Smot
The smot singer-meets-national hero Phloeun Srey Pov is sitting in the office of Cambodian Living Arts, demonstrating a centuries-old Buddhist chant. Closing her eyes, her voice lifts and wraps itself around the elongated Pali syllables, as her chanting drifts like smoke across the room. Without any musical accompaniment, the song is quivering, fragile sounding, but vibrantly alive.
Srey Pov is singing smot, a traditional Khmer Buddhist singing form that requires years of training in order to cultivate its unique and precise tones. It is music of both sorrow and comfort, transmitting the Theravada Buddhist concept that all life is suffering, and acceptance of this fact will lead to release and enlightenment. It is sung mostly at funerals in order to bring peace to the family of the deceased, as well as the community’s ancestors. However, this has led to confusion amongst many Khmers about the purpose and meaning of their tradition.
“Most Cambodians know smot but most of them don’t understand it’s meaning,” Srey Pov says. “Most people are scared of it”. Smot’s negative association with funerals has been intensified by the decline of hiring live smotters to explain the meaning of the Pali verses before they chant them, in favour of distorted cassette tapes played over a loudspeaker.
However, Srey Pov believes that the real core of smot is far removed from its uncanny public perception. “For me, smot’s not for ghosts or dead people but for those still alive. It’s celebrating our ancestors and educating the people about the process of life. Everyone will eventually die, so it’s important to do good for the people around us. It gives people peace and hope with the meaning and sounds.”
Smot reflects Cambodia’s unique cultural mix. Buddhism is intermingled with animism; with Hindu culture also remaining at the forefront of cultural imagery. The smot song Bat Sara Phanh conjures up Hindu goddesses before explaining that three jewels of the Buddhist doctrine will protect the Khmer nation. The song mixes Khmer and Pali verses, and differs from most monotone Buddhist chanting with its quavering, shifting pitches.
The youthful, smiling Srey Pov is the perfect vehicle to change smot’s public perception from a scary mystery to a beautiful cultural gem. In 2004, Srey Pov was discovered in her native province of Kampong Speu by Cambodian Living Arts, an NGO dedicated to preserving Cambodia’s cultural heritage. Srey Pov began smot lessons with 13 other students, and she was delighted – “I wanted to become an artist”, she says.
Back then, learning smot was not an easy task. “We didn’t have tape recorders, so we just spent an hour a day listening to the teacher chant and tried to follow verse by verse. I used to practice by riding my bicycle along a bumpy road so I could mimic the [fluctuations] of the teacher's voice!” Since these humble beginnings, smot has taken the young singer to stages around the world, as Khmer and international audiences alike begin to rediscover and embrace the obscure chant. Luckily, young singers like Srey Pov are breathing fresh life into the ancient art form through their performances and teachings, showing the world that smot is a tradition to be cherished, rather than feared.
