Anonymous Cambodian urns finally blessed after decades in hiding
Phnom Penh (dpa) - Hundreds of funeral urns in Cambodia were given their first ceremony for the dead in 40 years Monday after they were discovered hidden in a temple.
Monks at Wat Langka, one of the capital's primary pagodas, performed the Bangskol rites on the 464 urns on the penultimate day of Cambodia's Pchum Ben, or annual celebration of the dead. They were stashed for safekeeping shortly before the city's fall to Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist regime forces in April 1975, and remained hidden until this year.
Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, found them in February behind a door blocked by a Buddha statue after his research led him to search the temple. The ceremony for the departed needs to happen every year in Cambodian culture, and the urn's lengthy neglect was a major affront to local beliefs, Chhang said.
"For Cambodians, it's important when you die to keep the families together," he said. Without a Pchum Ben Bangskol ceremony, the remains' spirits had been "imprisoned" for 35 years, he said. "The spirit doesn't have the freedom to go, which is why the monks go to free them today and bless them."
Sam Bunthoeun, head abbot at Wat Langka, said he hoped the ceremony would reunite more of the urns with their families.
"We hope this publicises the information so we can search for more family members," he said.
Due to local customs, only monks or family members of the deceased may open an urn to look for notes or photos left inside identifying the remains, Chhang said.
While some had inscriptions, the passing decades rendered most of them illegible. No more than 10 had been identified and returned to families, he said. One family at Monday's ceremonies, however, found their mother's ashes upon searching the urns.
"We're really very happy that we found her," said Phnom Penh resident En Botom Rasmey, adding he would place his mother's urn beside his father's.
"I think now we found her bones, she will find peace."
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