Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: February 28, 2003
Article Type: Journal

Drachen Foundation administrators have been busy these days with imaginative publishing projects.

Scott Skinner, president, and Ali Fujino, administrator, made a flying visit to Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, to celebrate publication of a study of Cambodia’s 26 types of kites. The volume is an extensive reworking and expansion of a preliminary photocopied volume put out in l994. Issued in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, the well-illustrated new volume also has been put out in English, with a grant from Drachen, and in French. It is one of the first books written and issued in Cambodia on that country’s culture since the Khmer Rouge holocaust of the late 1970s which took some 1.5 million lives, almost half of Cambodia’s population. Since the educated and professional classes were targeted, classic Khmer cultures such as dance, kiting, even haute cuisine were virtually erased from the national memory.

Sim Sarak, director general for adminstration and finance of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, aided by his wife Cheang Yarin, had the vision to restore kiting to the position of prominence it traditionally held. Kites date back at least 2,000 years in Cambodia. Sim (his surname) staged kite festivals in Cambodia and made himself known internationally by attending the Dieppe festival and other major flies.

Paying a courtesy call on Prince Sisowath Panara Sirivuth, secretary of state, upon arrival, Skinner and Fujino then attended a press conference announcing the new book. Both Sim and Skinner gave talks. The Drachen pair, Skinner and Fujino, were subsequently given tours of the national museum and royal palace, visited important kitemakers in their homes, participated in a national kite festival attended by numerous members of Cambodian royalty, and sat in on a Khmer gastronomy festival. They consulted with Cambodian officials on a proposed kite museum to be established in Phnom Penh, and Skinner said, “The foundation will give aid, if it can, in establishing the museum,” adding, ”we will certainly be involved.”

PDF Link: Journal Issue