For the most part the paths are well-trodden and it is easy to guide yourself through. But we had read about two very special wall-carvings that were harder to find. The Rough Guide to Cambodia described them as “sublime” portraits of the two wives of King Jayavarman VII (the king who build Preah Khan and lots of other temples during his reign – the Lonely Planet author called him the Donald Trump of the Angkor era). Their names were Jayadeva and Indradeva, and they were sisters.

The Rough Guide suggested they were in one of the tumbledown sections in the northern part of the temple and that they were hard to find without the help of a guide. Fortunately a Russian-speaking guide came along just at that time, and I mustered up the little Russian I could remember to ask him if he knew where we could find the portraits of the two sisters. Fortunately too, he was only guiding a couple of people, because as he led us down a series of narrow, low-ceilinged corridors, we realised that no large groups would come down here as it was just too small. We also realised that there was no way we’d have found it without guidance.

The first of the two sisters is more visible, at the end of an alcove. Local people had lit incense sticks and left flowers.

Then the Russian-speaking guide indicated where we would find the second sculpture: bend down and stoop through a low doorway, into a nook that seemed to be filled with rubble. Then turn your head sharply to the left, look under the fallen lintel, and there she will be.

Both Tiny and I felt excited by the find (even though we had been led to it, and not discovered it by ourselves). We were struck by the fact that these were evidently portraits – both women looked completely recognisable from the carvings. The details in their faces were unique to them – unlike the many apsaras and other female figures that adorn so many of the temples. We stayed in the cubby hole a long time, just looking at one then the other, making way for other tourists when they arrived.

They were such beautiful pieces of art. “Sublime” was a highly appropriate descriptor. If you are trying to find them, the nook/alcove is near the end of a north-eastern corridor. But do ask a guide if you can.

Haiti blog

I was away (and therefore not connected to the world via my usual media outlets) when the earthquake in Haiti happened. Little by little I am filling in the gaps about the catastrophe that took place there. (It’s interesting to realise, if you miss a ‘big event’ when it happens, how difficult it can be to get a clear, informative summary of what has happened from a single source).

I stumbled upon the blog Dispatches from a Fragile Island, written by a guy who is currently working in Haiti as part of the emergency relief efforts, although that wasn’t what brought him there in the first place.  He and his family were just getting settled in a new life there when the quake happened – he is a journalist who was intending to be a house-husband/UN Spouse. He is posting photos, videos and descriptions and it is well worth a read.

http://haititales.wordpress.com/

Jungle temples

One of the most striking images at Angkor Wat and surrounds is the sight of temples being taken over by the jungle. Trees that have grown over doorways and walls – trees that themselves look incredibly old, but are obviously younger than the temple. This one is at Ta Prohm.

Monks are a frequent and charming sight throughout Cambodia – but they are especially picturesque in their robes and parasols among the ancient stones of the temples.

Sunset circus

Phnom Bakheng  – a small hilltop temple, currently under renovation – is considered to be THE place to be to watch the sunset. We went up there on our first night. There were hordes of people jostling for a prime position. We were told you’d be able to see the towers of Angkor Wat in the distance and indeed you could – very, very far off into the distance! The sun settled behind a cloud before it reached the horizon and we both felt a little underwhelmed and bemused. “I see better sunsets on Brighton Beach in Melbourne,” I told Tiny. He felt the sunsets from his childhood home in Bulleen were also of a far superior nature.

We both preferred our second Angkor sunset, at the equally lofty, but slightly less crowded Pre Rup, where this photo was taken.

Angkor Wat

This is the reason you leave your accommodation at 5.30am – sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Many faces of Bayon

The Bayon at Angkor Thom was pretty extraordinary, and was our favourite place to be first thing in the morning. Just us, and the dozens of faces, looking out in all directions.

This next image is sadly a little overexposed. I’ve had a bit of a play around with it in iPhoto… I still like it.

