Opening Ears And Eyes

Save World Art was recently profiled in Pacific University’s Khmer Student Coalition Conference, 2014, “Building Bridges.”   Young people gathered in the hundreds who were either Cambodian born, born in the United States with minimal knowledge of their cultural heritage, or simply friends of Cambodia.

The Cambodian Student Association’s organization was impeccable and Save World Art’s representatives were magnificently cared for.  Several colleges in the area of Stockton, Northern California, where Pacific University is located convened, and listened with wide-eyed attention as they learned of Bassac Opera, Shadow Puppet Theatre and the legends and stories they tell.

Pol Pot had all but eradicated any artistic endeavor during the horrific years of the Khmer Regime regime and the students heard about their existence for the first time.  Cambodian Bassac Opera is an indigenous theatrical tradition going back well over 3,000 years.  The conference participants were stunned to learn that they had a heritage of such wonder, predating the Greeks by many centuries.