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| By
: Ly Vanna. |
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Roses express
love, orchids express respect, but for Buddhists,
there is no flower more important than the humble
lotus. In ponds and stretches of still water all
over the country, lotus flowers bloom pink and white.
They often grow naturally, but where there are no
lotus, Khmers will plant them.
The pink ones (and not the white) will go eventually
to seed, becoming the green pad that can be seen
being hawked all over the country. The seeds are
popped out one by one, peeled and the sweet flesh
eaten. The white lotus flower blooms and dies, but
is more highly prized as an offering for religious
purposes.
Every pagoda will have a lotus pond, because lotus
is the flower of the Buddha. As Khmer New Year approaches,
more and more lotuses appear, carefully planted
in advance for the religious and culinary feasts
that accompany this special time of year. "Lotus
represents purity. It has a delicate perfume and
a beautiful shape so people use the flower for religious
and dedication purposes," said Venerable Ya
Loeng, assistant to the chief monk at Wat Samrong
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A young girl in Prek Pneuv,
Kandal province, looks for ripe lotus pads to
sell.
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Andeth. "Lotus
represent everything we wish to express and become as
good Buddhists,"As a newborn baby, the Bodhisatava
(an enlightened being and the name Buddha was known by
before he achieved Nirvana) could walk seven steps on
seven lotuses.
Later, the lotus became the seat for the Buddha and features
prominently in most Buddhist religious art. "The
lotus stays connected with Buddha from his birth until
he achieves Nirvana," Professor Hang Soth, general
department of cultural techniques at the Ministry of Culture
and Fine Arts (MoCFA), said. "Khmer people favor
the white lotus-maybe for its purity but Chinese, Vietnamese
and other foreigners prefer the pink,” a veteran
seller of the flowers at Wat Phnom, Mrs Sok Chea, said.
But cultural experts believe it is the shape of the blooms
that is the most important. "Lotus blossoms are shaped
like ten fingers pressed together in prayer," Ouk
Socheat, Under Secretary of State for the MoCFA, said.The
rise of the humble lotus to such an auspicious rank may
also have to do with the way it grows. From foul smelling
mud, it sends long, delicate pink stems to the surface
and blooms its sweet smelling flowers prodigiously almost
like a living analogy of reaching Nirvana.
The Association of Nuns and Laywomen of Cambodia use
the lotus as a symbol of people who have achieved a
high level of religious education and pass that knowledge
down to others.It says lotus is the symbol of learning
and cognitive thought. But the plant is also indispensable
to Cambodians in everyday life. The bulb is used as
a vegetable in soups and stews, or left to mature and
ground into a rose colored powder used in jelly-like
sweets.
The pink stem is stir fried with pork and tomatoes or
used in sour soup (samlor m'cheu). The seeds are eaten
as a popular snack, their pits and skin used in a range
of traditional medicines that reduce fever and relieve
stomach problems. Leaves serve as a natural wrap for
vegetables at the market, or even hats for hot days.
Wherever lotus grows, the water is said to be clean
and fit for drinking if boiled water is not available.
And the flowers are used by devotees everywhere as an
offering to the gods. A single flower costs just 100
riel.
"I bring the lotus to offer Buddha in the hope
of happiness, luck, success and to pray that I am reincarnated
as a beautiful girl in my next life," Srey Touch,
a villager in Oudong district, Kandal province, said.
"All the elders in my village do the same for their
lives and futures."
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B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
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