Conceptualising learning – some new terms

From January 11-13 I attended the Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference in Sydney. It was an interesting conference, with a big range of workshops to participate in (Papua New Guinean log drumming, anyone? Balinese gamelan? Freedom songs from Pretoria?), papers to listen to, and some interesting plenary sessions that got everyone talking.

I presented my paper on some of the methodological challenges that I identified in conducting interviews with newly-arrived children – things like the kinds of questions you ask, things to consider when interpreting their responses, ambiguities that arise when you are working with interpreters, creative interviewing techniques and tools, etc.

Longtime readers of this blog will know that one of my early research ‘discoveries’ (for want of a better word) was a kind of map of the way that newly-arrived children first make sense of their new environment, and then work within it. I saw the way that within every aspect of schooling (from making sense of school cultural rules, to discipline-based learning like music or English) the children followed the same pattern or stages of learning:

Level 1 – where everything is learned by copying. The children don’t necessarily understand the intention behind the task, they are simply doing what they see others doing, and so figure out their participation in this way.

Level 2 – where the children begin to understand the intention, purpose and meaning behind the different things they do. They have more moments of illumination, and they begin to conect together previously separate bits of information and experiences.

Level 3 – they understand both what to do, and why/how to do it to such an extent that they can lead and show others (thus providing the ideal ‘model’ for those students who have just arrived in the country and are at Level 1).

Tony Lewis, an ethnomusicologist at Sydney Uni, hasbeen exploring a similar idea in terms of how music gets learned in different communities. He described his own conundrum when learning first African drumming, and later Papua New Guinean log drumming, where he found that all the local people learned simply by being there. There was no culture of teaching, or explanation – people just watched and listened and joined in as best they could, gradually building proficiency through an aural and visual process. By contrast he knew that for himself, as someone with a lot of formal musical training and ability to make quite detailed ‘maps’ of rhythms and sounds, the more he engaged those faculties developed through prior training and knowledge, the faster and more efficiently he would be able to make sense of the new musical language he was studying.

Tiny jams with local musicians

Something that we enjoyed about the approaches to different temples in the Angkor Wat complex was the chance to stop and listen to traditional Cambodian music being performed by musicians who had been injured by land mines. They were skilled performers, and their signage explained that their injuries rendered many professions inaccessible to them. But they loved to play, and performing in these groups gave them a means of earning money to support their families. One group was happy for Tiny to play with them awhile – they passed him a flute and he jammed with them, taking a solo that they responded to with big smiles and nods and presumably Cambodian versions of “Yeah!”, just like you hear here when someone takes a solo.

On one occasion, the audience included a group of monks, and a group of elderly Cambodians. Both groups stopped and listened to the music, clearly completely absorbed by the music. Then one by one, the monks approached, and each took notes from their small carry bags and gave money to the musicians. Then, the elderly Cambodians followed suit. Then we did.

I was moved to see the way the local people allowed the music to touch them, to halt them. So many foreigners listen and smile as they walk past, but often don’t even slow down, let alone stop. As tourists in Siem Reap, visibly ‘not from there’, it can sometimes feel like everything you see beyond the temples has been put there to get you to spend more money (the same is probably true in every place you visit. But in Siem Reap the accompanying exhortations to “buy from me! you buy scarf from me!” can make it feel more in your face, and more difficult to avoid). So we get good at averting our gaze, and not engaging with things or people that are demanding us to spend. And then miss some of the more beautiful and sincere efforts and contributions.

Recommendations from our recent travels

Tiny and I have just returned from a couple of weeks travelling in Vietnam and Cambodia. We only had two weeks free between the Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference that I presented at in Sydney, and the dates set for my workshops for the MSO at ArtPlay on January 30th. Thus it was a bit of a whirlwind trip, and we packed it full. Read on for descriptions of some of the places that we found especially memorable – we’re happy to recommend them to you.

More games…

U.S-based games specialist Mike Spiller added a comment to my stick-passing game post. For people looking for some new games to play with groups as ice-breakers or to help groups develop specific skills (such as communication skills, memory skills, etc) his site is worth a visit.