[Webinar] A Brief Review of Traditional Curing Practices in Cambodia

𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭
In this presentation, we will examine the evolution of the healthcare sector and traditional Cambodian medicine within a royal Buddhist context from ancient times to the present. By examining Cambodian therapeutic practices and the representations associated with them over a long period of time, the aim of the study is to grasp their evolving meaning within a Buddhist royal context that has been perpetuated for almost a thousand years. This elemental structure, which is at once social, political and religious, was inaugurated under Jayavarman VII at the end of the 12th century and has endured until the Cambodia of today under King Norodom Sihamoni, while undergoing constant change and shifts in meaning. The very rich epigraphic corpus of Jayavarman VII, along with a selection of post-Angkorian treatises on medicine, and ethnographic studies in the traditionalist monasteries and villages in the eastern part of the Angkor region provide the main sources and terrain of this historical anthropology study.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫
Sokro Suong was graduated in 2015 from the Faculty of Archaeology, Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), Phnom Penh. In 2017, he got a Master’s degree in Human and Social Sciences from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilization (INALCO) in Paris. Currently, he is pursuing his doctoral degree in historical anthropology at INALCO. His research topic is Historical anthropology of therapeutic practices within a Buddhist royalty: the case of the Khmer kingdom (late 15th century-early 21st century). He is currently the Executive Director of Yosothor organization and a lecturer of Cambodian history and old-Khmer epigraphy at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA).

𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫
Prof. George Chigas is an Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus in Cambodian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he taught courses in Cambodian literature and cultural history. He earned his doctorate in Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and his masters in Asian Studies from Cornell University. He is the author of Tum Teav, A Translation and Literary Analysis of a Cambodian Classic. He currently lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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