ABSTRACT
Among Cambodians, it is estimated that between 80 and 90 percent of performing artists died between the years of 1975 and 1979. Faced with the Khmer Rouge’s slogan “tuk min chamnenh, dak chenh ka min khat” (“to keep you is no gain, to kill you is no loss”), dancers attached to the Royal Palace or Royal University of Fine Arts and others closely associated with former regimes lived under constant threat of execution, often administered arbitrarily and with violence. It was only after 1979, while visiting Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge’s detention center turned into a genocide museum, that artists returning to Phnom Penh learned the full horror of what happened nationwide.1 The prospect of losing intangible heritage passed down through word of mouth only increased their resolve, however. Radio appeals were sent out to identify survivors and a nationwide reconstruction of the repertoire was adopted under the aegis of a revived Ministry of Culture. Re-establishing contact between dispersed artists to rebuild morale and identity became a national priority (Phim and Thompson 1999).
